Deryn Cullen Cello, Getting Started as a Cello Teacher, Teaching the Cello, Tips and Resources for Teaching

Setting Up Your Teaching Studio: Preparation for Private Instrumental Teachers

For most people – even those with a very natural ability to teach – the first lesson is a pretty nerve-racking experience. There is no magic fix for this. As you gain experience your method becomes more fluid and your confidence will naturally increase. There are however, several things you can do and take into consideration before you start searching for students, which will go a long way towards putting you and your first student more at ease and making those difficult early lessons run more smoothly.

TEACHING SPACE

This may appear to be pointing out the blindingly obvious, but there are several points to consider about your teaching space which are easily forgotten. If you are teaching from your home, it is essential that you have a quiet, reasonable-sized and well lit room where you are unlikely to be interrupted.

If you’re a student living in digs, this is probably going to be your bedroom. Providing there is enough space for two people with instruments and you ensure that it is kept tidy, this should suffice. You will need to let your housemates know that they should keep noise levels down and not disturb you. If you have more than a handful of students, tensions may begin to run high and you will need to consider an alternative location. It is also worth baring in mind that if your digs are more on the bohemian side, you may scare off your more conservative students.

This brings me to my next important point, which is that your teaching environment should serve as far as possible to put your students at ease. This is where teaching in your bedroom can be problematic – especially if your habits lean towards being untidy. An unmade bed, clothes lying around, piles of books, magazines and other clutter may mark it as your territory, but it will easily make strangers feel uncomfortable. A room that looks and feels like a music room – a piano, music books, musical pictures on the walls – is what your students will probably expect and will therefore help to make them feel more comfortable.

If you have the luxury of a designated practice room at your music college you may well be able to teach from there. This is obviously dependent on the rules and regulations of the building. If it can be arranged, it is by far your best option – especially if you teach a louder than average instrument that requires a sound-proofed room. Furthermore, a music college offers an inspired, creative environment and is far less likely to present the widespread distractions that a home environment can.

Your home situation may be better suited – i.e. fewer people living there and access to a living room rather than your bedroom. In this case you should probably still ensure that the neighbours won’t be bothered: this is more likely to be an issue if you teach in the evenings. If you know that your neighbours work during the day and you have thin adjoining walls you’ll be best off limiting your teaching hours to afternoons. You don’t want the stress of unnecessary neighbourly disputes or face having to lose students who can’t make lessons during the afternoon.

You may also consider teaching at your student’s home. This is often the best solution for students who don’t have suitable teaching space at home or college, and is ideal for the student who does not have to travel to his/ her lesson. The obvious drawback for you is the time and money spent getting to and from lessons, and this needs to be factored into your fee. You will need to plan your lessons carefully according to location (your students’ schedule allowing) to avoid spending as much time traveling as teaching. The points already made about having a quiet room free of distractions still stands and you will need to stress the importance of this at the earliest stage of contact. It may seem silly to point out that your student will feel completely at home being taught at home, but it is worth bearing in mind that this can have drawbacks of its own: predominantly that they are more likely to be distracted. This is why it is essential to stress to the student’s parents when organising lessons that they need to set aside a room roughly matching the aforementioned criteria where you will not be disturbed.

LESSON FEES

One of the most important factors to consider is how much you will charge for your services. This is by no means an exact science and will require research by you, as typical fees vary according to location, experience and instrument. For this reason I am not going to suggest figures as I could end up filling an entire book attempting to cover all areas and by the time I’d finished it would all be out of date.

If you have no teaching experience behind you and/ or you’re still working towards a qualification, you are not in a position to charge the same fees as someone who has been doing it for over a decade. Even if you’re a prodigy on your instrument, this does not by any means guarantee that you will be equally skilled as a teacher. You will need to find out what your compatriots are charging for their lessons, or find out what the going rate is for experienced teachers of your instrument and reduce it by 20 – 40%. This may seem like a lot, but essentially you’ll be learning on the job and you’ll still be making several times more than casual bar or restaurant work is likely to offer. Add to that your potential earnings from gigs if you do them and you’ll be far better off than most students! If you’re an experienced teacher who has just moved to a new town or city, find out what teachers at your level are charging. Don’t assume that your previous fees will be appropriate.

