(Part 2) Top products from r/Cello

Hi, I'm here to help! It sounds like you have a lot of natural talent you just need a little push in the right direction.

Etude Books

Janos Starker's Organized Method of String Playing is really useful for squaring out your left hand, which will ultimately aid you in speed, vibrato and intonation. Make sure to go slowly with each exercise, but they have nifty blurbs about each exercises intention.

Any of the Popper etudes will do. They look really scary at first, and they don't go in order of difficulty. My suggestion is to start with 1, 6, 7, 11, 19 and then just pick ones that sound pretty or that you're interested in tackling. Joshua Roman has played every single one, so if you ever want to hear what it sounds like or just be awed by his virtuousity, I highly recommend. Each etude focuses on a different aspect of cello playing, so try to hone in on whatever the etude is trying to work on, and focus on it when playing.

One of the best ways to practice technique is to practice scales while applying different aspects of cello playing. That way, you're essentially killing two birds with one stone. Playing scales can be tedious at times, but it is so worth the effort, I can't emphasis that enough. Mark Yampolsky has a fantastique book of just scales, and for each scale he goes through triads, thirds with doublestops, sixths with doublestops, broken thirds, and more. He also puts little footnote things at the bottom of most exercises so that you can make the most out of them.

I never used this book (my teacher probably made me buy it at one point and then forgot about making me buy it) but looking through it, it has a lot of the really good things I talked about with the other etude books. S. Lee's Method for Cello includes both scale work and etudes/studies for various kinds of techniques. It's pretty all inclusive so even without ever using it, I'd say it's pretty good, since it basically includes the best of the other etudes I mentioned.

Other books I've gone through in my early days, I'm not writing a review on them all, you can check them out.

Justus Johann's Dotzauer 113 Studies, Book 1

Position Pieces for Cello: Book 1 by Rick Mooney

Also by Rick Mooney, Thumb Position For Cello Book 1

Grant's Intermediate Etudes in the Positions for Violoncello



Extra

Alistair McRae has an excellent tumblr that he has since stopped updating, but he is very philosophical and knowledgeable about cello techniques, and he posts some fantastic videos/posts on vibrato, posture, and practice tips which are actually genius. He has his own ideas for technique books which I won't post here for redundancy's sake but they're there.


Last but not least, I have my own suggestions for practicing better. Practice with intention. I know you said that you started practicing the orchestra music for an hour a day, but I'm a little skeptical as to how meaningful this practice is. It must either be really difficult orchestra music, or you know it like the back of your hand and you are running it through during your practice sessions, because a solid hour a day for a week should be enough to know the music almost entirely. Instead of practicing an hour, practice when you feel ready to work, that is, spend a lot of time on small segments of music/scales/techniques, and stop practicing when you feel your attention slipping, because practicing bad habits is the worst thing you could possibly do. Spend 15 minutes practicing bad habits and waste an hour trying to correct them. Don't give up hope! I know I just threw a lot at you, and I'm going to stop now, but if you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, take a step back, relax, and breathe. You don't have to dive right into any of these etude books. If you're just coming out of a cellofunk, in which you were unmotivated to practice, trying to work on technique is probably the worst thing you could possibly do. It's tedious, it's hard, and progress is so slow that it almost feels like you're slipping backwards. My suggestion right now, is probably to find a pretty cello piece that you really really like listening to, and work on that, because then you'll be motivated to practice. Then, you can start incorporating the technique books, and not only working on them in etudes, but applying them to the piece you're working on. Buy a book of cello solos like this one and just go crazy. Hope this helped! Good luck :)

There is lots and lots (and lots and lots) of stuff available in all kind of musical styles.

• Suzuki was mentioned. You will find many youtube videos playing the songs, ready for playalong (and I think you can buy CDs as well).
  
  Other things I own or know:
  
  
• Bosworth Playalong Cello Tunes, e.g. Classical Tunes, Folk Song, Christmas. https://www.amazon.com/Playalong-Cello-Classical-Tunes-Accompaniment/dp/0711996385. This is all simple and great fun! Comes with CDs.
  
• ABRSM Time pieces for Cello, Vol. 1 and 2.
  
• ABRSM is a great resource. They are the british music education board and every few years publish a syllabus of exam pieces in 8 different levels, which are a selection of pieces from multiple books. Not only get you a list of suitable books, but you can also buy accompaniment tracks for the exam pieces.
  Example: Level 1 Syllabus from 2016 onwards: https://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/bowed-strings-exams/cello-exams/cello-grade-1/#collapse_5ae3fa8a7f8a0_2
  
• Easy original Music for Vc and B.C. (Weigart, Schott ED 6523). This is interesting because it sometimes goes beyond first position but offers alternatives an octave down, so you can revisit this later and play an advanced version.
  
• Editio Musica Budapest has a number of books for various settings (Vc/Pn, Vc ensemble, V/VC duos, String quartet), but I've to admit the Vc/Pn books never really grew on me.
  
