Cello Resources for the Public School Teacher
Recommended cello books: includes etude books, thumb position books, scale books, and solo books.
One of my concerns with many of the method books is that the left and right hands and arms are combined to quickly. I believe it is important to wait to combine the hands until the student has time to become comfortable with the hands separately. The challenge, however, is to create musical interest, particularly when only playing open strings. Many method books already do this via CDs that have accompaniments. Here are some simple duets based on American folk tunes that the teacher can play with the student or class. The teacher can play the melody and the student(s) the accompaniment. In order to concentrate on bow technique, the duets only use open strings and are in a rhythmic ostinatos.
Note:These duets are written on the staff. I will be including versions that do not use the staff shortly.
Lower Half of Bow Duets Download (pdf)
These duets are designed to give the student a way to practice the lower half of the bow using the whole are with the shoulder as the pivot joint. Please read Its All About the Joints under "whole arm active motion" for a description of this motion. Relevant Action Studies are Shoulder Drop, Grandfather Clock, and Swing. Some of these duets include frequent string crossings. If you feel the student is not ready for string crossings, there are other duets that do not change strings frequently.
Upper Half of the Bow Duets Download (pdf)
These duets are designed to give the student a way to practice the upper half of the bow using the forearm with the elbow as the pivot joint. Please read It's All About the Joints under "forearm active motion" for a description of this motion. Relevant Action Studies are Shoulder Drop, Door on a Hinge, and Windshield Wiper.
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