https://www.sethmacleod.com/Recent content in Home on Seth MacLeodHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usSeth MacLeodMon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/building-blocks-of-shifting/Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/building-blocks-of-shifting/Mastering the mechanics of shifting ensures ease of movement and consistency of intonation. The technique varies for different kinds of shifts. Here we will examine the foundations of shifting: the four basic steps of shifting, the same-finger shift, the extension shift, and the contraction shift. Four Basic Steps of Shifting Play the old note Release finger pressure into harmonic position Slide finger along string in harmonic position until you reach the new note Play the new note Practice slowly enough that you can focus on following these steps exactly.https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/the-bow-positions/Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/the-bow-positions/There are three bow positions: neutral, down-bow, and up-bow. You will change bow positions throughout most bow strokes, but there are some that rely on staying in one bow position. Neutral Position Neutral position is your basic bow hold. See The Bow Hold. Down-bow Position Feel that you are pulling the bow. You should feel this from your ring finger and pinky. Remain pronated but less so than up-bow position.https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/introduction-to-string-levels/Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/introduction-to-string-levels/The positioning of your arm will vary for each string. Each string has its own string level that your arm aligns to as you play on that string. Your arm will be highest on the A string and lowest on the C string. Finding String Levels There is a simple exercise to find the best positioning for you: Hold the bow in your hand as you would for pizzicato. Bring your hand to the string where you will use the bow.https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/the-bow-hold/Sun, 17 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/technique/the-bow-hold/To find the natural spacing of your fingers in the right hand: Hold your right forearm parallel to the floor Relax your hand and let it dangle When holding the bow, bring your thumb and middle finger together. This positioning should be maintained as closely as possible during play. The thumb should be kept straight but not tense when holding the bow. Whether the thumb more curved or straight depends on the size of the object we are holding.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/sevcik-opus3-variation2/Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/sevcik-opus3-variation2/Here is a tutorial on how to practice Ševčík Op.3 Variation 2. I’ve wanted to make these kinds of videos for a while, but it’s a bit of a daunting task for me. I will continue to make these, but I’ll be skipping around the variations rather than going in order. Watch the video on YouTube Here is the chart of bow strokes I refer to in the video: I hope this is useful to others.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/cracking-and-repairing-my-brack/Sat, 15 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/cracking-and-repairing-my-brack/I cracked my cello case back in 2017. I was closing the trunk to my car, and my cello case was not far enough away. I slammed the trunk shut, hard. My cello looked okay, but I made an appointment with Ken Meyer just to be sure. Ken had recommended the Brack case when I first got the cello. After looking over my cello, Ken said to me, “I’m glad this happened.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/preparing-kol-nidrei-part-2/Sat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/preparing-kol-nidrei-part-2/Continuing Preparing Kol Nidrei (Part 1) Years ago, I found a cantorial version of Kol Nidrei on a synagogue’s website. I printed it out, but I didn’t think to save the link. I’ve since looked for it again, but I cannot find it. It turns out that it is an arrangement of Louis Lewandowski’s Kol Nidrei, but the arranger didn’t put their name or even Lewandowski’s. I’ve been very happy with this arrangement of Kol Nidrei.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/preparing-kol-nidrei-part-1/Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/preparing-kol-nidrei-part-1/I have been playing Kol Nidrei for a small congregation for several years. For the last month, I’ve been on my yearly preparation for the service. Since I play at the service without a pianist, I don’t use Bruch’s concert version (especially since the second page is an entirely unrelated song). Instead, I play a cantorial version. So most of my preparation is listening to cantors from various generations. A lot of the recordings of Kol Nidrei from the Golden Age of cantorial singing sound too flashy for my taste.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/experimenting-with-dall-e-2/Fri, 19 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/experimenting-with-dall-e-2/DALL-E 2 is amazing. If you haven’t heard of it: DALL·E 2 is a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language. It takes some experience with the prompts to get good results. Quite a few came out really creepy when I actually wanted something cute. Black and white photo of an octopus playing the cello Anthropomorphic cello parents walking in a park with their childhttps://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/some-two-octave-scale-exercises-for-beginners/Sat, 06 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/some-two-octave-scale-exercises-for-beginners/Last year I arranged some scale exercises from Feuillard’s Daily Exercises for my students. Some of the exercises are not as hard as they look, and with a little adaptation, they don’t look nearly as daunting. Some of my favorite exercises are numbers 10-13. Here is what those pages look like in Feuillard’s book: Even the C major exercises look fairly intimidating, but the idea behind the exercises are great. Here is what I arranged for my students:https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/practicing-paganini-first-movement-l-to-m/Wed, 20 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/practicing-paganini-first-movement-l-to-m/I combined three practice sessions into one video this time. Challenges: thirds string crossings 4th finger on the A string – some violinists add in an octave, so I did too fast shifting from G & C strings to A awkward double stops Practice Strategies: sextuplets -> triplets -> duplets -> as written start the passage both down-bow and up-bow for each step speak the rhythm practicing in chunks and connecting them sliding for every shift to connect the positions and understand how the shape of my hand should be Things I’ve learned:https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/working-on-tone-and-vibrato-in-paganini/Sun, 10 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/working-on-tone-and-vibrato-in-paganini/There is not a lot to say about this. Some of my thoughts: I really liked my F# on G string unsatisfied with the G 3rd finger — it sounds better in the video than I thought it would but still needs work need to work on the angle of my vibrato with 3rd finger for joint flexibility don’t go for aggressive sound…should be heartbreaking light pressure with vibrato really helps with expression – bow pressure is obvious to think about but the pressure from vibrato is super important.