Customer Reviews

The Art of Cello Playing: A Complete Textbook Method for Private or Class Instruction

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very useful and intelligent book for beginning cellists. There is a wealth of information about cello technique, and an abundance of musical and even physical exercises (along with detailed instructions on how to read music). I am very glad I bought this book -- it's a gem.

This book uses illustrations, words, and music examples to explain every aspects of cello techniques, which I found interesting and useful. The look of the pages might not be as colorful or flashy than many other books, but you would have more fun out of it and really build up a healthy playing foundation for all cello music.

The author introduced the fourth position after the first position - a method I also use on all my cello students - which helps greatly in developing a good shifting habit. This is a very interesting and efficient approach, and I suggest all the cellists and teachers out there to give it a try!

This book culminates a top quality effort in pedagoy in cello technique. It is intended for beginners in the cello, but probably should be on every amateur cellist's book shelf as a valuable resource guide. There is probably a good three years worth of material here. I'll let you know when I finish it!

This effort to present the art of playing the cello in a systematic way--a "cello method", however, both enhances and detracts from the lasting usefulness of this book. If you follow through this book step-by-step, and gain some proficiency in a topic prior to moving on to the next topic, you will eventually learn the cello.

But the systematic presentation makes this book difficult to use in diagnosing difficulties in technique that are the result of improper form, or motion. The material is there, but sometimes it takes a good while to find the exact presentation you are looking for. But still, the author's insight into the difficulties students tend to accumulate are well worth the effort required to track it down. Who knows, maybe you will learn something else while you are perusing the book. But I find it difficult to come up with an approach that would accomadate this usage, so I do not criticise this. On the contrary, I think more non-beginning amateurs should get this book for this purpose! The effort is worthwhile.

The only criticism of this book that I have is that it does use pictures to show posture, and so on. I am sure that in the early editions of this book, the pictures were wonderfully clear and illustrate the subtleties of form and posture precicely. But the current printing quality leaves a lot to be desired, sadly. It would be well worth someone's time to replace the pictures with line drawings, which do not lose content as the printing quality deteriorates. And a fingerboard chart would really be helpful.

This book is a definite must!

This book is awesome. I took it to FedEx Office and had it wire bound so that it would lay flat on the music stand. I am expecting to use this book consistently. I think there is several years worth of material that will not get old.

I purchased this book for my son to practice over the Summer. The book has some pictures showing the positions, and explains every little thing about cello. Perfect book for the beginner who just started, but for him, he can use from only last 1/3 part of the book as he's done the other part in 6th and 7th grades. Where he starts will be the half position, which starts at 2/3 of the book. Anyway, this is a great comprehensive beginner book!

A really solid book with a lot to offer. You don't need to follow it page by page, but choose what is relevant and supplement with other materials like Schroeder, Dotzauer, Klengel, and you have an excellent foundation. I had my copy spiral bound at Kinko's and that's a real advantage. I highly recommend Potter for all beginners; it's a much more comprehensive method in print than Suzuki. Of course, one still needs a teacher!!

I bought this and the Shroeder book at the same time. I was beginning cello but already had a music background. The exercises in this book are much more boring than the Shroeder series. In addition, it moves at such a slow pace that you are up to page 50 before you find anything that is remotely challenging -- even for a rank beginner to cello.

I suppose this is probably a better series for individuals who have never been exposed to music so need practice reading notes but my sense is that you will get bored with this pretty quickly and want something with more "meat" to it.

It seems to be a real good book. i haven't read it all, but the first lessons are helping me a lot in the understanding of ciello method.