Gary Lee

I originally posted this in January but it ended up in another part of my site. Therefore, I’m going to post again but update this:

Sometimes it’s interesting to find out what people are reading. As a string player, most of us are aware on some level of the Suzuki method. In the days when I was a student my teachers either were disapproving of the way it was taught in the U.S. or they said nothing at all. That would have been in the earlier days of the Suzuki method here and from what I’ve heard from Suzuki teachers things have changed significantly. I remember a student saying she had learned by Suzuki and eventually quit for a time. She couldn’t read music, for one thing. In college, she said she still felt like her music reading was weak. That was in the early 1980s. I don’t hear that objection any more.

Last December I finished reading Shinichi Suzuki’s “Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education”. It’s about time I had read it. Very often I found myself nodding my head in agreement over what he was saying. I can see in my cello students the ones who have had music making around them all their lives and which ones have not. The ones who have had music making around them have an easier time learning the cello and the various musical concepts and techniques. The students who have not had music making around them from birth have to work much harder. Therefore, like language I think there is a large advantage to exposure to music early in life. With my son, we have done that through the music making that goes on in our home and the cello lessons he witnesses. He has been enrolled in the Community Music School Young Years classes. All of that is building up his musicality.

A book I’ve partly read is called “Rosindust: Teaching, Learning and Life from a Cellist’s Perspective” by Cornelia Watkins. It’s built on 30 years of teaching the cello. The first chapters I have found myself in agreement with what I try to do as a cello teacher. For example, it used to be I felt once a student stopped playing during a lesson that I needed to impart words of wisdom and critique. However, more recently I have asked students to critique themselves. Some of they groan about it, but others have gotten the hang of it. The idea is to develop more self awareness of one’s own playing and create more independence on the part of the student. At other times, I ask questions to get the student to come up with the answer so that student will remember better.

Another good concept in the book is how to practice. For years I’ve taught to practice note by note, slowly and then gradually speed up but in small units. The author calls this “divide and conquer”. With my students I use the analogy of when we ask someone for directions and then the person responding rattles off a series of words out of which we only get about half if we’re lucky. I’ll say that the brain is responding the same way when we play too many notes too fast too soon. The brain is saying “huh?” It has to give a series of commands throughout the body to tell all the parts of the body just what to do on each action. I think we would dislike having to describe every movement and how to do it when doing a series of actions, but yet the brain has to dictate what to do. Therefore when we practice we are teaching our brains as well as training our muscles.

I’ve used a couple of the visualizations already with a few students, such as the one imagining the right finger pads being sticky suction cups like those of a tree frog. The idea is to hold the bow but have flexibility. If we hold on for dear life with the fear of dropping the bow we don’t have that. I often tell my students that the bow hold should be loose enough that I could snatch the bow out of the hand, although I assure them I won’t do that because for one thing a person would react by grabbing tighter on the bow to keep from losing the bow.

I need to get back to finish reading “Rosindust” but in the meantime I’ve been reading “Playing(less) Hurt.” I think this is a book that all musicians should read. There are many books that fall into this category, but for most of us, we are challenged for time. I have quite a few books sitting on my bookshelf patiently waiting for my attention.

This is it for now. Time for more reading and playing the cello.

Okay. I’m trying to think about something to write. It’s the end of the weekend and I need to call it a night. It’s been a musically productive weekend. I played three weddings for Landolfi String Quartet: Friday evening I played cello at Windows on Washington. Saturday early afternoon I played a wedding at the Old Cathedral in downtown St. Louis right on the heels of a very well-attended Obama rally under the arch. (A couple of my colleagues came early and caught a little bit of his speech.) Then there was a wedding in a private home off of Lindbergh Blvd. south of Clayton Road.

Sunday morning originally I was going to have a church gig, but that fell through. Well, really it was rescheduled but to a date I can’t play because of another playing job commitment. Sunday afternoon, I played in the University City Symphony Orchestra concert. It went very well. One of the works was the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2. I used to be a Rachmaninoff fanatic. People from my early college years likely remember that. They probably wouldn’t be surprised that I learned and performed the cello Sonata about a decade ago. Also on the program was a new work by Paul Reuter and Mozart Symphony No. 20. I was delighted that one of my cello students attended the concert.

In the evening was a rehearsal for a joint church event for All Saints Day. John Leavitt’s Requiem was the focus of the rehearsal and it’s a lovely contemporary work. It will be performed at Grace Chapel Lutheran Church off of Lewis and Clark Blvd. south of I-270. It’s a collaboration with Chapel of the Cross Lutheran Church, for whom I’ve played services in the past. This performance is going to be worth hearing.

While I’m rambling about musical events. I’m playing at the Sheldon Friday October 24th in a choral concert. It’s a benefit concert for the School Sisters of Notre Dame consisting of choral works with instrumental accompaniment. I’m very much looking forward to this.

Yes, this past weekend was very satisfying. I’m looking forward to the coming weekend for more music making. The event at the Sheldon, as mentioned above, but also I’m playing weddings on Saturday and then a Town & Country Symphony concert on Sunday.

