Cello Playing for Music Lovers: A Self-Teaching Method |  | Author: Vera Mattlin Jiji
Publisher: Vera Mattlin Jiji
Category: Book
List Price: $42.00
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Seller: verajiji
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 15945
Media: Spiral-bound
Edition: 1st,Updated
Pages: 212
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.8 x 0.8
ISBN: 1412095603
Dewey Decimal Number: 781
EAN: 9781412095600
ASIN: 1412095603
Publication Date: July 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Cello Playing for Music Lovers provides beginners and intermediate students with an authoritative, step-by-step guide to learning to play the cello. Gifted cellist Erik Friedlander plays the 116 musical figures discussed in the book on the accompanying play along CD. The book includes musical examples from folk, Broadway and classical traditions. It illustrates correct playing positions with twenty photos. Written from the student's viewpoint, it teaches all the required skills, including reading music, using the bow effectively, analyzing musical structures, improvising, and playing by ear. The book starts from scratch with songs transcribed for beginners and includes 4th, 2nd and 3rd positions. Included are folk songs, hymns, Broadway standards like Some Enchanted Evening, and classical selections like a Bach Prelude and Sarabande. Later sections explore some music theory and how to play in chamber music groups. The author, a Ph.D. and experienced teacher, presents this fascinating material in small, logical steps. As cellist Aaron Minsky said, Your idea that the cello can be enjoyed on a simple level even within a few weeks of study is very true. . . This book will bring the joys of cello playing to many people who would not have believed it possible. This book is divided into four parts. Part One helps you to acquire a cello and teacher (if circumstances permit), a musical vocabulary and other essentials. The book progresses step by step, dealing with notes, fingerings and bowings, scales and chords. It includes excerpts and selections from over sixty songs, some simplified for ease of playing. Parts Two and Three explain both how to read music and how to play songs you like on the cello by ear. It introduces the reader to musical structure and theory. Part Two stays entirely in first position. Part Three introduces extensions, minor scales, arpeggios and accidentals. Part Four explains more music theory and cello positions 4, 2 and 3. It details the essentials for success when exploring chamber music with other amateurs. Depending on your previous experience and background, the book is arranged so that you can skip around in it, focusing on chapters that are of interest to you, although it is better to go in order. Playing the cello will give any music lover unparalleled satisfaction. If you always wished you could do it in your next life, do it now.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
 Fills an empty niche October 8, 2007
Terry (SoCal, USA)
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
CPML is an attempt to bring the complex and daunting task of learning to play the cello down to earth and approachable for adult beginners. Unlike the typical beginning cello book, CPML contain easy-to-read explanatory text matched with simple, short, playable examples that illustrate the point of the text. The target audience for the book is a typical adult non-musician who might feel intimidated by technical-looking cello methods and etude books, but who, through life experience, is already familiar with many of the melodies and fragments of classics that make up the book. The learner can relate the point in the text to the already-familiar example; and then perform the example.
I don't know of another book like this one for cellists with this mix of adult-beginner orientation, conversational style, widely-known examples from popular culture, a demonstration CD, and introductory discussions of concepts such as relaxation, dynamics, factors in choice of bowings and fingerings, modulations, and modes. The closest would be Louis Potter's Art of Cello Playing which has many more exercises and scales, a little explanatory text, just a few commonly-known tunes, and no audio CD. CPML frequently relates the discussion to specific pages in both Art of Cello Playing and Alvin Schroeder's 170 Foundation Studies for Violoncello, suggesting a student would do well to work from all three books.
The book addresses the primary issues for cello beginners: parts of the cello, posture, bow hold, hand position, rudiments of scales, notation, positions, etc, assuming no prior knowledge on the part of the student. It contains several fingering charts, progressively covering more of the fingerboard, from 1st position to 4th position, including ½ position. The fifty "songs" include Some Enchanted Evening, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, My Funny Valentine, Hava Nagila, Shenandoah, and Old Dan Tucker. The twenty-four classical excerpts are short extracts of a major theme, or just a few phrases, not necessarily in the same key as commonly performed. Examples include themes from Pomp and Circumstance, J.S. Bach's Arioso, and Tchaikovsky's Song Without Words.