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/improving-fingered-thirds-in-paganini/Wed, 06 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/improving-fingered-thirds-in-paganini/First, fingered thirds can be hard to wrap your mind around if you aren’t used to them. Second, this is a fast passage. But the real challenge with this passage is the fingering changes in order to make the passage even playable: switching the fingering from the usual thumb-2 1-3 pattern to thumb-3 1-4 mid passage and then switching to thumb-2 1-4 again in the same passage and adding in 0-1 the double stops right before the arpeggio are very awkward Practice Strategies Some of the practice strategies that I’m using:https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/paganini-excerpt-3rd-movement-n-to-s/Tue, 05 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/paganini-excerpt-3rd-movement-n-to-s/The challenges: lots of playing on one string — need to sort out good musical fingerings. I’m still figuring out which shifts I want to slide and when to hide shifts the harmonic passages when to slide and when to hide the shifts bowings — there is a lot of legato in the passages, but that’s not necessarily the most interesting musically. A lot of violinists change up the bowings and articulations.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/making-music-notation-easier-for-children/Fri, 01 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/making-music-notation-easier-for-children/Music notation is a complex writing system that should be simplified in a similar way that children’s books are simplified. Children’s books have large font, simple sentence structure, common vocabulary, few types of punctuation, and so on. Music notation for children should be similar. This doesn’t mean that children should only play open strings or just a few notes. They should play songs with a clear melody. But easy music does not actually address the complexity of notation.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-5-with-paganini-double-harmonics/Tue, 22 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-5-with-paganini-double-harmonics/After taking another break from double harmonics, I’ve returned to working on them. I’m beginning to see some real progress: the harmonics speak clearly and ring a lot, and my intonation is much improved and more consistent. I’m not sure how I maintained my focus on these for almost 37 minutes, but I’m glad I did as I was able to get a bit further in the passage. There isn’t a whole lot left to the passage, because the next part alternates between double harmonics and normal arpeggios.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-4-with-paganini-double-harmonics/Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-4-with-paganini-double-harmonics/I’ve mostly let the passage alone for a few days to let it sink in. Since my last session, I’ve just played the passage at tempo a few times to get a sense of what my hands should feel like shifting quickly. But now I’m back to it. Some of the practice strategies I’ve used: Alternating between notes with lots of repetition Dropping my hand and placing it where it is supposed to be – this helps with finding notes cold Playing at tempo even when out of tune – this helps with getting the feeling of connecting positions Playing open strings with the speed and pressure I should use for harmonics Playing at tempo but repeating each note 8 times – my goal was to do 8 times for each note, then 4, then 2, then as written, but I could feel myself losing my concentration so I moved on Specific things I want to improve:https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-3-with-paganini-double-harmonics/Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-3-with-paganini-double-harmonics/Okay, it’s still tough, but I’m making progress. It’s still the same 12 bars from yesterday, but I’m getting better at playing them continuously under tempo. I probably should have stopped practicing after about 20 minutes. There is definitely diminishing returns as I keep working on them. It takes a lot of focus for me to process what I’m supposed to do with my fingers with these, so my concentration took a hit.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-2-with-paganini-double-harmonics/Sat, 26 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/round-2-with-paganini-double-harmonics/I’ve made progress. I can at least play 12 bars of the double harmonics…very under tempo, and they aren’t steady. But I’ve worked out how to do 12 bars, and now I have a pretty good idea of how to tackle the rest of the passage. It will be much easier going forward, though I imagine it will take some time before I can play them up to tempo. While most of the execution is the same as the violin, I’ve had to work out a few parts to make it playable on the cello.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/practicing-double-harmonics-in-the-paganini/Wed, 23 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/practicing-double-harmonics-in-the-paganini/Sorting out the double harmonics in the Paganini is going to take some time. Single harmonics aren’t too bad. They are pretty straightforward, especially when they are the normal fourths. Double harmonics are pretty unusual on the cello, so I’m not used to keeping track of my fingers this way. Fortunately, most of the execution is the same as the violin, so most of my effort has to go to working on a reliable fingering and consistency.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/starting-the-paganini-third-movement/Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/starting-the-paganini-third-movement/Since learning the Paganini concerto is a huge undertaking, I need to work on it out of order. The second movement isn’t too bad, but the third movement has some very tough challenges ahead. The main theme in the opening isn’t too hard, but I did need to sort out some problems: making sure the ricochet is clear some awkward shifts in the main theme, mostly between the ricochet and the actual melody figuring out fingerings My ricochet has come along very nicely, but I’m still not completely consistent with it.https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/learning-the-paganini-violin-concerto/Tue, 15 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/blog/learning-the-paganini-violin-concerto/My teacher, George Neikrug, learned and performed the Paganini Violin Concerto with Émile Sauret’s cadenza decades ago. It’s a huge technical accomplishment, and I’ve always been in awe of his mastery of the cello. I’ve always loved the violin repertoire, and I’ve long wanted to understand the cello as deeply as Neikrug did. So I’m learning the Paganini Violin Concerto. Studying this piece is forcing me to approach the fingerboard in an entirely different way than I’m used to as a cellist, and so many passages are just not possible with “standard” technique.https://www.sethmacleod.com/about/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://www.sethmacleod.com/about/Seth MacLeod earned a BM in cello performance from Boston University, where he studied with Michael Reynolds and George Neikrug. Mr. Neikrug dedicated a cadenza he composed for the Dvořák Cello Concerto to Seth MacLeod. Seth is currently studying with Jean-Michel Fonteneau and working towards a MM in cello performance at Boston University. Seth has performed as a soloist with the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra, and the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra.