A Cello Lesson from Brinton Smith

Brinton Smith, principal cellist for the Houston Symphony and associate professor of cello at Rice University has written an excellent article titled "Common Themes" in this month's ASTA magazine Cello Forum. "Bits of hopefully practical advice my students are tired of hearing." He has shared the article on the Internet Cello Society forums HERE. A very worthwhile read for any cello teacher or student.

"We the Tiny House People"

Fun and interesting documentary on tiny houses...  Takes me back to my studio apartment on Garden Street, which I thought of as my 8 x 12 four-bit room, and the one in the house up the street I also looked at, designed by a European and much more interesting than mine.  Great for one person living. You know, I don't think I have any interior pictures of that apartment.

Maybe I should build one of these tiny mobile houses for a cello studio when we downsize.

Fellow cello, Corbin Keep, aka "The Wild Cellist" and Eva De Zwart with her amazing composition...  Be inspired!

A clip from the debut of my [Corbin Keep's] kids show, "Say Hello to the Cello," at the Bowen Island Community School, Feb 13, 2013. This clip is of my onstage partner, 8 year old Eva De Zwart and I playing a song she wrote called "The Lonely Fern." Eva, her mom Tanya & I co-wrote the lyrics, but the music is all Eva. Note how quiet and attentive the audience is - they're 150 kindergarten-through-grade threes! The sound was not recorded from the stage - it's from the camera mic!

In the meadow
Growing, longing, wishing for friends and trees
Mother nature
Father wind, blow your spores, round her knees

Lonely fern
Lonely fern

A cello lesson with Leonard Rose

Invaluable!

My sister was sharing an interesting article about Doppelgangers.

It reminded me that someone had found a match of my son to a celebrity. I wondered if they used a special software to do it, and sure enough, Google gave me several choices.

Started playing with one and found an interesting thing....

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Free family tree - Family history
Son number 1 was watching his face morph to one of his matches, Tom Cruise, and he said something like, "You're in there, too!" I suppose that shouldn't be surprising as he and I definitely share genes, but it's still kind of weird.

 Anyone else who knows me out there see it?

Why the thumb matters.... Listen up, students!

 and CELLO HYGIENE! (and why it's important)
*dips in the fingerboard create buzzing strings!

Carol of the Bells for 12 Cellos (The Piano Guys)

Merry Christmas to all!