//The Cello Lesson Comedy Show (7)//

Immediately after walking into Teacher’s studio…

Me: I got a lightbulb moment yesterday!

Teacher: Uh Oh…

Me: Up-bow and Down-bow strokes are the SAME! Why didn’t you tell me?! Do you know how much pressure was lifted off me when I realized this?!?!

Teacher:  Hah? They are not the same. When you do the up-bow, you…

Me: Look at Maisky’s up-bow and down-bow strokes. They look the same. They sound the same. So they ARE the same!

Teacher: Well, the goal is to make them sound the same.

Me: No! Think of it this way…[I stood up and hopped once.] We are here. [Then I hopped to my right.] But in the second dimension, Up and Down are the same thing and that is the only thing that exists. Nothing else exists. It’s as simple as that.

Teacher: But you have to work on the strokes differently!

Me: That’s not my problem. It’s his problem. [Pointing at my right hand]

Teacher: (“Please! Someone call the nuthouse!!!”) 

By now you probably wonder why I named this episode “Newton’s Cradle”. Newton’s Laws of Motion may be considered Science. But their beauty is pure Art in Nature. Watching Mischa Maisky play Grieg Cello Sonata in A-minor, I could envision these laws of inertia, energy, momentum, and action-reaction at play, not just within a single sonata movement but even in between movements. It’s what lying under the facade that matters.

Newton’s Cradle with a High-Speed Video Camera
Posted by Jeff Register (2012)