Comments on: Do you like to practice?

By: kristina

kristina — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:35:29 +0000

i very like practising in the evening…i don t know why.To be somewehere alone and only to play…

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:03:14 +0000

Oh hab gerade gesehen wie das gemeint ist… Viele GrÃ¼ÃŸe

By: Thomas Walter

Thomas Walter — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:49:07 +0000

You said sometimes you practise without the instrument! I donÂ´t understand… how to do this?

By: Alban

Alban — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:52:19 +0000

by the way, in the “portrait” section of my homepage there is an interview with Tim Janof of the Internet Cello Society, in which I went into greater detail about these basic exercises – check it out: http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/gerhardt/gerhardt.htm

By: Alban

Alban — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:27:15 +0000

Oh yes, there are bad and good days – even though in the past few years I managed to eliminate the bad days, or better: whenever I felt it was a bad day, I’d rather do something else, like read a book, meet friends or practice without the instrument, just read scores, but intensely.
I said I didn’t like practicing, but I must admit that since I was 13 years old my teacher Markus Nyikos in Berlin made me practice in a very efficient way these kind of daily exercises which I do until today. For a time being I made Jascha Heifetz my idol, who said once, if he had 6 hours time to practice, he’d practice 4 hours pieces and 2 hours technique, if he had 4 hours time, he did 2 hours music and 2 hours technique, and if he had only two hours time, he practiced only technique.
My theory is that celloplaying is quite hard, but if you are in good shape, the pieces themselves are not as hard as the pieces in the violin or piano repertoire. That means, working the basics on a more or less daily base is almost essential, especially in younger years. Many teachers like to talk about music, because it’s abstract and beautiful, but in order to make music, we need certain technical standards. In most of my masterclasses I have to go back to basics with students and I am often shocked how little knowledge there is about fundamental necessities.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 20:15:39 +0000

I definitely understand how you felt. I find that I have good days for playing and bad days. On the bad days, I start practicing and realize that the practice room is the last place that I want to be. But on good days, when I can focus and play well, I really enjoy practicing.

I love the blog, keep doing it!

By: Boris Nedialkov

Boris Nedialkov — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:30:12 +0000

Being now a teenager, I understand pretty well why you hated practicing…..there are so many other interesting things to do, like sports, computer games, going out with friends….I have to confess that reading about your experience was a real comfort to me, as I am lazy too, especially when it comes to practicing scales, studies and tricky passages. I do enjoy playing a piece which is already “in my hands”, only I can’t play it in the same way twice. Does this happen to you too? To want to play differently every time? And be surprised by the outcome?