Category: Cello Teaching

Prepare to play the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A minor!

2/20/2019

Preparing for Saint-Saens

The Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor is a work for cello and orchestra (or piano), written at an advanced level. Studying this Concerto often takes a year or more; it's a major work!

While there are no clearly marked or numbered movements, the Concerto does have three fairly distinct sections that might correlate with our idea of typical concerto movements.

Some techniques used in the first two movements are octave shifts, fast shifting (sometimes called "runs") into the high positions, double stop fifths and sixths, spiccato, and thumb position.

Free Saint-Saens Preparatory Exercises

These free preparatory exercises can help you get ready to start studying the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto. They work on some of the basic techniques needed to play the first few pages of the Concerto: bowing, octave shifts, chromatic scales, and more.

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Bowing I

Saint-Saens Cello Concerto Preparatory Study

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Bowing II

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Scale Shifting Exercise

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Rhythm & Staccato

Note: These free exercises are not a substitute for a full study of the Concerto like the one in The Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No. 1 Study Book. Instead, they help prepare you for the study book and show exercises can make learning more efficient.

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Rhythm I

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Rhythm II

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Octave Shifts I

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Octave Shifts II

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Chromatic Scale

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Shifting and Bowing Study

Books to study in preparation

The Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto is much easier to learn if you have acquired a solid grasp intermediate and advanced cello technique. You should be able to read bass, tenor, and treble clef and play in thumb position. You should have learned three-octave scales and it would be helpful if you have also studied octave shifts, double stop sixths, and double stop octaves.

Three-Octave Scales for the Cello, Book One: The Basics

Like these exercises? Now, you can learn the rest of the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto using a Study Book!

We are very excited to present this new release:
The Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 Study Book for Cello, Volume One!

Live outside the US? All of our books are on Amazon around the world and many of our books are available as PDF downloads on Learnstrings:

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Improve Your Cello Bowing: Free Mini Open String Workouts

2/14/2019

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This past year Theresa Villani, a wonderful cellist and cello teacher, wrote and asked if I had any exercises for bowing on open strings for one of her students. I had a few pages of an incomplete book, which I was happy to share. She wrote right back and said "Please make a book out of these!" (Incidentally, that's how a lot of books get started; share your ideas on this page.)

Over the next few months, in between writing The Romberg Sonata in C Major Study Book and The Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 Study Book for Cello, I got to work on the open string book.

After I had written about half of the book, I sat down play through it, rather reluctantly. It seemed almost a waste of time to sit and play through so many pages of just plain open strings.

But then I made some discoveries and found myself really excited about open strings!

1. Playing open strings really well is hard! They look easy (at least at the beginning of the book) but this is deceptive. Because the sound is so exposed, I found myself getting super picky with the sound I was producing. This in turn led me to work on fluidity in bow changes, relaxed wrist and fingers, and getting the string vibrating with the least possible motion from my hand.

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 1

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 2

2. Playing open string bow studies is a great way to isolate the bow, especially when you are struggling with note-reading. I have a student who started lessons a few months ago and was unable to adapt to note-reading. We started playing Open-String Bow Workouts and just a month later, he was reading all of his music much more easily.

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 3

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 4

3. Playing open string bow studies can help cellists at every level. I've used this book with a student who had just started playing a few months earlier and also with some of my intermediate and very advanced students. It helped them all, in different ways.

The beginning students used the book to discover what the bow can do. The intermediate students used it to listen more and improve their tone. And the advanced students played the slow exercises very slow and the fast exercises very fast to expand the range of their bow technique.

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 5

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 6

4. Playing so many open string studies gave me an incredibly smooth bow motion! I mean, wow. I was surprised and rather rueful; it was humbling to realize how much my bow can still use work.

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 7

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 8

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 9

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 10

To celebrate the release of the new book of Open String Bow Workouts, we are offering the above mini set of (all-new) cello open string studies for free!

When you play these, focus on correct form and how you're holding the bow. Keep the bow arm shoulder, wrist, and fingers as loose and relaxed as possible. The thumb should be gently balanced on the bow; never squeezing.

Listen for the smoothest, most even sound during each note and keep the bow moving at the same speed while you change bows so there is no variation in sound.

If you want even more help for your bow, check out the book that started it all!

Interested in Developing Better Tone?

Live outside the US? All of our books are on Amazon around the world and many of our books are available as PDF downloads on Learnstrings:

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Developing Strong, Curved Fingers for Better Cello Tone

1/30/2019

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Strong, curved left-hand fingers are essential for good cello technique and for developing a beautiful tone.

