Posted on May 17, 2008 by Abigail McHugh in Phrase Shape - Musicality/Phrasing
I never actually did this in a lesson with Lizzy, she just mentioned it and I tried it at home, so her technique may be very different from what I came up with.
Have the student stand without his cello and gently bob up and down from the knees with the desired pulse. Once the tempo has been established, ask the student to play the air cello (i.e. move his hands and arms as if he is really playing) while singing/saying the music. Most upper-level pieces are too difficult to really sing on pitch, but speaking them works just as well, if not better. This should be done with a great deal of expression and exaggeration of phrase shape. Articulations can be expressed through a variety of syllables, so if the student is saying la or da on every note, ask them to explore a wider variety of consonants. If what they are doing sounds boring, then it is not being done correctly.
Most students will probably feel fairly self-conscious about doing this at first, because it looks and sounds absolutely ridiculous, but this discomfort can be minimized if the teacher does it enthusiastically alongside the student a few times. After playing the section convincingly on the air cello, have the student play it on the real cello. Encourage him not to worry about technique, but rather to keep in mind the air cello-phrasing model and to let that sound guide the music. I find that my students play infinitely more musically after having done this, and that their phrase shapes are far more fluid and logical.