How to Play Cello Without Pain | Adult Beginners Lesson
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 16. 07. 2024
- I made this video to share my cello teacher's experience with several issues many adult cello students have to overcome. We often think that experiencing pain is a part of cellist's life. "No pain, no gain" becomes a motto of many cellists which leads to unnecessary pain, struggle to keep practicing and, ultimately, having to quite playing cello altogether. I recorded this cello lesson to share my observations and some advices how to deal with, and possibly prevent pain in the right shoulder, neck, back and right hand thumb. I hope that will help cello students, kids and adults, to develop mindful approach to posture and the way they use their bodies to enjoy playing cello for years to come.
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Here are few books to read to go more in depth on this topic:
Janet Horvath Playing (Less) Hurt: An Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians amzn.to/3IQSjpB
Yehudi Menuhin The Compleat Violinist: Thoughts, Exercises, Reflections
amzn.to/3g96rOK
Oliver Sacks Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
amzn.to/3APbNbE
0:00 Introduction
1:07 Simple stretching and breathing exercise.
1:48 Finding the proper posture to relax muscles of your back.
4:00 How to work on relaxed bowhold. Preventing pain in thumb.
6:37 Right shoulder pain.
9:10 Ways to get rid of pain in the neck.
13:30 How to plan your practicing time to avoid excessive strain on your body.
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Thank you so much. I am 70, self teaching currently, and loving it.
When I sing I stand up straight and hold my music up. But, Iâve found myself leaning over the cello. This video helps so much!
I'm thrilled to hear that my content has been beneficial for you! At any age, learning an instrument can be a truly fulfilling experience. Maintaining a good posture is as crucial as the notes themselves when playing the cello. Leaning can cause strain and fatigue, so I'm glad to hear that this video has helped you correct that. Keep on enjoying your cello journey, it's never too late to learn and grow. Thank you for sharing your experience, and happy practicing! đ”đ»
I didn't realise I was raising my shoulder! Thats where the pain was coming from. Thanks for the video.
I hope it will help you. There is no joy to play with pain.
Hey professor maxim, I would like to thank you for the recent videos wonderful works as always, thank God and you, in my church I became a teacher and people are also reaping from this fabulous knowledge of cello, I love your life very much, know that the Your work is bearing much fruit for the next generations..
Thank you so much for your kind words! I am so happy to share what was given to me by others. I am sure you will enjoy doing it too. All the best to you and good people around you.
lo estoy volviendo a ver y esta traducido ahora !!!! qué bien !!!!!
Thank you,Maxim. You always teach us very important things. I'm 58 and have studied playing cello for 16 months, and have experienced pain around right thumb actually. Now I sometimes have pain in little finger of left hand. I think I use it too strong. I'd like you to tell us how to put left fingers on without too much stress someday. :-)
Very helpful tips, Maxim, thank you!
Thank You Maxime, your words are so comforting and these tips are very helpful to me!!
Great, thanks. Thumb pain is my thing, I'm going to work on it now.
I hope it will help!
@@Cellopedia It has already, I still need to work on it as the old habit of holding the bow to tightly and pushing down on the string slowly creeps back in there. There was a notable difference in the tone, more soft and consistent.
Many thanks for everything you do.
Great job, đ.
Thank you for the insights Maxim! Let me share my experience. I'm an adult beginner and self learning cello right now. I mainly play contrabass with german bow, but started with french. After about a few weeks practicing, sore arms and watched your vibrato video, I finally realized some differences.
In cello, the right arms are in higher playing position than bass, meanwhile the left hand and elbow in cello are lower than bass. Apparently different angles feels like using the muscles I have never used before đ
But I love having both my feet at the ground and can sit straight while playing cello.
Body awareness is really the key. Before, I dont know what to adjust, now I know what to be aware of. Thankyou
Thank you, Adrie, for sharing your story! It is great that you so creative applying these ideas to playing bass. I am constantly rethinking the way I play cello and I believe it is a very important part of being a musician. All the best to you!
Such a great video, especially love the section about tapes. Tapes are the posture killer for sure.
