I’ve been meaning to write a new blog post for a while, but I’ve been doing a lot. The start of the year in schools is always big – setting up spaces, timetables, over-arching plans for the years, plans just for term 1. I’ve just started a new program in a new school – and that’s always a big thing. And I’ve been practising a lot – I’ve had some hard programs to learn, and a big piece to record.

And it was when I was sitting and practising for the umpteenth hour that I stopped and thought something. It was that playing the cello well, as well as I can, is incredibly important to me. Hugely important. And it might be different for other musicians, but the only way that I can maintain the standard I want to be at, and possibly even get better, is to sit and spend hours – many hours – at the cello, exploring pieces, trying new things, making myself play hard things, taking myself out of what is comfortable.

And to do this I need time. And mental space. I’ve changed what I do each week this year – I am not in schools as many days as I was in 2025, because I could feel my cello playing slipping away from me. And I’m not ready for that yet. I know it’ll happen, at some point, as I get older, or care less. But I’m not at that point.

It interested me that I cared so much. Still. And that I cared SO much. I can’t tell you why. But I do. And I’m loving playing more than I could before. And having time to think up new things. It’s exciting. It reminded me of a Bill Withers song….

Mr. Jones, Booker T., said to me
Don’t worry about it,
Just do what you do –
And do it good.