Tia played “A short Story” from the Suzuki Piano Book 2 at the Music Cottage March Concert while Bella played “Lightly Row” on cello from Suzuki Cello Book 1. As they progress with their music studies, they are relaxed and confident at their concerts playing solo in front of a crowded auditorium. The school promotes performance from an early stage and the children have fun.
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Tia plays her Suzuki piano Book 2 piece, Ecossaise, at The Music Cottage 2010 concert. Her technique has improved vastly this year and Tia is making fast progress through her first Book 2 pieces.
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Bella plays Song of the Wind, a Suzuki Book I cello piece and folk song, at The Music Cottage Oct 2010 concert. This piece challenges the beginning cellist with string crossings of D and A strings and little fingers have to move quickly in placing the correct positions.
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Tia performed her Suzuki Piano Book 1 in August and her sister Bella joined her to play some duets. Here, Bella plays the popular folk song “Lightly Row” from Suzuki Cello Book 1 in D major with her Dad. This tune only uses the top two cello strings but learning string crossings and intervals is still challenging for little fingers at the age of 5. Keeping those fingers right on the notes is yet another challenge and all string players have to learn the hard way withour frets.
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This blog was simply designed to post local Melbourne cello and other strings content and resources. I share the availability of the Yarrabach String Quartet, consisting of violins, viola and cello, for your wedding or function.
They play classical, romantic and other requested music. They play in Victoria and elsewhere in Australia on request.
Email yarrabach@gmail.com to find out more.
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This is an unusual post but finding information on the internet can be time consuming and wasteful. It’s just as likely that a cello enthusiast will watch videos, source sheet music, listen to podcasts and want to communicate with others of the same interest via social networking. so what about using a search engine that allows you to all of this in one place and have more fun at the same time?
Introducing LeapFish, the new multimedia search engine that shows audio and video as well as text. Simply type cello, for example, in the search field and select Video, Images, News, Blogs and other selections from the menu. The video page shows an astonishing array of clips from many video sharing sites and you can refine your search accordingly.
Try for yourself and have some fun with it – the same I’m just loving LeapFish and my new cello video catalogue! Integrate Facebook and Twitter and share with others.
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I have borrowed this article from Espie Estrella at About.com.
Bella has outgrown her 1/10th cello with the C string peg sitting now well below her left ear. “Time to upgrade” said her cello teacher Francesca, to a 1/8th cello.
The old argument of renting or buying came up and there’s never an easy answer, as Bella will likely outgrow this cello in a year or more as well. But how do you judge exactly what size is needed and when to upgrade once again?
There are various sizes of cellos available. Recommendations for finding the right size for you or your child may be based on the following:
By Your Age:
By Your Height:
By Body Length:
Additional Sizing Tips:
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The Cello is one of the few instruments that inspires adoration because of it beautiful music. Unfortunately, very few actually try to learn it for fear of it being hard to master. In truth, children can start to learn the Cello as early as 3 or 4 years of age, although some teachers will not take children until they reach the age of 6-8.
In fact, many teachers decide to use the Suzuki method when teaching the Cello, although some prefer to teach a combination of traditional method and the Suzuki. The Suzuki method is more favored by more people because of the very natural way it employs the sight and sound abilities of the student.
The Cello is made in different sizes precisely so this can be done. The instrument comes in ¼, ½, ¾ and full size. It is best to start to learn the Cello at an early age, although older people can also learn this instrument, but may not progress as fast or as far as a child will.
Learning to play the Cello is very similar to learning the violin, only, there is no markings on the fingerboard of the Cello so it might take a while before finger placement is learned on the Cello. The lesson on finger positioning will require more patience from both teacher and parents.
It is much easier for children to learn to play the Cello as they have more patience to repeat simple tunes like “Twinkle Twinkle little star” over and over again, whereas an adult would quickly become bored with such musical pieces.
Another working advantage of children is their more flexible brains. These allow them to easily grasp instructions, process them accurately and have better control when it comes to their arms. One arm to control the bow, and the other to work the fingerboards. This is apparently achieved only when both hemispheres of the brain are being used.
Generally, the most challenging but highly important part of the Cello that needs to be learned is the Bow. When you learn to adequately use the bow you can bring out the resonance and the sound even when playing softly. This ability is developed naturally in children, especially those who learn under the Suzuki method, and develop all hemispheres of the brain when learning to play.
As a child they become used to the instrument and develop the strength necessary to control the Cello and draw the bow out evenly. The scratchy tones and flat pitch are usually caused by the uncertain strokes of the bow.
In conclusion, learning to play the Cello, as any other instrument, is not simple, however it can be pleasant, relaxing, and entertaining. Children adapt well to it and with parental help enjoy even the beginning practice pieces where an adult may easily become bored with the practice tones. Children are not usually asked to play a sonata their first lesson with the instrument. They just enjoy being with their friends and have fun while they study in class.
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The wonderful world of the internet has brought us multimedia and free content. Now you have to go no further than YouTube and other video sharing sites to find expert instruction on how to buy, learn and maintain your new cello. I have learned a lot by watching some videos and I simply give you some links here to shorten your journey in finding good resources.
People love to share their experience and this is your gain as you can sit and view entire sequences of tuition for free. Such topics as selecting an instrument, maintaining it, learning fingering and bowing and listening to others playing the same pieces you’re practicing will keep you well occupied.
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Cello is short for Violoncello, its full and correct name. This is often mistakenly written as violincello, as after all the ‘cello is a member of the violin family, right? Absolutely not!
The family is actually the Viola family. Back in the 17th century it was decided to ‘choose the word ‘viola’ as the central pillar…: from there it branched out in both directions to provide names for the smaller and larger ‘violas’. This was accomplished by the use of the Italian diminutive (-ino) and augmentative (-ono or -one) endings, hence: violino=small viola; and violone=large viola.
Had there been only three sizes of instruments in the violin family at that time, as there are today (violin, viola and violoncello), then this terminology would have proved accurate and complete. There were three different bass violins, and the word violone can account for only one instrument larger than the viola.”.http://www.fotosearch.com/bthumb/CSP/CSP157/k1575089.jpgThe smallest bass was given the name of tenor and the middle-sized bass was simply called a ‘little violone’ (i.e., ‘little large viola’).
The Italians accomplished this by adding a diminutive ending to a word. Thus, if ‘violone’ was the augmentative of ‘viola’, then to get a ‘little violone’ the simple thing was to add on a diminutive ending to ‘violone’, link it with a connecting consonant, and presto: violoncino.
Some Italian dialects used -elo or -ello as a diminutive ending, and z sometimes replaced c as the linking consonant, so that in the 1640s we find the smaller violone – our ‘cello – variously indicated as violoncino, violonzelo, violonzino, violoncelo and violoncello. It was, of course, this latter version which eventually stuck and which became the name by which we know this instrument today. The shortened version ‘cello’ was used as early as 1765.’ (William Pleeth, Cello)
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