40 Years Experience: From Streets to Symphony to Circus to Guru... 🧘♀️
About The Cello Guru
Who I am
I am a happy mom, a proud golden doodle owner, a poet, a lover of classical music who plays cello in symphonies, in circuses and on street corners
across the states.
I am a troubadour, a passionate student of jazz.
I am a grammy nominated composer.
I love Bach, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Carl Sandburg, William Faulkner, Bob Dylan and Shakespeare.
I am an ardent educator.
In my cello mentorship programs, I teach students to identify their musical dreams and then work to create them. They learn to play beautiful soulful cello lines and to share their music with the world, ultimately melting the hearts of friends and family.
Look Who Has Started singing on her cello...
Sandra B. in Australia just killed Tchaikovsky. In the best possible way... 🩷
" I just completed a cello ‘Crash Course’ with Marcie Brown (The Cello Guru). We worked on Tchaikovsky’s Chanson Triste. Oh, but we worked on so much more than the music!!
She reminded me to ‘sing’ . . . and I haven’t sung in a long time. It was indeed a crash course, with no big commitment of time and my time with her passed all too quickly; however everything she taught me and every pearl of wisdom she shared will stay with me forever.
Thank you Marcie Brown xx"
How The Cello Guru began
I sat on hard wood chair in my big old wooden house wondering what to do with myself. The sunlight of a warm September afternoon danced across the cold floor where Biscuit lay faithfully at my feet. ☀️
After driving my daughter through the pandemic and across the states from California to Ohio where she was to attend Oberlin College I had been somewhat of a hero, but now, just a week later, all I felt was emptiness. 😕
In addition to that, I knew that I needed to somehow figure out how to pay the inflated Bay Area rent…or else I had to move to someplace cheaper. 🫣
I had not been practicing my cello, which felt awful, and I had not been playing any gigs for the first time in years. The world was shut down.
I felt lonely and sad… 🥲
How the heck, I thought…
And then an idea struck me: if I was struggling with loneliness and not playing my cello…surely others would be too. What if I somehow reached out to form a community and share musical expertise?
Could I really do that? 💁♀️
I remember calling my brother and asking: hey, would it be presumptuous of me to call myself the Cello Guru? His answer changed me. He said: You have put your entire life into this study. It’s who you are. Of course you need to share it…
And that is how the Cello Guru started. 🧘♀️
Since then we've put together all kinds of fun and interesting intensive Cello Mentorship Programs and Bootcamps for adult cellists around the world, both classical and improvisation, and we've created communities that will inspire and encourage cellists to evolve musically and creatively. 💐
My signature program Total Cello Immersion includes one on one lessons, group classes, guest speakers, and an online course the cellists can use daily as a supplement to their learning. 🤓
And my Crash Course for Cello program is a four week 1-1 journey where we work on one piece, and one piece only.
And it all started with some sadness and a dream. 🩷💚💜
Scale trepidation is real
This Happened to Me...
After attempting the four octave C scale that August afternoon, I was utterly humiliated, and I walked around for a week beneath the blazing Arizona sun in a daze.
I thought that my failure to execute it well meant that I was no good.
I had been in a music lesson with Dr Gordon Epperson, and I remember thinking… I'll never be able to play cello beautifully. And this tormenting C scale just proves it.
Funny, all I had done is played some notes on a wooden instrument and they had brought me to this sweeping conclusion about my overall music career.
Have you had this type of experience in a lesson? Where your hands get shaky and your brain clouds over with fog? Has a scale made you feel devastated?
I totally understand. I’ve been there…and it's ok.
That’s exactly why I started my intensive Cello Guru Programs.
To help you to feel better and to Play Better Cello.
And to help you to become an all around better musician.
You're not hopeless.
You just need some basic guidance…
At the Cello Guru, we've got you.
Shoot us an email or book a Play Better Cello call to get started...
Start Your New Musical Adventure Here...
