The Art of Cello Playing

by Louis Potter Jr.

Book Overview

The author's stated purpose in writing The Art of Cello Playing is to present a progressive sequence of commentary and material as a basis for acquiring a sound technical foundation and basic playing competence to prepare the player for exploring the rich solo, orchestral, and chamber music literature of the instrument." To that end he produced a comprehensive textbook and reference manual on beginning to advanced cello technique with emphasis on...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874870712
• ISBN13: 9780874870718
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Suzuki Method International
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.9" x 11.7"

Customer Reviews

Awesome!

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.

Needs spiral binding

This is an excellent book, but would be much better if it had spiral binding. I ended up going to Kinkos and forking over $6 to fix this deficiency.

A Must-have for all cellists!

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!

Easily Over-reated and Under-rated

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!

A Good Buy for Cello Students

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.