Books
Just Play Naturally by Vivien Mackie and Joe Armstrong. An account of studying with Pablo Casals in the 1950s and the similarity with the principles of the Alexander Technique.[1]
Cello, Bow and You by Evangeline Benedetti.[2]
Articles
‘Applying chairwork to cello playing’ by Eckhart Richter lists nine typical misuses among cellists and suggestions for addressing these.[3]
‘Butterfly Soup’ by Vivien Mackie; on receptivity, to ‘surrender’ after all the rehearsal, in performance.[4]
‘The physicality of string playing’ by Alun Thomas; on a number of games and explorations – balance games, exploring gravity, exploring the connections between the arms and the back – for physical and psychological development of string playing.[5]
Research
‘Bowstroke analysis of professional cellists’ by W. Kenton Bales; on a pilot study involving three cellists from the Omaha Symphony Association, being filmed on high-speed film before and after a 20-minute lesson in the Alexander Technique, showing a change of velocity (which is a rough indicator of how smoothly the bow was pulled across the string).[6]
See also String playing.
