The quickest way to learn is to learn the "SLOW way"
Keep it super easy. The speed will come on it's own.
We all love taking shortcuts!
Now don’t lie, I have not seen anyone who doesn’t like to take shortcuts. There’s always a faster way to get down the hill. You can just take “The shortcut”. Yes indeed you do get there faster, but later you notice you twisted your ankle on your way down… and you can’t for a week.
Sometimes you really think, going full circle, was it really a shortcut? Well, this also applies to your cello journey too! I’ve made my few shortcuts, some did work while others didn’t, let’s chat about those!
What bad shortcuts I’ve learned?
I started my cello journey as an Adult learner at the age of 24. And I was going to make it as efficient as possible when it comes to learning. I didn’t have as much time to practice and needed to juggle and prioritize work and life first above the cello. But I still want to do a good job and learn this as soon and build good habits from the start.
But here’s the catch, there were some downsides of taking shortcuts while I was learning but would have been better if I just stayed patient and just went through the natural process of learning.
Going through pieces too fast and end up half-baked. This was tough for me because it built lots of bad habits where I had to go back and fix the whole piece. Not only was it twice the amount of words if I were to start learning it with more patience and build good habits from the get-go. (Mostly when I just started learning cello for a month)
Not focusing on the mistakes. I thought if I could get enough reps in. (Repeating the piece over and over again) The problems and mistakes I have would just fix themselves. Nope, that never happened. I still had to go back, stripe the piece, and clean out each little part one by one. It’s good to stop immediately when you hear a wrong note and correct it on the spot. Don’t let the bad habits grow in you. Make sure you pull them out the moment you notice them. So focus on noticing first! A tip for you!
Information overload. I learned too many pieces in a week. And that really took a hard hit on me. Learning 5+ new pieces every week was crazy. Even if the pieces were really small and mini. It was just too much to actually learn proper bowing, noticing mistakes, and polishing it off.
Good shortcuts I’ve learned.
But all and all you can’t just say all shortcuts are bad. I want to share some good ones that might be helpful for you too!
Notice, fix, and test it out. This is one of the better shortcuts I’ve taken. I was observant enough and also knew what I wanted to improve helped a lot. The moment I started to realize mistakes. I would stop, fix, and test it out to see if the correction was fixed or not. And I would repeat this again until I found the resolution.
Record yourself playing. This is another great shortcut and I really recommend it. It’s like you have 2 versions of yourself. You have the “Student” or “performer” and the “Teacher” or “listener”. What this does is separate the task and makes it so much easier to focus. The “Student and “performer” solely focus on the playing part. While the “Teacher and Listener” Focus on watching the recording of themselves catching mistakes, and bad habits, and how to improve and make their playing go to the next level.
Slow it down and play small parts and pieces. Learning to be able to play it slow and also only play one small part at a time was a great shortcut. You might think, “Doesn’t this make it even slower when you’re learning?”
No, it does the opposite and let me tell you why. When you learn this at first, you make sure everything is done correctly, the position of hand, fingering, intonation and also making sure you feel relaxed. The important thing is to make it easy and effortless. Once you can do this so easily after practicing a few times you start taking off! Because you’ve made the movements of your playing so much easier, you don’t even need to think about it as you play it at a faster speed. And this not only helps for this one piece but the good habits and techniques will transition in all of the new pieces you learn because you're taking the time first to get it right to make it easier so you can run faster. Prioritize the quality and the speed will come after that.
So in the end, if you focus on the more important and take it slow first, and do it right. It will be so much better and easier in the long run.
I hope these tips will be helpful for you and guide you to focus on what more important and will take your cello playing to the next level.
Mini exercise
So this week, try out and prioritize to learn and take it slow. Have patience and learn it right, because before you know it, you’ll start taking off and playing with a beautiful sound with ease and effortlessly. Like it’s a walk in the park and a piece of cake. Have fun! Happy practicing.
See you all next week with discoveries, tips, and advice!
So there are my discoveries, Tips and Advice on how to improve your cello playing. I hope you enjoy this fun new way of practicing!
Do you need help with your cello learning?
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