Cello Practice, Cello Performance

What does it mean to perform expressively on the cello? In Cello Practice, Cello Performance, professor Miranda Wilson teaches that effectiveness on the concert stage or in an audition reflects the intensity, efficiency, and organization of your practice. Far from being a mysterious gift randomly bestowed on a lucky few, successful cello performance is, in fact, a learnable skill that any player can master. Most other instructional works for cellists address techniques for each hand individually, as if their movements were independent. In Cello Practice, Cello Performance, Wilson demonstrates that the movements of the hands are vitally interdependent, supporting and empowering one another in any technical action. Original exercises in the fundamentals of cello playing include cross-lateral exercises, mindful breathing, and one of the most detailed discussions of intonation in the cello literature. Wilson translates this practice-room success to the concert hall through chapters on performance-focused practice, performance anxiety, and common interpretive challenges of cello playing. This book is a resource for all advanced cellists—college-bound high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, educators, and professional performers—and teaches them how to be their own best teachers.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction Part 1: Fundamental Principles Chapter 1: Whole-Body Cello Playing Chapter 2: Warm-Ups for the Fundamentals of Cello Playing Chapter 3: The Inherent Expressiveness of Good Intonation Chapter 4: Solutions to the Challenges of Cello Playing Chapter 5: Habits for Efficient Practice Part 2: Repertoire in Practice and Performance Chapter 6: Harmonic Intonation in All Major and Minor Keys Chapter 7: Composing Your Own Etudes Chapter 8: A Practice Session on Fauré’s Elégie Conclusion Appendix: Non-Diatonic Scales and Arpeggios Bibliography

About the Author :
The New Zealand–born cellist and writer Miranda Wilson has performed on five continents and made several broadcast and compact disc recordings. She is a professor of cello at the University of Idaho.

Review :
This book is an excellent resource for advanced cellists (tertiary students, professional players and teachers). By exploring strategies for playing the cello both effectively and efficiently, players are encouraged to become their own best teacher. As professor of cello at the University of Idaho, Wilson’s experience and knowledge as a performer and teacher is evident throughout this comprehensive, well planned and easy to read book. Central to Wilson’s ideas on technique, is her ‘whole-body’ approach, where both arm-movements, breathing and the intellect are mutually interconnected. There is a particularly good chapter delving into the principal challenges of cello playing; here Wilson discusses common problems and provides solutions. The first-rate section on ‘Habits for Efficient Practice’ is meticulously prepared and thorough, and is expanded by demonstrating how to invent etudes for improved practice on difficult technical passages in the repertoire. Wilson discusses intonation in great detail and gives examples in different contexts, as well as providing a step-by-step guide to every key. Throughout, the text is well illustrated with exercises and many examples from the solo and chamber music repertoire. This is one of the better books that I have come across on the application of core technique.