| Author |
Subject |
Tracie
Price 
Registered
User
(9/27/00 12:25:26 pm)
Reply |
Adult
beginner methods
Hi All-
I teach a number of
adult beginners, they are always great students and move along
quickly. I've had difficulty finding a really good method book or
combination of books for these students to use. Most (if not all) of
them have learned an instrument in the past, so they already read
music, and I've used a variety of books with them, but am not really
sold on any of them. So I was wondering if you other teachers of
adults out there have any suggestions of books you have found to be
good for these kinds of students-- or what the adult beginners out
there are using and have found helpful and not too "childish".
Please share!
Thanks-
Tracie
|
HighCellocity
Registered User
(9/27/00 12:50:17 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Adult beginner methods
As a beginning adult player, I find
the books along the lines of "Essential Elements" to be useful, but
most of the pieces are too short and only illustrate one or two
concepts per tune(chops to use a guitar term 
I'm
starting to concentrate on entire pieces as they require adaptation
to different levels of difficulty and follow through to sound good.
So in that case, instead of books, just find some great tunes to
work through!
I think it's good to start with tunes that are
familiar, but lead into tunes that aren't familiar, as those who can
play by ear need practice playing from written music.
These
are my observations as a complete newbie with much experience with
music before cello.
HTH,
Matt
|
Tracie
Price
Registered
User
(9/27/00 1:00:06 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Adult beginner methods
Thanks Matt
I've used
Essential Elements for a couple of years in elementary string
classes, and found it to be good for that setting. Some of my adult
students have picked the book up on their own and brought it to
lessons, and I do find some useful things in there. However, my
concern with that and other books like it, is that I end up skipping
almost right up to the end of the book (book 1) when I teach adults.
I hate to ask someone to buy a book and then only use a couple of
pages near the end. I do think it's good to have people use books
like this to work on their sightreading skills- since the tunes are
short and not too difficult. They also are pretty inexpensive, so if
they provide a good basic reference right at the start, I suppose
that's a helpful thing.
It's great to get insight from those
of you who ARE adult beginners- to see what you feel TRULY helps you
and what doesn't.
|
JanJan
Registered
User
(9/27/00 1:25:43 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Adult beginner methods
When I started on cello the first
time, my teacher used Deak method book. I also seem to recall a
purple book by Piatti? But that was quite some time ago, my life was
very different then, and I could not devote myself to the cello
then. I gave up on the cello within about a year.
But when I
started up again (5 years ago), I had a new teacher (Brian) who had
my buy Suzuki books. He is not a Suzuki teacher, but liked the
progression of pieces in those little books. He did not really use
any method book, per se. After about a year, I began selecting
pieces from collections and would work on them. I recently started
with a new teacher (Mary Alice), who also does not use any specific
method, and leaves me pretty much at liberty to pick what I want to
work on (provided, of course, it's within grasp).
Neither of
my recent teachers advocated regular use of etudes. Brian did,
however, have me work through Yampolsky. Mary Alice has not yet had
me do too much at lessons with scales - I think she's assuming I'm
doing that on my own.
Since I've not really used method
books, I don't know if this helps you much.
Janet
|
Sorefingers
Registered User
(9/27/00 2:06:12 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Adult beginner methods
I also had a music background, but
was new to bass clef.
I began learning cello, as an adult, with
the "All for Strings" series - it was recommended by the shop that
supplied my rental cello. I was an innocent - did not know any
better and did not have an instructor at the time.
Next was
Suzuki(book 1) with Dotzauer for technique work. Suzuki was fine, I
just have a problem with the method in that most students don't
learn the name of the notes, they just learn the fingerings (1,2,4,
etc).
New, teacher - we continued with the Suzuki
books(stopped at book #6) and added A.Schroeder "170 Foundation
Studies" Vol.1., "Cellists Favorite Contest Album" by F. Collier
(has 15 compositions w/ piano accompaniment), and "Cello Solos for
the Cello Player" by O.Derri (has 17 compositions w/ piano
accompaniment). Scales and arpeggios (of course) as well. The
previous was my lesson "diet", twice a month, for 2 years. I also
recommend "Position Pieces for the Cello" by Rick Mooney. Excellent
for learning the geography of the fingerboard.
There is also
a wealth of information in the ICS LIBRARY - check it out.
|
Ellen
G 
Registered User
(9/27/00 3:20:57 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Adult beginner methods
Edited by: Ellen
G at: 9/27/00 3:20:57 pm
|
Ellen
G
Registered User
(9/27/00 2:29:40 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Adult beginner methods
My perspective on this has changed
over the past few years, as I've revisited some of these books and
thought "These fingerings are idiotic." So now I question the
validity in a lot of instances of what the heck these books are
trying to teach. Then I've seen multiple teachers use the same book
differently: one teaching strictly by the book with all the
fingerings, and another zeroing in on particular issues with which
an exercise deals, but using more sensible fingerings and bowings.
The notes are just fine, but how you get to them and how musically
you play it with the bowings is all subjective. If only I'd learned
some of these principles I know NOW , I'd be lightyears of ahead of
where I am. It is senseless to expect a student of X degree of bow
control to be shifting the left hand through these series of
positions while expecting them to play 16 notes to a bow. Everything
suffers. To top it off, when you give them actual music without
things written in, there's an "Ack, what do I do now?" tendency.
I remain fond of Schroeder's 170 Foundation Studies (the
after-market spiral bound version, of course) and there are some
excellent private studio materials I've seen that I wish were widely
available. They are marvelous.
Back to Schroeder. It is
replete with things that I thought were weird at the time, but I'd
have to say it's been the most help in terms of my chamber and
orchestral playing. The patterns are repeated in real music often.
It gets you used to seeing things like B# and E# which I used to
think were mythical. It moves you in and out of clefs. You can get
some darn good bowing practice out of it.
I'd make sure the
student had a pencil and a bottle of whiteout. When I think of the
histrionics I've gone through, thinking that these editors were God,
I look back now and -- to borrow Tracie's remark about stabbing
somebody with the endpin, I'd think about it!!!!
Ooops, I
second the vote for the Rick Mooney "Position Pieces for the Cello."
Excellent book.
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