It would be fair to say that I have hit a small wall but couldn't manage to find some way to climb over it. The sound that I'm producing on the cello just hasn't been deep and solid enough. In the past, this is usually where i would quit. Thankfully, I do still have some memory left and have decided to take past lessons to heart and stick with it.
During my lesson today, Irina - my cello teacher who pretty much resembles the stereotypical Russian music teacher - told me that in order to produce a fuller sound, I must let the weight of my arm and shoulder pull down on the bow by pulling up my elbow. What!? How am I supposed to simultaneously go up and down? It didn't seem possible.
It was then that I remembered hearing the same words some time ago - just over a year ago during my ballet lessons. Yes, I took ballet lesson for a few months. At this point, please allow me to discourage you from trying to imagine me in a tutu - it wouldn't be a pretty sight. But I digress. Getting back to my ballet class, I remember the instructor's words on doing a good plié - you go down by elevating your knees, and you come up by pushing down your feet. It's that same seemingly contraditory concept of reaching up by pushing down and coming down by pulling up.
This takes me back to high school physics. Remember Newton? His third law of motion states that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Okay, fine, I'm not so scientifically minded as I portray myself to be. My thoughts didn't go directly to Newton. Instead it went to the image of a tree: if a tree wants to take its leaves higher, I bet it would have to reach lower with its roots. Makes good sense, doesn't it? Well, at least it sounds good.
So perhaps it is the same with the cello, ballet, or anything else. To reach high, we must dig down. To reach low, we must extend up. Go up left, we must go right. Okay, maybe not so far. But you get my point, right?
Now stop thinking about the tutu.