By curving your fingers and playing on the very tips of the fingers, you can stop the string completely, which in turn allows the string to vibrate fully when you play it.

Some of the cello exercises in Finger Exercises for the Cello, Book One were written specifically to help cellists develop well-curved fingers through double stops.

Exercise No. 14 is the first study in the book that works on developing curved fingers. Here's an excerpt:

Finger Exercises for the Cello, Book One Page 14 Excerpt

Although my cello students have almost universally decried these studies as "evil", the Finger Exercises have done SO much to help them play clearly and in tune!

Here is an excerpt from Exercise No. 20:

Finger Exercises for the Cello, Book One Page 20 Excerpt

I have also found that some students benefit from preparatory studies that allow them to focus on the fingers with easier notes.

Check out these free preparatory finger exercises that help you curve your fingers, stop the string completely, and get ready to play the essential cello double stop studies in Finger Exercises for the Cello, Book One.

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 1

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 2

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 3

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 4

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 5

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 6

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Mastering a Romberg Cello Sonata -Free Preparatory Exercises!

12/11/2018

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I fell in love with the Romberg Cello Sonatas when I started using them regularly as teaching pieces. It took me awhile to fully the understand the breadth of cello technique that Romberg teaches in his Sonatas but when I did, I was entranced.

From shifting and positions to rhythm patterns and bowing challenges, the Sonatas gave my students a music experience that prepared them for much of what is to come in cello study.

Students would finish studying a Romberg Sonata and be playing at an entire level or two above their original level when they started the Sonata. They would be much more competent than when they had started, easily playing exercises, etudes, and pieces that would have given them pause before Romberg.

Other teaching pieces didn't give cellists that same skills that Romberg's Sonatas did. As I saw the effect that playing Romberg's music had on my students, I came to deeply respect this music that so wonderfully transformed my students.

Two of Romberg's Sonatas became my favorites: the Sonata in E Minor and the Sonata in C Major. I use the Sonata in E minor as the first Sonata after a student has started shifting and has learned fourth position (plus a little second and third positions). I might use one or two other pieces after that, depending on the student, and then we are ready to start the Sonata in C Major.

Over the past 20+ years, I've taught a lot of Romberg to students. It's gotten to the point where I can predict mistakes before they make them. It was getting boring hearing the same mistakes over and over. I really wanted to expand the influence of Romberg on my students and teach all of the skills that he required in his Sonatas.

So I wrote The Romberg Sonata in C Major Study Book for Cello and now, teaching that Sonata is much more exciting! Where I used to sit and drone corrections over and over, I can now have my students play the exercises and improve in front of me. We can spend the lessons working on phrasing and expression instead of rhythm, shifting, and bowing.

I love hearing them play the Sonata excerpts after they've played the exercises. Where students used to stop or struggle, my exercise-powered students sail through. They play confidently and they enjoy the music they're making instead of wallowing in frustration.

Here are some pages of free cello exercises; Preparatory Studies that have a few bits of technique that you will use in the Romberg Sonata in C Major:

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Shifting and Positions

Romberg Cello Sonata Preparatory Studies by Cassia Harvey page 1

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Cello Bowing

Romberg Cello Sonata Preparatory Studies by Cassia Harvey page 2

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Faster Fingers

Romberg Cello Sonata Preparatory Studies by Cassia Harvey page 3

Free Romberg Cello Prep
String Crossing

Romberg Cello Sonata Preparatory Studies by Cassia Harvey page 4

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Little Scales and Arpeggios

Romberg Cello Sonata Preparatory Studies by Cassia Harvey page 5

And when you've tried those studies, move on to the much more comprehensive Romberg Study Book available in print here and as a download here.

Why play an entire book devoted to a Romberg Sonata? Because teaching students to be both solid and creative musicians is fun! Because playing well brings joy. And because mastering this wonderful Sonata might be the most satisfying thing you've done all year!

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Devil's Dream Lesson: Free Exercises for Cello

12/6/2018

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So, Devil's Dream has some tricky string crossings! Both the bow and the fingers have to change strings with efficient, agile movements in order to play this piece at a fast "fiddle" tempo.

