Ensuring the weight is directly over the finger playing or working out the optimum balance needed in the left hand. This is particularly pertinent in double stops in thumb position. Weight can be adjusted by thinking about both the hand position and the left arm angle.
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. 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. 12 This is quite a tricky study that really works on the geography of the cello especially in thumb position. It’s a real workout for anyone’s cello playing chops, and features a difficult octaves passage at the end of 4 pages of thumb position! However, we really enjoyed
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 13 Popper 13! Full of octaves and double-stops galore, this one certainly kept us busy. Check out how we approach this epic study, and our top tips for not getting overwhelmed by the world of octaves. Bow balance percentages are important for the tune to sing in the
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 17 We enjoyed exploring this shorter study, Popper 17, which focuses on legato in double stops. Practising this study very slowly and focusing on the connections between the double stops is very important so that they work well at the final speed. An especially interesting technical aspect of
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 18 We were delighted to work on Popper 18 with the fabulous Madeleine Kabat. We had so much fun with Madeleine, a self-proclaimed Popper nerd (she’s in good company). This is a tricky and long study focusing on thumb position technique, and lightness of stroke. It also includes
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 20 This study is so satisfying to perform! It involves so many techniques all in the one place but sounds really beautiful. Legato shifting, legato string crossing without interrupting the line. Legato octaves and broken ones. The list goes on!
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 21 Here is our live discussion of Popper’s 21st study. It was a fun one! This focuses on bow legato, bow distribution, string crossings and shifting often in thumb position. Can each shift and string crossing stay smooth so that it doesn’t effect the legato sound? Interesting to
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Teaching Notes for Popper Cello Étude No. 22 Popper 22 is a beautiful study. We have both really enjoyed learning this one. Check out the first five minutes of this video for HILARIOUS stories about the 17-year cicada plague in the US, which is reoccurring this year! Start at 05.05 to skip this…! Legato bowing
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