The following Popper Études are tagged Level 3 difficulty. These cello studies present a substantial challenge and need more practice time than levels 1 and 2.
Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 26 We found this one to be a real workout for the left hand as well as the bow as it explores different hand positions in thumb position. Legato bowing with plenty of shifting and string crossings to keep us challenged!
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 28 We had SO much fun exploring Popper 28 this week with the amazing Joely, who inspired us to look at this study in totally new ways. Katie was a student of Joely’s and considers her a wonderful mentor and huge influence in her life. Join us as
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 31 Apart from some tricky thumb position exploration, double-stops, and all our favourite high-end of the cello playing, we explore ways to keep concentration up when doing something repetitive… especially towards the end when there is a very tricky passage (Sneaky Popper!) Don’t waste time practising the repeated
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 32 Popper 32 is a study that revisits up-bow staccato; however, it is quite different from the other big up-bow staccato study, No. 14. Namely because the tempo indicated by Popper is quite a bit slower, so the function of how the technique works is totally different and
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 35 This is another study that focuses on distant key areas and strange enharmonic relationships (b natural to g-flat equals a perfect fifth, for example!) The étude challenges our brain in that there are aspects you have to figure out and organise in order to be consistently in
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 37 Here’s a tricky study filled with LOTS of technical aspects… fast shifting, mordents, thumb position which also features on the lower two strings. Working out the mordents takes some attention. Coordinating the right hand and left hands is key – the bow must start before the beat
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Practice Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 39 We enjoyed exploring this beautifully lilting study that has a lot of variety and some beautiful double-stops in D-flat major. However, this one is not without it’s difficulties. Lots with thumb position, hand balance, intonation in triads and thirds and bow distribution planning. Hope this video will
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Practice Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 40 Popper 40 – as the last in the set, this is surprisingly not the most difficult of Popper’s collection of études but rather a very specialized study in natural harmonics. We were delighted to approach this study as it gives our thumb chops some time off! We
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