• Something very different: The "Baroque around the world" series from Schott (e.g. ED 12773, ED 12861) is really written for Violin, Flute or Oboe, it comes with a playalong CD, but it has an optional Vc part where you get to play an easy basso continuo line. On it's own, it's not very interesting for the Cello, but I really love the b.c. role in an ensemble. YMMV :)
  
  If you have a decent music store in your vicinity, visit them and browse.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

I had some ideas but they use a bit of either third or fourth position, too- sorry! You could look at the pieces from the ABRSM grade 2 syllabus, but I like the above suggestion from UseThisOne2.

From another post:
>You might like Cello Time Joggers and then Cello Time Runners. You can kind of preview people playing pieces from them on Youtube, and the publisher has a PDF preview on their site as well:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/cello-time-joggers--cd-9780193220874?lang=en&cc=gb

It's a book for learning from, not pieces for performance though. The piano part is sold separately. You might like the books that the ABRSM syllabus refers to for performance: More Time Pieces Volume 2 might be good, but it covers up to grade 4 so only some of the pieces might be at the correct level.

Create a world for them where practicing an instrument is just as gratifying as practicing free throws, or something else they love. I recommend the book “First, Learn to practice” https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07T929VBT/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I'd rent a Cello from your local music store. Mine costs $29/mo, but I imagine your mileage may vary.

If you actually end up playing and you're being consistent, then I'd actually considering purchasing one. Buying a Cello around $550 isn't going to retain any real value, so you'd take a huge loss when you're trying to sell it (if you can sell it) if you end up not playing. That and it's hard to find a decent Cello for that price from any reputable store-- and you'll probably want to go through a store because if you don't know anything about Orchestra instruments, you could end up buying one and it needed a lot of work because you didn't know what to look/test for.

As for books, Suzuki is a classic.
https://www.amazon.com/Suzuki-Cello-School-Vol-Revised/dp/0874874793/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1487297736&sr=8-14&keywords=beginner+cello

Book 1 is good about doing scales and songs that improve your fingering.

(Since you'll have to read tenor clef too) here's Klengel etudes in all 3 clefs, e.g. page 12. I don't have any advice on bass clef, except to play scales, arpeggios and easy scores slowly. The first step is muscle memory. I don't read bass clef anywhere near as well as treble, even after decades of piano playing.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Technical_Cello_Studies_%28Klengel,_Julius%29

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This would be good for bass clef reading, and a book many sax players would recognize (in treble clef): http://www.amazon.com/Chord-Studies-Electric-Bass-Technique/dp/0634016466

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There's more resources for tenor clef, like this trombone book:

http://www.justforbrass.com/introducing-the-tenor-clef-for-trombone-112062.cfm

Here are a few I've enjoyed:

• Joys and Sorrows - a biography of Pablo Casals
  
• Casals and the Art of Interpretation
  
• The Art of Quartet Playing - discussion with the Guarneri Quartet
  
• Con Brio - biography of the Budapest String Quartet
  
• In Concert - a year in the life of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
  
• A Smattering of Ignorance - Oscar Levant is a great story teller
  
• The Great Conductors
  
  

I'd recommend Abby Newton's Crossing to Scotland as a decant collection of arrangements of Scottish Music. Also be sure to listen to the recording, since there's a whole lot that isn't necessarily on the page. My only issue is that not everything is in the traditional key signature. Someone else recommended Liz Davis Maxfield's Irish Cello book and that's also decant introduction to the genre with lots of text about how to adapt fiddle tunes to the cello. There's also a vast collection of tunes on thesession.org, though you should expect to have to transpose down one or two octaves.

If you're more focused accompaniment, take a look at some of the albums Natalie Haas has released. She also released an instructional DVD with PDF sheet music. Or, go all the way back and see the original arrangements Neil Gow wrote down. There's a long history of cello accompaniment in Scottish Music.

The Compatible Duets books are good fun. There are books for violin, cello, viola, and bass. Each piece is arranged as a duet, so any combination of string duet can play the piece, with either instrument taking the top line. The pieces are around grade 2-3.

While this isn't a quote, I think it embodies the romantic nature of the instrument. http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0486245845 However, the word romantic in this context refers to the historical period of western classical music following the classical period and preceding the modern period.

For sultry female cellists in flowing red dresses, see also Ofra Harnoy (http://www.amazon.com/Vivaldi-Cello-Sonatas-Ofra-Harnoy/dp/B000003F0H/ref=sr_sp-btf_image_1_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1375283644&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=ofra+harnoy).

And, by comparison, here is Romantic Violin Concertos (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Romantic-Violin-Concertos-Scores/dp/0486249891/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_1_MXNQ?ie=UTF8&refRID=0CPTHP0HP096A129MXNQ).

Big ups to donteatolive for connecting the physics of cello sound to the human voice!

Amazon Link https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Tunes-Heard-China-Cello/dp/0793598303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523472088&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+tunes+heard+in+china&dpID=419qqdLdInL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch#customerReviews

Edited by Yo-Yo. I'm sure I'm a few years away from being able to play these, but thanks again.

The World of Music According to Starker and [Cellist] (http://www.amazon.com/Cellist-Capo-Press-Music-Reprint/dp/0306708221/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341960183&sr=1-6&keywords=piatigorsky) by Piatigorsky are both great reads.