As previously mentioned, you need to factor in traveling costs if you teach at your students’ homes. You should make this clear to prospective students when advertising or quoting for lessons and explain that you are spending more of your valuable time and hard-earned money in order to teach them at home. Depending on how much traveling you do, you should increase your fee by 5 – 10% to cover your costs.

Beware of under pricing yourself in attempt to get more students or over pricing yourself when your experience does not stand up to your asking price. It may initially seem like a good idea to undercut the fees of all local teachers to lure more students, but there are reasons why this is not a good tactic. As silly as it may sound, when people are accustomed to paying a certain price for something, they become skeptical when they see it available for appreciably less. They will assume that you lack faith in what you can achieve as a teacher, and will have little faith themselves. You will find yourself in a position where you have fewer students than you were expecting and you’ll be earning under the odds for the amount of focus, skill and work required. For the same token, charging more than your experience is worth is risky. Ultimately, your reputation as a teacher is what enables you to gain and keep students and becoming an excellent teacher takes time, trial and error. If you are charging the same fees as teachers who are achieving great results with their students and you are not achieving similar results, you will loose students and you won’t find many new ones knocking at your door.

In summary: do your research, know your worth and cover your costs. Don’t give it away and don’t overprice.

STUDENT-TEACHER AGREEMENTS

It is essential that you establish an understanding with your student right from the start. Let’s begin by looking at your obligations to your student. These extend beyond teaching someone how to play an instrument. In as much as you expect your students to show up on time for each lesson, you have the same obligation. You expect them to practice; you should keep track of their progress, plan their lessons and set their goals. When they have performances or exams, you should make every effort to be there at no extra cost to them. If they need an accompanist it is up to you to find them one who is reliable. You need to assist them with instrument hire, purchase and upkeep ensuring that they don’t get ripped off, make an inappropriate purchase or get shoddy repair work.

Your student should understand your commitment to them and similarly what is expected of them in order to get the most out of their lessons. You need to decide whether you will charge cancellation fees: my advice is to stipulate that lesson cancellations are made within at least 48 hours of the lesson. Cancellation fees can be set at a sliding scale from 20% of the lesson fee to full fee for no-shows. This may sound a little on the harsh side, but your time is valuable and your students need to appreciate the importance of committing to a regular lesson time. There may be extreme circumstances in which you can wave the fees – that is also up to you. Whatever you decide, you need to stick to it and make your student fully aware from the start. Similarly, you need to stress the importance of consistent practice and make them aware that if they are not making sufficient progress due to lack of practicing, you have as much right as they do to terminate lessons. If they are aware of this from the start you will have open lines of communication however things go.

It is entirely up to you whether you wish to put these points into writing or not. You may feel that handing your new student a list of term and conditions is a bit on the draconian side and you may be right. But after all, you are entering into a business agreement and very few business agreements happen without a written and signed contract to protect the interests of both parties. To view the agreement I use, go to www.cellostudio.info/agreement.pdf. Feel free to download and modify the document to suit your own needs.

LESSON PREPARATION AND PROGRESS

It is not possible to plan instrumental lessons too rigidly as everyone learns at a different pace, and it will take a while to get a feel for each of your students’ capabilities. However, an outline of what you wish to cover – especially for a first lesson, be it yours or your student’s – makes things easier and more relaxed.

Your plan will obviously depend on what stage your student is at which is why it is also important to keep track of each student’s progress in order to set short and longer term goals. A first lesson teaching a beginner will be more focused on breaking the ice for both of you. This can be done by finding out a bit about them – hobbies, favourite subjects at school, what drew them to learning to play your instrument, etc. You will also spend a fair chunk of time explaining how the instrument works and how to take care of it. It is most important that they are given the opportunity to play something – no matter how basic – so that they have something to work on from the earliest stage apart from basic exercises. This means that you need to manage your lesson time carefully so as not to over run or finish earlier than planned.