Bravo Maestro! Outstanding as usual; and very focused on the object!
Glad you like it! It means a lot to hear from you, Dr. Niculescu!
Very animating video, keep the excellent work! Hi from Puerto Rico!
Glad to hear it. All the best to you!
Very good explanation!
Glad you think so!
Brilliant! I have been experiencing a lot of neck pain. Almost to the point where I want to take some significant time off of playing the cello. I don't really want to do this. I will try some of your recommendations, and maybe even play for shorter periods of time. I love playing cello.
Hello Maxim,
I started playing cello in my youth in the age of about fifteen years till the end of my time at school.
After more then 25 years without my cello but whith my job and family ( growing up of our children) I decided to start playing cello again with a celloteacher.
Because I had a disc prolapse in my neck months before that I always tried to pay attention on my posture when playing cello.
But nevertheless I sometimes have problems with my fingers tingling or even numbness in my hands in particular when there is a difficult part in the piece or when I try playing faster. Sometimes it happened that I've dropped my bow. I think it could be a result of this numbness but rather of my problem having too much pressure on the fingerboard with my left hand/ thumb, and meantime I squeeze my right thumb at the bow so that the tip of the thumb begins to hurt.
Now I am working with my teacher on this problem and pay much attention on my own that I must immediately stop playing and do a little break when I remark it.
Now after you have posted this helpful video I have also read the comments and know that other adults have similar problems.
Thank you and best wishes!
I start playing at 13 (now i am 19). After first years i had extremly problem with pain, but in my case it was forearm. I had so much tension in those muscles and even my teacher didn't know what was the problem beocuse my posture didn't seems wrong. Also it is rare that i fell pain excatly in forearm. In one moment i need to take brake from cello. Hapilly the anti-stress ball helped me! I was squizing at school, in the bas, and even class and after some time the tension was gone!
Maybe this story will help someone!
Take care!
Thank you for sharing it. I am sure it will help others. It is interesting that very often musicians experience stress related pain which can show in seemingly random parts of the body. I am so happy that you found a way to get rid of it.
Excellent video Maxim. I hope you don't mind if I share my experience with a couple of things you covered. Maybe it will help someone.
I am an adult and have been playing for about 7 months. I started with tapes against my better judgement and used a mirror to locate my fingers so that my posture wasn't terrible. Maybe they helped at first, I'm not sure. But I soon realized that playing the cello, especially in the first position was not a visual thing like it can be for violin or viola so I took the tapes off and focused more on the movement and feel of my left hand and listened much more, testing my intonation against open strings and with a small electric piano that I keep next to me. It should be fairly easy for an adult to learn to recognize an octave, a fourth or even major and minor thirds to test intonation and I feel like it is much better in the long run to train the ear even if progress might be a little slower at first. After I removed the tapes it was a bit of a setback for a week or so, but after that I think my intonation improved beyond what it was with the tapes. It is still a daily struggle though!
I had a hard time with the C string peg poking my neck even though I was keeping the end pin very long. As soon as I got rid of my rental cello and bought my own I replaced only the C peg with a posture peg. I guess that is actually a brand name, but that's the only one I could find online. The peg cost about $80 shipped and a violin shop charged me $95 to install it. It has allowed me to sit more upright and shorten the endpin. Considering the cost of everything else associated with playing the cello, I thought that it was well worth it.
-Kevin
Hi, Kevin. I couldnât agree more with every step you made. It is definitely quite a setback when we try to get rid of tapes, but it is definitely worth it on the long run. Even when you have posture pegs, you can keep experimenting with you posture to adjust to your body and skill level. All the best to you and thank you for sharing your story!
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Thank you for all of your helpful videos. I am finding a lot of useful information in them. I have noticed that my student books and a few online guides mention putting the C tuning peg right behind the left ear. My teacher and some teachers online teach this method as well. They tend to recommend posture pegs if it is uncomfortable. I tend to tilt the cello rather than my head. I notice there are a few like you who recommend the pegs behind the neck. Is this just different teaching styles, is one angle more beneficial than the other or it is just because that is the angle once the cello hits the knees and chest in the correct spots? I will try to see if I can get the peg behind the neck as it looks more comfortable and brings the cello neck closer to mine.
