Meet Daniel Grab | Private Cello Teacher and Performer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniel Grab and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I had to identify where my unique strengths in my field lined up with what I like doing in my field, and also where there was market demand for these strengths. If you don’t do these things as a classical musician you will always be instantly replaceable, bitter about your position(s), and/or unable to get enough work, even if you are as qualified as your peers who are working.

For me it’s a combination of teaching private cello lessons which is typically 80-90% of my income rather than being employed by an institution like a university, and performing in contexts that motivate me artistically such as: securing opportunities to play solo concertos with local orchestras, chamber music concerts with peers and colleagues who inspire me, and performing or recording in non-classical contexts like with bands and singer songwriters. I’ve found that demand for these skill sets at the level I provide them is fairly high in North County San Diego relative to the supply, especially when compared to a market like Los Angeles.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
As I’ve stated before, I see myself primarily as a private cello teacher who also performs, but mainly in contexts that support my teaching business by way of; getting local exposure to facilitate new student inquiries, providing my students the opportunity to see their teacher perform, and/or provide performance opportunities to select students on the same concert. So here I’ll speak more mainly about the teaching business.

The skills that I believe set myself apart from other teachers are in 3 main categories: vision, an understanding of the importance of focusing on the bow to a higher degree than is typical of most teachers, and the broader ability to work with people and therefore a wide range of students with a wide range of sill levels and goals.

Vision is the ability to evaluate where a student is at in that moment, what weak points need to be focused on and in what order, and ultimately where he could be across different spans of time. One of the hardest aspects of this keeping a fresh set of eyes and ears on that student over time, it’s easy to form preconceptions about a student you’ve taught for years which can be limiting. If you want to be effective over a long span of time with a student, you have to be able to step back and reevaluate these things often

Regarding my relatively heavier focus on the bow and the coordination of the bow with the left hand rather than what I regard as a more typical primary focus on the left hand…I believe this has payed outsized benefits with both students who have maxed out progress with a previous teacher, and students I have started from scratch. There are a host of reasons why cellists don’t focus enough on the bow, even when compared to violinists for instance, that creates an imbalance in the development of their playing. Over the years I’ve gone from being frustrated that other teachers don’t seem to catch this, to being grateful that it offers me a nearly guaranteed way to set myself apart from my competitors.

The general people skills I’m aware I have, hopefully without seeming too arrogant in singing my own praises, is just something innate and likely some combination of both my parent’s personality types, each of which are somewhat extreme. Luckily I got many of the positives from each of them that landed in some sort of desirable mix of confidence and empathy. Ultimately if people don’t like being around you, you could be espousing the most brilliant ideas about playing the instrument but are likely to lose that student, unless the kid is trapped by his parents to continue regardless of how difficult you might be. This sort of domineering fear based approach is more of an old school model, likely still fairly common in Europe and Asia, but is pretty much the opposite of what people are looking for these days in San Diego, save a handful of those highly competitive type parents. On the other side of it, you don’t want to just tell a kid how great he his week after week either so it’s a hard line to walk, you have to understand where your limits are as a teacher considering the culture of each family you work with.

The biggest hurdles I had to overcome in getting my career going as it exists now, as a private cello teacher in North County San Diego, were eliminating seemingly reasonable avenues to purse in my hometown of LA. First freelancing and recording work, then teaching at the university level, then finally the notion I could get a successful private teaching business up and going in the LA area. This process took place between 2009 and 2016 while I was in and out of school through many experiences in all three said fields, none of which ever developed into anything substantive or reliable. The long and short of it boils down to supply and demand, simple market dynamics for my skill set. In a sense I was lucky that I didn’t have enough success in any of these fields to keep me tethered to LA and came down here with a true sense that no stone had been left unturned. Once I got down here, I basically did the same things I was already doing in LA to promote myself; I linked up with a couple community orchestras to meet people, I had a few phone calls and lunch meetings with youth orchestra conductors and other private teachers etc. The difference was that nearly everyone I met down here was legitimately happy to meet a musician with my skill set and one thing led to another pretty quickly in the way of referrals once the ball got rolling.

If any other musicians are reading this who are having trouble getting consistent work going, I would tell them this; take a hard look at the market dynamics of your area with regard to your skill set and what you are willing and interested to do in your field. Sometimes it’s not actually you but rather the simple reality that only some tiny percentage of people in your area, and in your field can get stable w0rk. At that point your choices are; keep waiting to catch those breaks, figure out a place you are willing to move to that will have greater demand for what you offer, or go into something else.

As artists we tend to blame the quality of our craft for our success, or lack of hustle, but as we all know, plenty of artists get way more success than they deserve and plenty are far better than those who are far more successful. There is such a thing as luck, timing, and market realities in this field.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
After landing in Vista the first year I lived here just to get my feet under me, I was lucky enough to get a good deal on a studio in Encinitas for several years before moving nearby to South Carlsbad early this year. It’s my favorite place in the county to surf, hang around the beaches, and just cruise the coast highway from Swamis down south up to La Costa Ave which is the boarder between Leucadia (Northern Encinitas) and Southern Carlsbad.

Start the day out with a trip down to the beach, get in the ocean at what ever level is appropriate for my friend that day, swim boogie board or maybe a surf lesson for them and I can sneak a fun waves in myself if it’s in that typical 2-3 foot range which would be good for a beginner and just enough for a regular surfer to enjoy as well.

Head out onto the coast highway on foot to one of the coffee spots like Philz or Better Buzz.

Take a walk through Hansen’s Surf Shop.

Pick up a taco at City Tacos which is a bit of a fusion type place but they stay pretty reasonable with pricing and pretty big on flavor although not exactly authentic. If I’m looking for Mexican that reminds me more of home then Serrano’s in the Lazy Acres parking lot. Other lunch spots are In-N-Out of course, Crack Shack (prefer the sandwiches over the fired chicken), and Poke Chop.

Walk thru the gardens the Swami’s Temple for free, or the Encinitas Botanic Garden. Possible round of golf at Encinitas Ranch or run up to Rancho Carlsbad for a quick 9 holes of par 3 if you’re short on time.

A guest day pass at the Encinitas YMCA is free twice a year, hit the sauna and grab a shower.

Head back out for dinner at Kaito or Blufin Sushi which are the best spots in North County.

End up at one of two dive bars for a couple beers, either Leucadian which has pool tables or Mr. Peabody’s which has some pretty good wings.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’ll start with my parents who were both cellists. My father’s career was primarily as a studio cellist in LA from the 70’s into the 2000’s, near the end of which he started teaching more. My mother is a Juilliard graduate but only worked for about a decade as professional cellist before deciding she needed something more stable, likely to provide for me after my parents split up and work became hard to come by. She became an elementary classroom teacher when I was about 5 which was her primary career.

The instrument was basically handed to me when I was 8 or 9 and smartly, my parents got me a private teacher right away rather than attempting to teach me by themselves.

All my cello teachers have had an impact on my trajectory of course; Rachael Lonergan, Andrew Cook, Dr. Richard Naill, Ron Leonard, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Alexander Suleiman, Diane Roscetti.

Dr. Naill, Eleonere Schoenfeld, and Alexander Suleiman likely had the most impact on my playing.

Website: http://www.sandiegocellolessons.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danieljgrab

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@djgrab1/featured

Image Credits
My headshot with the blue jacket was taken by professional photographer Yuri Hasegawa