Finding suitable teaching material is perhaps the most important aspect of lesson preparation and needs research. If you’re new to teaching, a good place to start for beginners methods is the first books you used. If these methods are still in print, it means that they are tried and tested and you will remember how they worked for you. It is also important to find out what new methods are out and try to find out what other teachers think of them. There are hundreds if not thousands of music communities on the Internet, many of which have at least some focus on teaching and these are excellent places to communicate with other teachers, compare notes and get advice. Your own teacher – whether you are still taking lessons or not – will also be able to point you in a good direction and advise you on which material to try. With time and your own experience, you will find which books you prefer and gravitate towards. You will need to inform your student of which books they will need and where to buy them. A good instrumental method will help enormously with lesson preparation – especially at earlier stages of learning.

How you keep track of your students’ progress is up to you and will depend on how you prefer to organise your admin. I find a simple Excel spreadsheet the most effective means of keeping track.

PRACTISING YOUR LESSON

If you’re new to teaching and feel nervous about taking on students, you may find it very useful to find friends or family members to practise on. This way you can familiarise yourself with your plan and the potential difficulties that can arise when trying to communicate something completely new and unfamiliar to a beginner. You’d be best off finding a fellow musician who does not play your instrument to give a few trial lessons to – ideally someone who has some teaching experience. Ask them for honest feedback after each lesson – they may not know anything specific about teaching your instrument, but there are principles of teaching that are universal and they will be able to help you with these.

Even someone who is not a teacher or even a musician can be helpful providing you know them, feel comfortable with them and can expect honest feedback from them on how they feel about your method. They may help to make you aware of certain things that you as an accomplished musician take for granted and thus encourage you to think analytically about these things so that you can find useful ways of explaining and describing them.

If your teacher is willing, ask him or her to observe one of these lessons for further constructive professional feedback.

CONCLUSION

So you see there are a number of important issues to think about and plan before you set yourself up as a teacher. The better you prepare yourself, the more at ease both you and your student will feel, and you are far more likely to give yourself a good start, which will hopefully develop into a successful and rewarding career.

© D C Cello Studio

Deryn Cullen Cello, Improvising, Teaching the Cello, Tips and Resources for Teaching

Basic Improvisation for Classical Musicians

For those of us with classical music training the concept of improvising often inspires feelings ranging from uneasiness to abject terror. We spend so much of our time bound to complex scores laden with incredibly specific instructions that the concept of making it up on the spot is foreign and frightening. Depending on what you do as a musician, you may never be confronted with a situation that requires you to improvise and therefore never feel the need to explore this avenue of music. If this is the case, you may be missing out on an enriching and satisfying experience.

I took it upon myself to develop my improvisation skills over a decade ago whilst at Music College. I was approached by an experimental poetry performance group from the local drama school (every bit as pretentious as it sounds) who were looking for a musician to provide incidental music for their tortured performances. I was intrigued by the idea and suggested playing excerpts from the Bach Solo Suites, which met with rolled eyes and long-suffering sighs – clearly everyone they’d already asked to do this had made the same or similar suggestions. What they wanted was someone who could provide a musical interpretation of their words and actions in real time – no rehearsals, no preparation and no sheet music. Just turn up and play. Up until this point, my musical experience had been nothing but intense preparation – whether it was for exams, competitions, recitals or orchestra rehearsals, the idea of “winging it” was out of the question. I agreed to turn up for their next performance, partly out of curiosity and partly because my bank balance was always in dire need of resuscitation. A day before the performance date I began to panic about what I had agreed to do. With the exception of playing a few pop tunes by ear on the piano in my school days and exploring a few chord progressions in the privacy of my practise room, I had never done anything like this before – especially not on the cello. I seriously considered cancelling on the grounds of a phantom flu bug or similar. I hadn’t told anyone about this particular gig because although I had no solid grounds to base this on, I assumed it would meet with disapproval from my fellow students and tutors. After much internal agonising, my curiosity and poverty came out on top and I decided to give it a go. After all, if it didn’t work out I simply wouldn’t do it again.

Of course, I couldn’t resist attempting a bit of preparation. I sat down with my cello, thinking I could perhaps come up with a few melodic ideas to store up my sleeve, but everything I tried sounded suspiciously like a medley of the repertoire I was studying at the time. The harder I tried to sound original, the less original I sounded. For fear of allowing my nerves to get the better of me again, I gave up the prep work for a bad job and hoped it would be all right on the night. It was better than all right. The actual performance (or what I can remember of it) was unbelievably over the top with painted faces, nudity, screaming and gratuitous profanity. I’m certain that had I recorded my playing I would cringe listening back to it. But I discovered my ability to let go of my classical paranoia, ignore the little voice that bawled at me when notes weren’t pitch or rhythm perfect and express my inner musicality on my instrument of choice. I continued to work with the tortured poets for the rest of my college days and thus began my fascination with an age-old musical discipline.