The audio CD contains 97 tracks demonstrating the simple exercises, scales, and melodies notated in the book. All the songs and classical excerpts are melodies that, of course, adapt easily to cello. Just the things to have ready when Uncle Glenn and Aunt Helen visit and ask, "So, play us something!" The audio CD tracks were recorded by Erik Friedlander (Personally, I would have preferred to hear Dr. Jiji, even if the performance were not at such a high professional level). The melodies as presented in book, often (but not always) use open strings, lower positions, and (early in the book) no vibrato, as befitting the level of the student, and Friedlander plays them well, fingered as notated, and at tempos suitable for the student . However, on the last track of the CD, labeled "Encore," Friedlander reprises nine of the melodies, letting loose with a large dynamic range and full vibrato on more professional-style fingerings. Yep, those simple tunes sound so absolutely gorgeous on cello.
Dr. Jiji does not pretend to be an expert, only a veteran, so she also relates personal stories of setbacks to which the reader might relate. One thing that is not so unusual in some books but I've never seen in a cello book: At several places, the author suggests names of tunes at an appropriate level that the student should try to figure out on his/her own. She provides the key and the starting note. I have to think an early beginner that has figured out tunes by ear on the cello will have increased confidence in his or her ability to hear and learn (Didn't Pablo Casals start out that way on his gourd cello?).
CPML's foreward was written by Dr. Diliana Momtchilova, who also reviewed the book for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Dr. Momtchilova received her doctorate from the Juilliard School, where she has won the Haydn D Major Cello Concerto Competition. She is a member of the Alaria Chamber Music Ensemble, serves on the faculty at Mannes Music College; and has won a number of International competitions; so presumably she knows her stuff.
The way I see it, the more a student knows outside of lessons, the more the teacher can cover other things during the lesson. For less than the price of a single lesson, CPML covers the basic cello-facts through 4th position, and can be a source of inspiration for individual enjoyment and exploration. But perhaps the best use of the book would by teachers. My teacher, who has quite a few adult students, has looked through it, was favorably impressed, and expects to borrow it when I come back for my next lesson. I wonder if I'll get it back.
Oh, and do catch the story of the Weeping Camel at the end of the book.
Eager to play the Cello September 25, 2007
Judy I. Frankel
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book is just what I was looking for - a simple and clearly written manual for the beginner on how to play the cello. It begins by explaining how to choose a cello and teacher (if desired), and moves step by step, using photos, fingerboard maps, illustrations, and lovely melodies, progressing through reading music and improvisation to playing in chamber music groups. Fortunately, I already know how to read music but this was a good refresher. The detailed instructions make it easy to review essential material. Best is the play along CD which starts with proper tuning of the strings and proceeds through all the scales and songs included. I can match my progress by playing along with Erik Friedlander. I agree with Ethan Winer. This is a must-have book for adult beginners.
Perfect book for beginners or those beginning again... March 29, 2008
N. Valentine (Philadelphia, PA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I don't write reviews often but I had to take the time to praise this book. I've been working with it now for four months (along with a teacher once a week). I played cello as a child but did not continue as a teen and adult. This book is truly the only comprehensive textbook for serious adult students. The author even recommends two etude books (you pick one or both up to you) to go along with her chapters. I'm very impressed at the way she introduces various concepts and how the pieces chosen are exactly what you need to master each concept.
If you are picking up the cello as an adult this is the book you need. I recommend hiring yourself a good teacher too who will be happy to use the book with you.
The best ever self-learning cello book! February 14, 2008
ES (Yale University)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
First of all, I like to thank the author for writing this book. As an adult beginner who doesn't like to spend a fortune on private lessons (although I admit the benefit of it), this is the god-send book for me. It's well paced and easily understood. I couldn't find any other books to replace this one, and with other practice-oriented books (such as suzuki), I find it very helpful to use both to complete my practice routine!
Great Text for Adult Learners January 18, 2009
B. Bauer (High Desert Region, CA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a beautifully-written guidebook for learning the cello from beginner to intermediate levels. Even though I am past the beginner stage, I nonetheless have been reading through the first part of the book with interest and I did pick up a few good tips there. I am looking forward to proceeding onward through the more advanced parts of the book. This book is written primarily, in my opinion, for the adult (serious) student of the cello. From page one onward, it never treats the learner as a child. Dr. Jiji develops quickly a repoire with her readers as she shares honestly the struggles, the joys and the expections of one who also was an adult learner. Thank you Dr. Jiji for an outstanding book!
Bruce B., Southern Calif
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
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