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Cello Playing for Music Lovers: A Self-Teaching Method

by Vera Mattlin Jiji Ph.D.

212 pages; Coil with fold-over flap; catalogue #06-1315; ISBN 1-4120-9560-3; US$42.00, C$42.00, EUR28.69, £21.68

You can teach yourself to play the cello. This comprehensive, authoritative guide covers basics to Bach. Including 116 selections, it explains reading music, playing-by-ear and theory. Play-along CD.

About the Book

Cello Playing for Music Lovers provides beginners and intermediate students with an authoritative, step-by-step guide to learning to play the cello. The book includes musical examples from folk, Broadway and classical traditions. It illustrates correct playing positions with twenty photos. Written from the student's viewpoint, it:

• teaches all the required skills, including
• reading music,
• using the bow effectively,
• analyzing musical structures,
• improvising, and playing by ear.

The book starts from scratch with songs transcribed for beginners and advances gradually to 4th position Included are folk songs, hymns, Broadway standards like "Some Enchanted Evening," and classical selections like a Bach Prelude and Sarabande. Later sections explore some music theory and how to play in chamber music groups. Gifted cellist Erik Friedlander plays the 116 musical figures discussed in the book on the accompanying play along CD.

The author, a Ph.D. and experienced teacher, presents this fascinating material in small, logical steps. As cellist Aaron Minsky said, "Your idea that the cello can be enjoyed on a simple level even within a few weeks of study is very true. . . This book will bring the joys of cello playing to many people who would not have believed it possible."

Playing the cello will give any music lover unparalleled satisfaction. If you always wished you could do it "in your next life," do it now.

About the Author

When Vera Mattlin Jiji studied the cello in high school, she received a cello scholarship from Janos Scholz, co-founder of The Violoncello Society. However, like many other music lovers, she had to abandon the study of music in adulthood to focus on another career field: in her case, the study of literature.

After receiving her Ph.D. in English, she taught at Brooklyn College for over twenty years. During her years as a professor, she learned to organize material clearly and logically. She made complex subjects simpler and more enjoyable for her students. She developed original courses, and adapted American dramas for television under a grant from NEH.

In the 1990's she chose early retirement, largely to study the cello again. Having benefited from excellent teaching as an over - 60 student herself, she decided to write this book in order to give others the gift of playing music. Vera Jiji now plays chamber music regularly with friends and enjoys her family, including her four children and two grandchildren.

Listen to an interview with the author:
www.bookexpocast.com

Visit the author's website:
www.veracello.com

Excerpts