So if improvisation is about letting go of the rigidity imposed on us by classical music is it right to call it a discipline? Perhaps not if we’re talking about my first dabbling where I had no other musical lines to mesh with harmonically and simply tried my best to reflect what was going on around me. Compare this to the dazzling performances of well-trained jazz musicians however and you might as well compare a child taking its first steps with an Olympic athlete. After 12 years of developing my improvisation skills and putting them to the test in a variety of different musical settings, I’m no jazz improviser because jazz is not a genre I have had any exposure to other than listening to it. But I have learned to improvise confidently over traditional western diatonic and modal harmony, making my skill applicable to a wide range of styles and genres and ultimately making me a better rounded musician on numerous levels. Developing this ability has been a long road of trial and error and depended on two key ingredients: listening and following my instincts. Many believe that the ability to improvise cannot be taught and is based purely on musical instinct and aural ability. Whilst I can’t disagree that high aural aptitude makes improvising easier, I also know from my experience as a teacher that anyone capable of basic pitch recognition can develop that skill to recognise intervals, chords and modulations – the very same skills required to improvise. Most classical musicians get a good dose of theoretical and aural training to complement the study of their instrument, and all of these skills can be put to work to practise and improve our ability to improvise freely.

So where to begin? As previously mentioned my education in this discipline has been pretty haphazard and is by no means an ideal template to follow. After my early attempts at improvising on my own, I began to wonder how I would fare playing with other musicians. An opportunity arose to do a few jam sessions with a local blues band and I eagerly (if nervously) took it. I had a whale of a time, quickly learning the blues format and adjusting my style of playing to blend with the sounds of the lead guitar and the vocalist. It was probably fortunate that for the first few sessions there was no microphone available for me, and my cello was drowned out by the amplified guitars, bass and drums. This gave me the freedom to hit bum notes, misjudge chord progressions and generally make mistakes without upsetting the well-rehearsed harmony of the band. By the time a microphone was placed in front of my instrument I had become more familiar and thus comfortable with the style of the music and format of the songs and even felt confident enough to play a few solos when the opportunity arose. Having been given a confidence boost by doing the poetry performances, this was a brilliant start to my education and I would recommend it to anyone keen to try improvising on their instrument. Of course I realise there are a few flaws in this recommendation: not everybody lives in an area where such jam sessions might take place, not everybody likes the idea of playing along to a loud blues band and many, no matter how keen to try, do not feel confident enough to attempt improvising with other musicians when they’ve never tried it before. So here are my suggestions for getting started.

Many of us improvise without even realising it. Take the cacophony of an orchestra at the start of a rehearsal before tuning up. If you were to go around and listen to each individual player you would hear their own tailor-made warm-up routine which normally consists of a combination of scales, chromatic runs and arpeggios seamlessly running into each other. Sort of like a “best of” scales and arpeggios number, not methodically going through one scale after another in a cycle of 5ths but skipping from one to another. Everyone is doing their own thing, no-one is listening or appraising, and so if you were to record some of the individual warm-up routines, you’d probably hear some interesting and refreshing musical ideas that would surprise the players themselves. Anyone who has played in an orchestra will probably have done this to some extent. Next time you sit down to practise, give this a try. Instead of using a methodical list of scales or technical exercises to warm up, try creating your own routine with a mixture of scales, arpeggios, diminished 7ths, etc in different keys and tempi. The trick is to not think too hard about what you’re doing – pick a comfortable key and range to begin in and see where it takes you. Don’t be put off by notes that sound “wrong” or out of place and don’t be surprised if what you’re playing ends up sounding a lot less like scales and a lot more like a melody line. Don’t be despondent if the melody line resembles whatever repertoire you’re might be working on. Improvisation is also about being able to mimic a style, and you’re most likely to be able to mimic the style of the music you listen to the most.

