My Teaching Philosophy

General Approach

My goal as a teacher is to render myself obsolete as quickly as possible. This means that I aim to provide the most effective tools a student cellist needs to achieve mastery at whatever level they desire it. I teach them how to think like a musician and work like a cellist. I try to convey my own love of music, and the kind of rigor that enables one to express that love through the instrument.

Through it all, I teach three basic skills: musical imagination (how to think and fantasize in sound); acute self-listening (how to hear exactly what you are playing in great detail); and how to practice. These three skills run infinitely deep--there's no end to them. So, throughout the life of a cellist, we are forever deepening these three skills in ourselves. It looks very different at different stages (such as beginning, intermediate and advanced), but it is one process that never ends.

I unconditionally support my students as human beings in this noble and often difficult endeavor. I aim to create a mutual, supportive and nurturing environment where my students feel a sense of safety and trust, and can stretch themselves to new highs all the time, knowing that they will be valued, understood and appreciated even when they fail. I believe people achieve their best when they are challenged and supported in equal measure. This means I try to meet students where they are, and to give them exactly what they need right now to move forward.

Teaching to Various Levels

I accept students of al levels, starting at about the age of 9 or 10. I enjoy teaching absolute beginners, intermediate students and advanced students. Beginners are those with no previous experience playing cello, or with some experience but little or no formal instruction. During this stage my focus is on developing good posture, optimal finger, hand and arm position, basic musicianship skills (reading music, intonation and rhythm) and working on simple musical pieces, including cello duets. Intermediate students are building on the basics learning progressively more difficult music, working on etudes, more difficult scales, and more advanced musicianship skills. The repertoire is mostly student pieces, and some of the less difficult concert pieces such as early Bach suites, and sonatas by Vivaldi. A student enters the advanced stage when their basic technique is solidly in place, they have mastered at least all the two-octave major and minor scales and argeggios, have learned a wide variety of etudes, and have begun to study concert concertos (as opposed to student concertos), such as the Haydn C Major or Saint-Saens.

Beginning

In the beginning stages my focus is on building good physical habits and basic musicianship skills. Good physical habits enable a stable and sustainable posture, and promote an alert, relaxed, limber and poised approach to the instrument. Usually there is a process of trial-and-error as the student more and more closely approaches the correct position and movements of the arms, hands and fingers. At the same time, the beginner gradually builds strength and flexibility of needed muscles and tendons to be able to play without discomfort and with greater control.

As surprising as it may seem, learning to read music is usually the least difficult of the basic skills the beginning student needs to master. Much more important, a process that often takes years to complete, is developing a strong ear for correct pitch, called intonation. I use a rigorous and systematic approach to scale study to develop such an ear. Though this takes longer for some students than for others, I have not yet encountered a student who could not master it to a very high degree (all myths about tone-deafness notwithstanding).

Developing a strong rhythmic sense involves a process that continues through the intermediate stage and well into the advanced, as the rhythms become increasingly complex. I rely heavily on work with the metronome right from the start to establish an increasingly acute sense of rhythmic regularity (keeping a steady beat), and the 'feel' of the many different rhythmic patterns each student encounters.

After introducing the basics of reading music, I encourage students to become increasingly daring in their efforts to learn music by reading it, rather than by ear (the opposite approach to the Suzuki method). Gradually, my students develop the capacity to 'hear' music in their inner ear simply by looking at it, and become excellent sight-readers over time. I emphasize an understanding and awareness of all the various markings in musical notation, from notes and rhythms to bowings, fingerings, articulation marks, dynamics, expressive marks and tempo.

At every stage, I provide an education in the theoretical concepts that govern certain aspects of musical structure, such as how key signatures work, how harmonies are constructed, and the nature of large-scale musical forms. I also try to provide a background in music history. My students always know what musical period their piece represents, and some of the stylistic elements that make Baroque music, say, sound Baroque.

I strongly encourage my students to listen to cello music and classical music more generally. I also assign my students to study the videos offered on this website, to watch the great masters perform some of the most important repertoire for the instrument. I believe this exposure opens up a much broader, and very inspiring, world for the student, and provides exemplary models for how to approach the instrument, both musically and technically.

I start with the Suzuki books, because they offer a nicely graduated series of challenges for the beginner. We also begin to work with a scale book, learning two-octave major scales right away, starting with C Major. Usually I work on simple cello duets for a while, then progress to the Dotzauer etudes. By the time a student has gotten to Suzuki Book 5, they have entered the realm of the intermediate student. By this time, they are well into Dotzauer Book I, sometimes into Book II, and have mastered most of the two-octave scales and arpeggios, both major and minor.

Intermediate

By the intermediate stage, the student has basic left-hand and bow technique in his or her command, reads music well, and can learn and memorize new pieces without enormous difficulty. Now, the focus is on building on this foundation in every way. Mostly using student pieces, like Breval and Romberg sonatas, Goltermann cello concerti, other works by Davidoff, Klengel and others, the student learns longer and more demanding scores, develops a wider palette of expressive gestures and techniques, and develops greater technical facility. Continuing the Dotzauer etudes, and beginning the Popper High School etudes, the student works on increasingly sophisticated and delicate technical demands on the ear, left hand, and bow. During this stage, the student completes the two-octave cycle of scales and arpeggios and undertakes the cycle in three octaves.

Similarly, the intermediate student further develops his or her understanding and control over phrasing, form, tone quality and harmony. We work much more on an integrated understanding of each score--not just the cello part, but its implied harmonies (especially in the case of unaccompanied pieces), and the harmonies of any accompaniment part, like piano or orchestra.

I encourage intermediate students to expand their musical horizons to play in orchestras and chamber groups, and do more performing than the two recitals per year that are a part of all my students' program of study.

Advanced

A student is considered advanced when they have mastered the three-octave scales and arpeggios, both major and minor, have at least begun the Popper etudes, and are now working on the standard cello repertoire for solo cello, cello & piano (sonatas), and cello & orchestra (concertos). The student learns all the scales in sixths, thirds and octaves; completes the Popper etudes and begins working on the "showpiece" repertoire; and progressively learns the whole standard repertoire for cello. Very advanced students are expected to maintain their scales and etudes, have ready command of the whole standard repertoire, and will learn the contemporary repertoire and other, lesser-known works.