21st September 2019
get ready for the finger challenge!
We continue with more games to warm up! In the last chapter, we saw how to use the scale dices, and how to play the games of the infinite note and the arco-pizzicato. Have you already broken your record?
One of the games that we will see today is also a challenge: the finger challenge. It consists of a series of movements that we will see if you can do! Challenge accepted?
This challenge helps us, cellists, to prepare our hands before practicing and to gain muscle tissue so that we don't get tired that much when we play.
About the cello-yoga, these exercises are also suuuper good to warm up. If you want, you can invent one and you can show it to me in our lesson! Print the sheets and put them into the pocket of your cello agenda!
Warming up
Up to the left corner of the sheet, you have three stretches that you can do before starting to practice. These exercises are very important to prepare the muscles and get rid of injuries.
They are also good for our concentration if you count the seconds that you see in the pictures, slowly and with calm. If we concentrate before practicing, the time that we practice, even if it's short, it will be much more effective rather than practicing two hours with no concentration. Imagine!
Let's see which are the stretches:
Say Hi to your cello!
With your back straight, standing up or down, put your arms as in the pictured and slightly press in the direction of the arrows. Keep your palms together for 20 sec.
Prepare your thumbs!
Bend the elbow vertically in front of you and let your hand fall back. With the other hand stretch the thumb downwards and count to 10. Do the same with the other hand.
Relax your back!
Keeping your back straight, cross your fingers and pull upwards with the palms looking at the ceiling. Count to ten while noticing how your back muscles stretch, as well as the arms and the hands.
Finger challenge
Now that your muscles are ready and you are concentrated, let's do the finger challenge of the sheet.
Look at the pictures carefully and try to do these exercises as well as you can.
And remember; practice makes perfect. So, go and practice and show me in the lesson
how good you are!
The elastic
Pick an elastic band (hair is OK) and stretch it using all your fingers slowly 10 times. Check that it doesn't come off! Don't forget doing it with the other hand as well.
I wear glasses!
Put your fingers as if they were glasses, first jointing thumb and index, and then changing fast to other fingers without losing the glasses shape: thumb-middle, thumb-ring... Repeat the series 7 times!
Every finger counts!
Let's see if each finger can move on their own! First, pull apart each finger to the sides like in the first picture and repeat 7 times. Then, with your hand on the table, pull up each finger individually and repeat the series 7 times. With practice you'll be able to do it easily, you'll see!
Combi-finger
Put your right arm on your left shoulder as if it was your cello's fingerboard. Change the positions of your fingers as you see in the picture from arrow to arrow as fast as you can!
Cello-yoga
In the sheet, you have some of the cello-yoga postures that we do in our lessons and that you can also do at home. In the agenda, you can write "cello-yoga" in the cello games part of the day if you do some of the exercises of the pictures. Download the sheet and look at the pictures. Here I explain how to do them:
The canoe
Look for the balance point of your bow and hold it there. Only moving the fingers (don't use the wrist), make moves as if your bow was the oar of a canoe.
Swing the bird
Cut out the bird from the sheet and stick it near the tip of the bow with some Blue-Tack. Put your hand like in the previous exercise, and also only moving the fingers, swing the bird up and down. Do it slowly, we don't want our birdie to get dizzy!
Monkey climbing!
From the same spot as before (balance point), and only moving your fingers, climb up and down your bow's wood. Hint: the thumb plays an important role!
Angle-hunting
Grab your bow as usual (frog) and place your bow over the wood of the bridge at half bow. Without rubbing the bow with the bridge, follow the shape that it has and observe how does your right arm's position change. At the lower register, your elbow will be lower and at the higher, you will have to move it upwards.
Birdie sings
While playing a long note with your bow, slide your fourth finger (left hand) up and down through the string (making harmonics, not pressing the string down), making birdie sound. Repeat on each string.