This brings me to one of my earlier mentioned key ingredients: listening. Pick a style you think you’d most enjoy improvising to and listen to it intently and frequently. Start your own jam sessions – hum along to the music and see if you can develop an alternate melody line or harmonise with it. If you can vocalise your musical ideas, you should be able to play them on your instrument. If singing is really not your thing, go straight to your instrument and try playing along. Don’t be tempted to cheat by looking for sheet music even as a basic reference. It is up to you to use your listening skills to determine what key it’s in and what chord progressions it follows. Because this exercise is all about listening and not looking (at a score), try closing your eyes while playing along. Shutting out the world and its many distractions can’t hinder and may help to enhance how you listen and what complementary sounds you hear in your head. If you’re undecided on what genre to play along with, try blues. Even if it’s not a style you’ve ever paid much attention to, it’s an excellent place to start as it follows an easily recognisable format and chord progression. Try learning a few blues scales to complement your jam sessions and build up your musical ideas.

For developing your improvisation skills over conventional Western harmony, harmonised scales are an excellent place to start. Follow this link  to download play-along scale recordings and chord sheets. You’ll find three separate exercises covering scales in major, harmonic minor and melodic minor keys respectively. Each exercise consists of 1 octave scales working chromatically through all 12 keys and a corresponding chord sheet. It is useful to print out and follow the chord sheet when doing these exercises, as it will help to develop your chord recognition. Instead of providing the actual chords for each scale in every key, there is one series of chord symbols which apply to every scale and key in the exercise. You can begin improvising a melody over the chords straight away if you’re feeling bold, or (and I recommend this) you can start slowly and just play the scales at first, making sure that you read and take in each chord as you play each note. The scales are deliberately slow to give you time to listen to and take in each chord and later on to put in interesting passing notes and/ or chord extensions to make your improvisation sound more interesting. This is where instinct comes in. Whilst it is very useful and often necessary to understand and recognise the chord progressions you’re working with, it is equally important to be able to stop thinking about the theory and trust your musical gut. After all, you’ve been listening to and playing music for years. We all store up the parts we like the most or find the most distinctive from music we come into contact with and improvisation is a wonderful way of expressing those preferences. This, like interpretation of great classical works, is personal and once you have guidelines to get your creative juices flowing, cannot be taught.

Once you’ve spent sufficient time working on the scales and growing your confidence in your ability to create on the fly, it is probably time for you to seek out other musicians to work with. Again, the type of musicians you look for will be entirely up to your taste and aspirations. You may just be trying out improvisation to see whether you can do it or not, to broaden your musical horizons. If this is the case, you may feel that there is no real need to go outside the privacy of your bedroom, but I’m willing to bet you’ll find it more satisfying jamming with others, exploring each other’s musical styles, comparing notes and encouraging each other. If your aim is to take your improvisation to the stage you absolutely have to find others to develop your skill with first. It’s all very well being able to play pleasing melodies over a predictable chord progression, but the next step is to put yourself into a much less comfortable setting and learn to listen to and predict what others in your group will do. This may sound daunting, but in all likelihood you’ll start by agreeing on a basic chord progression to get warmed up and your jam session will evolve organically from there. You’ll probably be surprised at how far the music eventually wanders from your originally agreed structure and how once you’ve become more used to each other’s musical styles and ideas; you literally seem to be able to read each other’s minds.

Most who try this wonderfully liberating practice will derive something useful from it even if only to break away from the inherent fetters of classical music. As a cellist, learning to improvise has improved every aspect of my playing and musicality. The more I have explored and practised it, the more I believe that it should be incorporated into classical music training.

© D C Cello Studio

Deryn Cullen Adult Beginners, Cello, Getting Started on the Cello

Is Cello the Right Instrument for You?

Part 1: Considering the Costs

The cello is a very popular choice of instrument for learners of all ages. It has a wonderful and rich repertoire to explore, a long line of distinguished players from Pablo Casals to Zoe Keating and an evocative sound that is often compared with the human voice. The cello has become very popular in contemporary music settings too: electric cellos of all shapes and sizes are finding their way into pop and rock bands, and cello is often favoured as a solo instrument by film and TV composers. So it really is no wonder that this beautiful instrument holds such broad appeal. If you’re thinking of taking it up as a hobby, the following points may help you to decide whether playing the cello is definitely your cup of tea.