Here's the version of Devil's Dream that we'll work on:

Devil's Dream for Cello

Here's a Warm-Up Exercise for String Crossings:

Devil's Dream: Warm-Up Exercise for Cello

Devil's Dream - Free Cello Exercise No. 1 Harvey

Focusing on just the bow can help you identify underlying string crossing issues. Here are the open strings that your bow is playing under the actual fiddle tune:

Devil's Dream: Open String Exercise for Cello

Now, one of the main difficulties with this piece is crossing strings with the left hand. Here is an exercise to work on crossing strings with the fingers:

Devil's Dream: Left Hand String Crossing for Cello

And another exercise for the left hand:

Devil's Dream: Faster Left Hand String Crossing for Cello

And finally, three exercises for speed. Start slow and when you've learned them, play them as fast as possible. Keep your bow smooth and close to the strings. "Bar" your first finger across the strings in measures 3&4 and 11&12 to help make your motions as efficient as possible.

Devil's Dream: Speed and Agility Study No. 1 for Cello

Devil's Dream: Speed and Agility Study No. 2 for Cello

Devil's Dream: Speed and Agility Study No. 3 for Cello

Happy cello fiddling!

Other String Crossing Books

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Alternative to O Come Little Children

8/23/2018

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When a teacher mentioned that her student wasn't allowed to play O Come Little Children because of religious reasons and asked about an alternative piece, I wrote this piece as an option that still teaches many of the same techniques: string crossing, slow and fast bows, etc.

O Come Little Children, in Suzuki Book One for Violin (or Viola, or Cello), is also a Christmas carol and some teachers may be looking for a substitute when students or parents request it. Or, Spring Melody (below) can be used as a supplemental piece in addition to O Come Little Children when students need more work on these skills. Beginning violin, viola and cello adult students can enjoy this free piece as well!

Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Violin

Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Beginning Violin

Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Viola

Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Beginning Viola

Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Cello

Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Beginning Cello

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Free Cello Scale Bowing Variations

8/7/2018

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I love the fact that scales are such a great vehicle for learning different skills on the cello! Scales can and should be much more than just playing notes in order in a particular key in a particular set of places on the cello; they can also be used for learning rhythm and bowing skills.

Today in the blog, we're going to focus on using a simple C major scale to work on cello bowing. Now, the possibilities here are endless. I could start writing today and never ever reach the end of variations I could make with this scale. But there are other books to write and so I will stop at 15 pages for this little booklet. Of course, I'll probably come back every once in awhile with another blog post on scales; scale variations are a bit of a passion of mine!

Scales are helpful because they are so predictable. You know what's coming and the notes (at least in these scale pages) are fairly easy. But that doesn't mean you should turn off reading and play from memory just yet; I have some breaks in the pattern built into these scale pages to help keep your attention while you play.

Scale variations are a perfect way to multitask. Variations are a great way to train your left and right hands to be more coordinated and also a great way to make your practice even more efficient; you're working on multiple skills at once!

Feel free to make variations on the variations! Boredom lets you turn your brain off and can be the opening for building bad habits! Cello technique should never be taken for granted; every minute of your practice should be spent actively trying to improve. Varying the exercises can help you stay focused. I play different pages of scale exercises every day (that's one reason why I had to write so many books!) These variations can be played on any scale but they're simplest on a 2-octave scale that starts on an open string. Try them in G major if you're into shifting and up for a challenge.

Cello Scale Variation:
Long Bows and Tone

Cello Scale Variation:
Bow Rhythms

Cello Scale Variation:
Intonation

Cello Scale Variation:
More Bow Rhythms

Cello Scale Variation:
Slurs Without String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:
Triplets

Cello Scale Variation:
Staccato

Cello Scale Variation:
Spiccato

Cello Scale Variation:
Slurs with String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:
String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:
Fiddle Bowing

Cello Scale Variation:
Rhythmic Bowing

Cello Scale Variation:
Combinations

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Adventures at the 2018 ASTA Conference

3/12/2018

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A storm was headed our way...

with a projected 6-12 inches of snow! We packed the rented Ford Expedition with books and displays (thanks to amazing glassmaker John Koutsouros!) and headed out early Wednesday morning. My mom (Judy Harvey) was going to fly but we knew the flights would be canceled so she came along for the ride.

The ride was rough for a few hours but around the time we hit Virginia, things started looking sunny.

We stopped for lunch/dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant.

El Restaurante Ixtapa deserved every good Yelp review it got;
the fish tacos were to die for.

When we pulled into the Hyatt Regency Atlanta,

we were absolutely exhausted and ready to sleep. However, there were only two single beds for three people. The Hyatt Regency Atlanta said they couldn't bring in a cot because of the fire codes and suggested that one person sleep on the floor. (Bear in mind that none of this was told to us at booking.) You never know what you'll get when you travel!