This past week has seen the loss of a couple musicians that touched my life. One was Ray Poterack, a very devoted member of the University City Symphony. For many years he was librarian and wrote the program notes. He was a true music lover. It was not his profession: he was an amateur in the traditional sense of the word and I admired how much he was committed to the orchestra. He was not a great cellist–his sound was faint and he had some issues controlling the bow. I’m not certain if these matters were age-related or whether it was simply the level of his playing. However, it didn’t matter because of his loyalty to the orchestra as well as his music making as part of the group. If only there were more men like Ray. He is missed by so many in the orchestra.

The other person who passed away was a church musician–Bill Littleton. He was a very godly man who directed music at First Baptist Church Ferguson. A few years ago he retired and moved away from the St. Louis area. It was sad for me to think he has left this earth, but I think of heaven and all the music making I like to think is going on up there.

On another note, I learned today that another of my cousins is fighting for his life due to cancer. It’s a rare, aggressive form. What a raw deal for a 39-year-old. My prayers go out for him, his wife and young son, all other family, and the doctors who will treat him. May those doctors be granted wisdom and compassion.

At this time all the siblings of my parents have children who are dealing with cancer. What is going on in this world? When my cello teacher was dying of cancer, his wife mentioned that our world is just too full of too many chemicals and we don’t know enough about what they are doing to us. What she said was true then and even more so now. We are managing to poison ourselves in ways we don’t even know because of all the products around us. How much can we take control to keep the dangerous substances away?

I wonder about the carrots I ate today. They were grown in our garden, pulled, and now stored in our refrigerator until eaten. Are there substances that have settled into the soil that have been absorbed by what we are eating? Are these safer because of being grown in my back yard? How about tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, corn, rhubarb, apples, blackberries, and everything else grown in the back yard?

While pondering all of the above, my mind goes back to my life of teaching cello lessons. There is the joy of guiding students to further expand their technique while growing in their love of music. It is the hope of the future of music. Perhaps in at least one of them will be someone who will grow up to be another Ray Poterack. God bless Ray.

Before I graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University, my cello teacher Robert Luke told me, “‘Practice makes perfect’ is a lie. Practice makes experience.” I have carried this with me since and I have shared it with my students.

Performance is often imperfect. No matter what there is nearly always some detail we don’t like in our performances. Sometimes the environment is not ideal. Sometimes it’s the chair we sat in, what we had for a meal beforehand, lighting, etc.

When we practice, we are building experience. If we are playing a note incorrectly, that is our experience. If we play a note correctly, then that is our experience. We can train ourselves to play out of tune; we can train ourselves to play in tune. If we play a passage correctly 95 times and incorrectly 5 times, what are the odds we are going to play it correctly? If we play a passage correctly 5 times and incorrectly 95 times, what are our odds then? By building good experience, we hope to prepare ourselves properly to increase the possibility of a good performance.

Too many times I see students who want to learn too much too soon too fast. They want to play through a piece over and over again. Beyond an initial sight read through, I try to discourage practicing by rote. Too many times we waste time doing that. Once in college I was practicing when I became aware of someone playing piano in the practice room next door. She went through the piece until a certain point when a mistake happened. She stopped, started over from the beginning until the same mistake happened. She repeated the same procedure with the same results. Again and again she reinforced the mistake. I couldn’t take it anymore I had to leave my practice room and move to another.

So, I believe that practice makes experience. Thank you, Mr. Luke, for those words of wisdom.

Okay. I’m going to do a plug. Have a wedding coming up? Have a party? Any other special event? Hire the Landolfi String Quartet. Tell them Gary sent you. It’s an excellent quartet and many times I’m able to play cello for them. If there isn’t the budget or need for a whole quartet, a trio or duo can also be hired. Just remember to tell them Gary sent you. It is still helpful for them to know how the job came through, regardless whether I can play for the event. This quartet is helping me keep a roof over my head through performances. While Landolfi plays in St. Louis, I’ve subbed in the quartet when playing in places an hour or two drive outside the St. Louis Metro area as well as playing close to home. Support the arts. Support live music. Hire Landolfi String Quartet.

My wife says I should be blogging. So let’s see how this goes. Hmm. What to write, what to write. 

Maybe for the moment I should brainstorm–think about patterns in my life what has worked and what hasn’t, for example. I’ve often been a loyal person. That can be good sometimes; other times it can be bad. I went to a graduate school with excellent faculty and students but lousy administration; it closed a few years later. I stuck with the same small company for years warts and all with the hope things would get better; finally got downsized. There was a fear of leaving and going into the unknown despite feeling like a beaten down dog. There is the book “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow.” I’m really working on that now. Playing the cello and teaching lessons. I’ve done it for years but now it’s completely my bread and butter. I’m happier than I’ve been. Before followed this route, I wasn’t confident I could do it and survive financially but I didn’t want to waste another 20 years in a pathetic, struggling company where only when I’m finally starting to barely breathe financially the ax comes down. Sometimes it’s good to cheer for the underdog, but not at the cost that I’ve experienced (loss of job, high credit card debt, loss of paltry retirement money, etc.).

Anyway, so much for my first blog. I need to go teach cello and think happy thoughts and beautiful music. It’s a blessing to help students develop their playing, while giving generous doses of encouragement along the way.