There are always costs associated with taking up an instrument and the cello tends to be above average in terms of how much it will set you back. Private lessons cost around £25 per hour and can cost substantially more depending on where you are and who you wish to learn with. If you’re thinking of taking lessons, you will no doubt already have thought of this.

You will also probably have looked at the cost of buying an instrument and noticed how wildly this can vary – even in the student or school instrument range. Be warned that the cheapest instruments always end up costing at least twice what you pay for them just to get them into a playable condition. In the higher price ranges there are plenty of lemons too: “deluxe” instruments that are structurally identical to those in lower price brackets but have frilly accessories which make no difference to the sound they make but push the price up by a considerable amount. How to choose a suitable instrument is a complex topic and potentially a lengthy article in itself. My advice is to hold off buying one until you’ve had at least three months of lessons and know that you want to continue. Of course you’ll need an instrument during that time and will need to find a shop or individual to hire one from. This normally costs around £80 per quarter, and you may be entitled to buy the instrument at a discounted rate when the hire term is over. If you happen to know someone with a cello going spare you may be lucky enough to borrow it for a few months.

In addition to your lesson and instrument costs, you’ll have books to buy and ongoing maintenance costs for your instrument. These include replacing strings, getting your bow re-haired and seeing to general wear and tear. Once you’ve graduated from the early beginner stages you may want to join an amateur group to enjoy playing with like-minded people and enhance your musical experience. You may also be interested in attending music courses aimed at adult learners. All of these activities cost money, some substantially more than others. Amateur groups tend to run themselves as charities with each member paying a small monthly or annual subscription. They often offer discounts to students and unemployed or low income members. Courses on the other hand tend to be much more expensive due to the fact that they offer intensive tuition along with accommodation and meals for the duration that they run, which can be anything from a weekend to five days.

With all these costs most of which are fixed, it’s always worth taking a closer look at your monthly outgoings to make sure you can afford the weekly lesson fees, instrument purchase and maintenance and perhaps considering cutting costs elsewhere in your expenditure if you can. As a cello teacher I have had many adult learners who have started lessons with great enthusiasm only to have to stop some months later because they simply can’t afford to continue. For the teacher who relies on each student as a stream of income it’s hugely frustrating, but for the eager student it can be devastating – especially if lessons were going well and they’ve gone and bought an instrument which is never easy to sell on. They always vow to continue practising on their own and return to lessons when their financial situation improves, but both very rarely happen. I’ve even had one or two return about a year later only to have the same thing happen again.

Once you’ve added up the costs involved you’ll be able to make a much more informed decision as to whether you’ll be able to make cello lessons work within your budget. If you find that you’re not financially ready, at least you’ll have a clear idea of how much you’ll need and an incentive to get your finances to a place that will enable you to pursue that passion.

In my next instalments of this article I’ll discuss the physical and musical challenges of playing the cello as well as what to expect as an adult learner.

Part 2: Physical Challenges for Adult Learners

Although the professionals make it look like the easiest and most natural thing in the world, playing the cello is a physically demanding activity which takes years to master. Although the many cello students are able to overcome these challenges with careful and dedicated practice, it’s worth knowing what they are.

Believe it or not, the first consideration for adult learners is the size of the instrument. The general assumption is that all adults are the right size for a full sized cello. Although this is mostly true, there are exceptions. Trying to play an instrument that is even slightly too big can cause injuries to the hands and forearms, back problems and a great deal of frustration. If you’re very petite or have smaller than average hands, you will probably be better off playing a 7/8th or even 3/4 size cello. If you’re unsure, visit a reputable instrument dealer to get advice and sit with smaller instruments to make an accurate assessment or discuss it with your prospective teacher before buying or hiring an instrument. If you are unusually tall you may also need to make adjustments to your instrument or find one that has already been modified.

Although full sized cellos don’t vary greatly in size, cello spikes come in different lengths. If the spike on your instrument is too short your posture will be adversely affected causing neck, shoulder and back ache. Excessively long spikes can make the instrument permanently unstable causing it to move around while playing. This too can cause unwanted tension which often leads to playing related injuries. Fortunately there is a solution to this too. Specially designed spikes exist which consist of two adjustable parts making it possible for them to bend in the middle. This brings the end of the spike closer to the player’s feet, making it possible to properly cradle the cello between the knees and prevent any unwanted movement while playing. Once again, it is best to get advice from your teacher or dealer before getting any modifications made to your instrument.