Anyway, Myanna headed out the next day to get an air mattress. And an air pump. That didn't work because it needed a car cigarette lighter for power. Hmm.

Judy came to the rescue with an unorthodox solution!

Never would have thought of this but it actually worked!

Conference setup day!

It's a mammoth task to unload a "tank" full of book boxes and displays, drag it all up to an exhibit hall, and set it up. This year was better because we had a proper cart.

Glamorous booth set up...

Finally set up.

Almost ready to open.

Beautiful hotel elevator ride

photo by Judy Harvey

The conference was amazing!

We met many wonderful teachers and the booth was humming with activity. I loved the chance to interact with musicians from all over the country and talk string technique. From cello shifting to violin scales, we had fabulous conversations and (happily for our aching arms and backs) came home with empty book boxes.

If you are thinking of attending at ASTA conference, definitely try it out; there were so many great sessions and just the coolest people ever. Hope to see you next year in Albuquerque!

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Free Cello Technique Lesson: Lee Etude No. 2, Op. 31

3/5/2018

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Etudes bridge the gap between exercises and pieces.

Etudes can be more melodic than pure technical exercises and this helps you get closer to what you’d actually play in a piece.

Etudes can also be called "Studies" and they are important for helping you practice technical exercises in the context of something a little more like music. Some Etudes are even performed in concerts!

Today, let's focus on Etude No. 2 "Exercise on the Legato" from 40 Melodic and Progressive Etudes, Op. 31, by the cellist Sebastian Lee. Legato refers to notes that are smooth and connected. Lee helps teach legato by using slurs of eight notes at a time.

Etude No. 2: Exercise on the Legato

Here's a sneak peek of Lee's Etude No. 2, Op. 31. The exercises that follow will help you learn and master this etude. The entire etude is after the exercises (See Step Seven.)

Step One: Learn the Positions that Lee Uses

You can get to know the notes Lee used in this etude by playing the short exercises below. For more work, or to learn 2nd, 3rd, and 4th positions from the beginning, see the “Recommended Position Methods” below. Cello shifting isn't hard! It's just a matter of learning where to put your hand and remembering how to get there.

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Positions Used

Cello Shifting Exercise for Lee Etude No. 2

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Positions Across Strings

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Learning More Positions

Step Two: Work on the shifts one at a time

By playing the shifts in a variety of ways, including changing slur patterns and rhythms, and using shorter sections of the measure, you can learn the shift more thoroughly.

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Shifting Technique

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
More Cello Shifting

Step Three: Work on the bowing

Cello shifting is only part of learning this etude. Next, start to work on the slurs by playing Measures 1-16 with only 4 notes to a bow. Then, use staccato (stopping the bow sharply on the string for each note) to help you divide the bow up into 8 even sections. This helps you fit all 8 notes in a bow that Lee has you learning. Staccato is a great way to learn to play long slurs.

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Bowing Technique

Step Four: More Shifting Practice

These shifts have you going back and forth from fourth position to harmonic A on the A string. While this is awkward, make sure you use 3rd finger, as it is generally agreed that this is the easiest finger to use when going back and forth from harmonic A. Watch out for the rhythm in the last measure of each exercise below; make sure you play the quarter note so that it is twice as long as the eighth notes!

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Shifting

Step Five: The Challenging Part!

These exercises help you learn the most complicated part of the etude. Start in fourth position on the D string, play the easy pattern (1414), and then practice shifting back and forth one half step before continuing with the pattern in each new position.

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Positions

In measures 25-32, Lee has you start in fourth position, play a pattern across strings, move back one half step, and play a similar pattern. You can shift back or extend back for the half-step changes, however it might help to extend first so you can learn how far back to move (it's harder to go too far if your hand is stretching!).

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Across Strings & Extending

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
More Cello Extensions

The cello exercise below still simplifies Lee's etude but helps you get closer to what he wrote. By the end of practicing the "Putting it Back Together" exercise below, you should be ready to tackle measures 25-32 in the Lee Etude.

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Fluency

Step Six: Final Shifts and String Crossing Practice

These exercises help you work on the cello positions and string crossing patterns at the end of the etude. Using open strings to learn string crossing can take away the distraction of the left hand and let you focus on balancing your bow across the strings. Feel for a relaxed right hand and arm as you cross strings and work toward getting the smoothest sound possible when you play.