Maxim, muchas gracias por la clase, yo estoy aprendiendo y la verdad es que tus consejos son muy importantes pero me gustarĂa que la traducciĂłn fuera en español, no se si esto es posible. OjalĂĄ!!!
ÂĄDe nada! Hay actualmente subtĂtulos en español. Debes ir a la configuraciĂłn y luego elegir los subtĂtulos en español.
I love the cello music playing in the background. What is the name of the music piece?
Thank you! It is A. Varlamov The Red Sarafan czcams.com/video/V-NMyPgoKLY/video.html
Dear Maxim, thanks a lot for this video, I will take all your advice, it is very useful. However, my main concerns come from my left side.....would you please consider making a video on that subject in the future? I would appreciate it a lot! Actually, I have just left behind a left epicondylitis, which was a long and hard path to transit...It was hard to analyze the possible causes and to modify some aspects of the left hand technique. Furthermore, it took a long time to be able to practice a whole session again.
By the way, I am very happy that you recommend us "Musicophilia", by Oliver Sacks, and I liked a lot to see the book on the shelf of your little table. It is one of my favourite books, I 've got the same edition as you and have enjoyed it a lot when I read it. Very kind regards!!!!
I love Oliver Sacksâ books. I always thought that musicians have some damage to their brain, I can totally relate to that :))) Yes, I need to think about putting together a video about the left hand⊠might take a while. I hope to âseeâ you in one of our Tuesday livestream lessons!
My biggest problem is that my arms feel wearied out after playing a few phrases.
I'm not exactly an adult beginner but I've been playing since I was a child and have always struggled with left hand thumb pain, do you have any advice on how to solve this?
I hope I should be able to come up with few advices in one of the videos. Do you feel pain when you play in any position or only in thumb position?
@@Cellopedia Thank you for your response! It's in any position really, I think I developed a bad habit of gripping the neck too hard with my thumb while I am playing
Good evening,
I have 2 problems: 1. My left thumb hurts. Are there any exercises for playing without plucking too hard or a method that I haven't been given? 2. I don't press my bow enough and the song is bad, especially with the dotted notes. And I don't realize it at the moment because I'm focused on my left hand and accuracy. I do not know what to do. If you made a video on this topic; Can you tell me which one, thank you very much.
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Hello! It sounds like you're facing some common challenges that can arise when learning the cello. Let's address each issue:
Left thumb pain often occurs due to excessive tension or incorrect thumb placement. Your thumb should be lightly touching the back of the neck, acting more as a guide than a pressing force. Practice playing scales or simple pieces without using the thumb at all. This will encourage a more relaxed hand position and reduce reliance on the thumb. Regularly check in with your thumb to ensure it's not gripping too hard. Consciously relaxing your hand can help prevent pain.
Bow Pressure Issues: Not applying enough pressure can lead to a weak sound, especially in dotted rhythms which require clear articulation. On open strings, practice varying the pressure you apply with your bow. Start softly, then gradually increase the pressure, and then decrease it again. Focus on the feeling in your hand and arm as you change the pressure. Practice dotted rhythm patterns on open strings, concentrating on getting a full, clear sound on the longer notes. You can tap the rhythm on the cello or your lap first to internalize it.
For both issues, it's crucial to work on one thing at a time to avoid being overwhelmed. Spend dedicated time focusing solely on your bowing, and then switch to focusing on your left hand. Over time, you'll develop the ability to attend to both simultaneously. If these issues persist, consider discussing them with your teacher, who can provide personalized guidance and may suggest additional exercises tailored to your needs. Playing an instrument should not be painful, so addressing these issues early on is important for your long-term comfort and success.
Many thanks for your insightful advice. I will take note of these valuable recommendations.
It's time to change your avatar. It looks like it's been at least ten years since you took that photo.
It was taken 20 years ago. I am planning to keep it for the next 50 years.