I have already made more than one reference to playing-related pain and injury. Even with the right sized instrument and any necessary modifications, this can often be a feature of learning to play the cello – especially in the early stages. If you are prone to repetitive strain injuries or suffer from a chronic condition such as fibromyalgia or arthritis, you may find that your progress is slower than you hoped, and could experience excessive playing-related pain or fatigue. This really doesn’t mean that anyone who suffers from one of the aforementioned conditions should abandon their dreams of learning to play the cello. One of my current beginner students is 73 years of age and suffers from severe arthritis in his hands and shoulders. I am helping him to find alternate ways of playing the instrument without aggravating his condition. His progress is far from rapid, but it is evident as is his enjoyment of playing and learning. What I do strongly recommend is that you find a teacher who emphasises the importance of posture, balance and freedom of movement in playing – ideally someone familiar with Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais Method. Make them aware of your physical shortcomings so that they can work with you to prevent additional pain or injury.

This sums up the physical aspects of the instrument and the player which are important to think about before committing to lessons. It is highly unlikely that any of these things will prohibit you from learning to play, but being aware of them can certainly help you to make the right decisions about the instrument and teacher you choose, both of which will make an enormous difference to your enjoyment and progress.

Part 3: Finding Time to Practise

People have many different reasons for wanting to learn the cello. For some it is the fulfilment of a lifelong dream; many people regret giving up music lessons when they were younger and yearn to give it another go; and some people simply feel that they need something that they can call their own outside of their busy and demanding work life. Whatever the reason, it is important that you think carefully about why you want to play, and whether your schedule can accommodate regular practice.

Realistically, those starting lessons in adulthood have left it far too late to reach a professional level of playing, and it is fair to say that I have never encountered an adult learner who thought they were going to be gracing the concert halls in the near or distant future. That is not to say that you won’t be able to reach a very competent level and find like-minded people to share your talents and skills with, but this depends entirely on how much time and effort you are prepared to put in. Lessons alone will not transform you into a musician.

With the best will in the world, there are only 24 hours in a day. With a full time job, a family and the pesky requirement of regular sleep, not many if any of those hours are left for undisturbed practising and playing. Much like the financial issues which I discussed in my first article on this subject, I have had many students start lessons without having really thought about whether they could spare the necessary time for practising. The result is always the same: progress is slow to non-existent, frustration sets in and the student stops lessons saying that he or she will certainly start again when time permits. They never do.

This does not mean that busy people should forget about taking cello or any other lessons as a hobby. Amongst my students I have a judge, a physicist, a university lecturer and a chemist – not exactly part time occupations. Sometimes their busy schedules mean that they don’t get as much time to practice as they’d like, but by and large they have managed to set aside a set time dedicated purely to their cello. Their families understand this and they are able to enjoy uninterrupted practice sessions most days. So the question you need to ask yourself is not “Do I have the time?” but “Can I make the time?”

Think about your daily schedule and what part of the day you could realistically take time out from all work and family commitments. To begin with it doesn’t need to be more than 20 minutes, but as you progress and the demands of the instrument increase you will need to be able to extend that to at least an hour. You may find it useful putting this to the test for a week or two before you begin lessons. Since you won’t have a cello to practice yet, decide on something else to do with that time such as reading a book or doing something creative that you enjoy. If you have a family, this will give them an opportunity to get used to the idea of you needing that time to be alone with your hobby, and you’ll get an idea of whether it’s feasible for yourself.

It is also important to remember that while you’ll be excited and enthusiastic about practising when you begin lessons and will hopefully continue to feel that way, there will be times when you really don’t feel like sitting down to an hour’s practice. Now and again it’s all right to give yourself a break, especially if you’re overly stressed or fatigued, but for the most part you need to be able to overcome that reluctance and stick to your regular routine. The more you allow yourself to skip practice sessions, the less motivated you’ll become. In contrast, the more accustomed you become to regular practice, the more you’ll look forward to that time and enjoy the progress that comes with it.

© D C Cello Studio