Cello Lessons

Cello

For Mature Children to Adults

The Cello is a beautiful instrument with a beautiful sound. Many compare it's range to the human voice. It is best to start cello after with a good background in basic music - a good sense of rhythm and pitch. Being able to sing along with music in tune and on beat is a good start. For beginners we teach a combination of Suzuki and traditional methods. More advanced students are taught with a combination of American and European styles.

Suzuki Method

Gonca is a certified Suzuki Instructor.
The Suzuki Method was conceived in the mid-20th century by Shin'ichi Suzuki, a violinist who desired to bring some beauty to the lives of children in his country after the devastation of World War II. As a skilled violinist but a beginner at the German language who struggled to learn it, Suzuki noticed that all children pick up their native language quickly, and even dialects which adults consider "difficult" to learn are spoken with ease by people of 5 or 6 years. He reasoned that if children have the skill to acquire their mother tongue, then they have the necessary ability to become proficient on a musical instrument. He pioneered the idea that any pre-school age child could begin to play the violin if learning steps were small enough and if the instrument was scaled down to fit their body. He modeled his method, which he called "Talent Education", after his theories of natural language acquisition. Suzuki believed that every child, if properly taught, was capable of a high level of musical achievement. He also made it clear that the goal of such musical education was to raise generations of children with "noble hearts" (as opposed to creating famous musical prodigies).

Traditional Instruction

Some students prefer and respond better to a more traditional approach to cello instruction. I like to give beginning and intermediate students a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of cello technique -- a relaxed, comfortable hand position, correct intonation, bowing, and tone production. The basics of music (reading and counting) are covered as needed. As the beginning student progresses, more advanced techniques, including position shifting, double stops, and phrasing, are introduced.