Any time your left-hand changes position. Working out the connection both physically and mentally and well as our cello geography helps to make shifts consistent and confident.
Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 1 The first Popper Étude brings a significant number of challenges. Primarily a study for the bow staccato, the challenge is to always have clarity of sound and a very precise left hand and right hand coordination. Practicing this with the bow only on open strings first is […]
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 2 Join us here for our exploration of Popper #2. This is a more accessible study in that you may be able to try this even if some of the others seem over your head. We feel that this is a great study to come back to if
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 3 What an enlightening session on Popper No. 3 with the fabulous Eric Kutz. Eric uses this etude as a rite of passage for every cellist who comes to learn with him at the University of Maryland. Challenges include the key signature and the centred tuning necessary here,
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 4 We were thrilled to have the incredible Tim Gill with us for exploration of Popper 4 – “a beast of a study”. We explore the unique challenges of this one, thumb position, key signature, bow legato with string crossings and lots more. Hope you will find this
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 5 Popper 5 is a really fun study, marked “scherzando” which is Italian for “play in a playful manner”. This includes challenges for thumb position. We hope that we’ve helped to make this scherzando fun for you while exploring the ever-present and very important dotted-rhythm! (Beethoven 7 anyone?)
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 6 Popper 6 is a classic – one of those agility studies that focuses on varying types of détaché bow stroke. We loved breaking down how to practice this one with rhythms and more. Other challenges include string crossings, right hand/left hand coordination and shifting. Enjoy!
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Etude No. 7 We had a lot of fun exploring Popper 7. We found a lot to concentrate on in this study, particularly as it pertains to the difficulties of bow distribution and string crossings. It just goes to show how Katie’s very first cello teacher told her… Popper is
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 8 A beautiful étude which focuses on bow legato and distribution in thumb position. A nice sound quality is produced without too much weight on the bow. Try to be relaxed everywhere. Be sure to stretch often if you aren’t using a lot of thumb position normally. Keep
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 9 Popper 9 is a beautiful but difficult study that explores double stops, particularly in thumb position. It is especially challenging because this study focuses our attention on making these difficult passages lyrically beautiful and singing. It’s one thing to master a certain aspect of technique in the
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 10 Here is Ailbhe and Katie’s Popper 10 mash-up. We talk about lots of interesting things in this video, including finger anatomy, our personal history with this and lots of breaking-down nerd out action on string crossings and legato. Hope you enjoy!
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