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Shifting & String Crossing

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Smoother Bowing

Step Seven: Play the entire etude.

As you play, focus on shifting correctly, playing even notes inside each slur, and keeping your bow hand relaxed for the smoothest sound possible.

Tip: If you still find yourself running out of bow, try moving the bow on the string down toward the bridge, about 1/2-1 inch. The string has more tension closer to the bridge and your bow will naturally go a little slower as it plays closer to the bridge.

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Etude Op. 40, No. 2

Lee Etude No. 2, Op. 31, with exercises by Cassia Harvey

Step Eight: Take the technique you've learned and use it to help you play pieces and repertoire!

Exercises and etudes can help you master the entire cello. I love how efficient exercises and etudes are; they have a huge impact on the rest of my practice. If you have any questions, send me an email at info@charveypublications.com.

Have fun playing!

-Cassia Harvey

Check out other Early-Intermediate Cello Books that can help you improve!

Recommended Position Methods for this Etude

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How to get a 9-year-old girl to fall in love with cello exercises.

3/3/2018

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When I was a little girl, my younger sister Myanna took violin lessons from Estelle Kerner. Mrs. Kerner exuded all of the old-world glamour of the music world that I was craving. She had a hair net and wore clothes that looked right out of Tsarist Russia. Lots of makeup and copious quantities of white face powder completed her look.

Her soft calm voice had steel running through it and I was both scared and enthralled. Myanna was five years old and as she stood in countless hour-long lessons for the next thirteen years, Mrs. Kerner helped her fall in love with music and the violin. It was only many years after that that I realized how much Mrs. Kerner had changed my life as well.

You see, Mrs. Kerner taught with Schradieck and Sevcik (multiple volumes), with Wohlfahrt and Mazas and Kreutzer, with Flesch and Galamian and with a slow but extremely methodical march through Rieding and Kuchler and Vivaldi and Bach Violin Concertos, all the way up through Bruch and Brahms and Paganini.

Schradieck's School Of Violin Technics

I looked at Myanna's pages of Schradieck and Sevcik finger exercises with envy and tried in vain to play them on the cello. I realized almost immediately that the notes wouldn't work on cello, even an octave lower. I needed to know the ideas behind the notes and transfer those ideas to the cello. And I knew that I didn't have the knowledge to figure out those ideas yet.

My fingers didn't work well; they felt slow and plodding compared to Myanna's. My teacher gave me just two measures of a Feuillard page and five measures of Sevcik Op. 8 shifting each week. When I asked her for more pages of Feuillard and more lines of Sevcik, she said "Oh sweetie, you don't need those!"

Two Measures of Feuillard's Daily Exercises

Five Measures of Sevcik's Op. 8

My mother was horrified.

She saw Myanna getting better steadily and at the same time, she saw me struggling technically. So she did what any good mother might: she took me to the sheet music store and (even though money was really tight), she told me to pick out what I needed. I still have the Werner method and some of the other books I bought and devoured back then.

With Mrs. Kerner's teaching an ever-present influence, I began to give myself the best technical foundation that I could paste together from the method and exercise books I bought. All through my teens, with other teachers and harder music, I kept searching for and buying exercises until I hit a wall. There just wasn't a Schradieck for the cello. Klengel, with his Daily Exercises, came the closest. But his book started in half position and got complicated too soon and my students were struggling. I needed more shifting exercises than I could find. I desperately needed more work up and down the A string as I was playing Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations...

So I started writing my own exercises.

It was a heady feeling, realizing that I would never run out of exercises again. The first book I published was Serial Shifting; Exercises for the Cello: a different take on the Sevcik Op. 8 concept of moving through the positions:

And the second book I published was my very own book of Finger Exercises for the Cello so I could have faster fingers, at last.

So this blog is written for

everyone out there trying to play their instrument better. For teachers looking for their own version of Schradieck. For everyone who has had a technical weakness and hasn't known where to start to overcome it. For everyone who has had a sister (or a stand partner) with faster fingers.

And this blog is dedicated to three women:

Estelle Kerner, who showed me what teaching could accomplish and how to craft a solid foundation for a student.
Judith Harvey, who herself fell in love with violin exercises and who taught her 9-year-old daughter to go looking for books that might help solve her problems.
and my teacher at the time, who showed me the limits of teaching without enough exercises. And who, by withholding more studies, made me desperate to find and then write them. All three of these women helped a 9-year-old girl fall deeply in love with exercises as a means of learning and teaching a stringed instrument.

