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Hello Cello
Since it’s been so long since I’ve used my blog regularly, I realized, I have not posted about the cello.
I started taking cello lessons about 2 years ago. I love it. I’d always wanted to play a stringed instrument – either the violin or the cello and I finally decided to give it a go and I’m so so so glad I did.
I feel like… it’s definitely a hobby that uses my brain and my body in conjunction but in a totally separate way from athletics or traditional physicality, which I’ve always struggled with. I didn’t realize how unaware of my body I was until I started taking cello lessons and my teacher, Christine, would say “Drop your elbow” and I’d drop the whole side of my body having NO IDEA how to just move my elbow. It sounds ridiculous, but I really had no sense of how to make it all work together.
There’s definitely an intellectual component as well and I really like that. And I truly believe I have the best teacher ever! I’m a question asker, and I often digress, or cannot properly articulate what it is I really want to know and somehow she manages to take my half formed sentences and phrases and parse out what I’m saying! she’s also really good when I show up and I’m like “It’s making this WAHNKWAHNKWAHNK sound on the A-string? WHAT AM I DOING?”
The beauty of taking musical lessons as an adult is that I can show up to class and say “Hey, it was busy. I didn’t practice, yo.” and it’s fine. There’s no recriminations. I don’t ‘get in trouble’. It’s so different from my days taking piano lessons or in band class when I would AGONIZE if I didn’t know my music and just… fear going because I was scared.
All that to say: I LOVE IT. If you ever thought about taking up a musical instrument but hesitated, DO IT. If you end up not liking it, you can quit. Assuming you’re a grown up now 😉