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Categories

Archives

Preparing for Saint-Saens

Free Saint-Saens Preparatory Exercises

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Bowing I

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Bowing II

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Scale Shifting Exercise

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Rhythm & Staccato

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Rhythm I

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Rhythm II

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Octave Shifts I

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Octave Shifts II

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Chromatic Scale

Free Preparatory Cello Exercise: Shifting and Bowing Study

Books to study in preparation

Want to own/print a PDF download of the free Saint-Saëns Concerto Preparatory exercises listed above?

Like these exercises? Now, you can learn the rest of the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto using a Study Book!

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 1

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 2

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 3

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 4

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 5

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 6

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 7

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 8

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 9

Free Mini Cello Bowing Workout No. 10

Want to print these exercises out and play them?Sign up to get a free PDF of these exercises in Ebook form and learn about sales, discounts, and free book offers through our newsletter!

Interested in Developing Better Tone?

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 1

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 2

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 3

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 4

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 5

Free Cello Finger Exercise No. 6

Want to print these exercises out and play them?Sign up to get a free PDF of this cello music in ebook form and learn about sales, discounts, and free book offers through our newsletter!

Free Romberg Cello PrepShifting and Positions

Free Romberg Cello PrepCello Bowing

Free Romberg Cello PrepFaster Fingers

Free Romberg Cello PrepString Crossing

Free Romberg Cello PrepLittle Scales and Arpeggios

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Devil's Dream for Cello

Devil's Dream: Warm-Up Exercise for Cello

Devil's Dream: Open String Exercise for Cello

Devil's Dream: Left Hand String Crossing for Cello

Devil's Dream: Faster Left Hand String Crossing for Cello

Devil's Dream: Speed and Agility Study No. 1 for Cello

Devil's Dream: Speed and Agility Study No. 2 for Cello

Devil's Dream: Speed and Agility Study No. 3 for Cello

Other String Crossing Books

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Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Violin

​Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Viola

​Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Cello

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Cello Scale Variation:​Long Bows and Tone

Cello Scale Variation:Bow Rhythms

​Cello Scale Variation:Intonation

Cello Scale Variation:More Bow Rhythms

Cello Scale Variation:Slurs Without String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:Triplets

Cello Scale Variation:Staccato

Cello Scale Variation:Staccato

Cello Scale Variation:Spiccato

Cello Scale Variation:Spiccato

Cello Scale Variation:Slurs with String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:Fiddle Bowing

Cello Scale Variation:Rhythmic Bowing

Cello Scale Variation:Combinations

Want to print these exercises out and play them?Sign up to get a free PDF of these exercises in ebook form and learn about sales, discounts, and free book offers through our newsletter!

A storm was headed our way...

We stopped for lunch/dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant.

When we pulled into the Hyatt Regency Atlanta,

Conference setup day!

Glamorous booth set up...

Finally set up.

Almost ready to open.

Beautiful hotel elevator ride

Want to print these exercises out and play them?

Sign up to get a free PDF of these exercises in Ebook form and learn about sales, discounts, and free book offers through our newsletter!

Want to print these exercises out and play them?

Sign up to get a free PDF of this cello music in ebook form and learn about sales, discounts, and free book offers through our newsletter!

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Shifting and Positions

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Cello Bowing

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Faster Fingers

Free Romberg Cello Prep
String Crossing

Free Romberg Cello Prep
Little Scales and Arpeggios

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Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Viola

Spring Melody - Free Sheet Music for Cello

Cello Scale Variation:
Long Bows and Tone

Cello Scale Variation:
Bow Rhythms

Cello Scale Variation:
Intonation

Cello Scale Variation:
More Bow Rhythms

Cello Scale Variation:
Slurs Without String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:
Triplets

Cello Scale Variation:
Staccato

Cello Scale Variation:
Staccato

Cello Scale Variation:
Spiccato

Cello Scale Variation:
Spiccato

Cello Scale Variation:
Slurs with String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:
String Crossing

Cello Scale Variation:
Fiddle Bowing

Cello Scale Variation:
Rhythmic Bowing

Cello Scale Variation:
Combinations

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Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Positions Used

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Positions Across Strings

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Learning More Positions

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Shifting Technique

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
More Cello Shifting

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Bowing Technique

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Shifting

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Cello Positions

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Across Strings & Extending

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
More Cello Extensions

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Fluency

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Shifting & String Crossing

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Smoother Bowing

Free Lee Cello Etude Studies
Etude Op. 40, No. 2

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