There are two text books for me to choose learn a cello, the Suzuki Cello School and Essential Elements 2000 for Strings Cello Book. Have you heard about those two cello text books? Is it necessary to use two cello text books or the Suzuki Cello School text book is sufficient? What text books does a Suzuki teacher usually use to teach the cello? Thank you for your answer.

[quote name='pop' date='Mar 7 2012, 02:42 AM' post%

The Susuki cello book would be no use for self study - it doesn't contain any technical information at all.
Although that said, I don't think it would be very easy to teach yourself the cello anyway and if you have/are going to get a teacher, surely it would be better to ask them what they recommend as a book.

Hi, I did not say self study. If you are a teacher or expert, just provide your opinion. Is it necessary to use two text books to teach cello?

Yes - and then some! You will not find everything to learn about playing the cello in one book!
If you mean simultaneously, then it is probably not necessary but it might be the choice of the teacher to have different styles of music or learning available. I had A Tune A Day and the Contemporary Cellist as s child, as well as a scale book, and other music that the school and teacher had available to share. Plodding through one book only can be boring.

A Suzuki teacher would normally teach you to play it by ear, surely? At least for the first couple of years.

I don't teach cello but for the two instruments I do teach I find using one book only rather restrictive. I don't see why cello would be any different. Do you have an objection to having more music?

I know you didn't but it seemed a strange question - if you have a teacher and the teacher asked for the two books it suggested that you didn't altogether trust your teacher, and to me that seemed a more damning assumption than the idea that you might be teaching yourself.

As others have said, having more than one book provides some variety. I'm not overly familiar with Essential Elements (and might possibly be confusing it with a different book) but (if it is the book I think it is)then it has more "traditional" exercises and labels the different parts of the cello/bow etc. whereas the Susuki has lots of "nice tunes" (this is not meant in a pejorative way) so I would have thought they would complement each other quite well.

My daughter started the cello with a German tutor book (we are in France so I don't know why it was in German) and fairly rapidly this was supplemented with other things like "Stepping Stones" and "Cello Time Joggers."

Sorry my post did not work for some reason. But i simple said that, you can use as many books as you wish. The Suzuki books are a specific way of teaching cello, like the suzuki method of learning violin. Not everyone likes the Suzuki method. So it depends on what you prefer and also maybe what your teacher prefers. I like a variety of books myself. I do not specifically know the other cello book - so cannot comment on this. I am sure there must be quite a variety of books out there and if you have a teacher you may like to discuss with them first before you buy. Hope that helps.

Actually, that was the other thing that struck me as slightly odd about your post. You say: "there are two text books for me to choose"; I'd have said that there at least half a dozen and probably more so why narrow your choice down to just these two.

Was it your teacher who gave the names of these books? If so, did they ask you to get them both or choose between the two?
If you haven't yet started with a teacher and these were just the 2 books you saw in a shop, it would be better to wait and see what your teacher wants you to buy as they will have their own way of doing things.

Hey, I know two teachers. One is a licensed Suzuki teacher and she just uses one Suzuki text book. Another teacher is a regular teacher but she teaches by the Suzuki method too. She uses two text books, however. So, I wonder whether it is necessary to use two text books to teacher the cello by the Suzuki method or one Suzuki text book is sufficient. I prefer a cello teacher to answer this question and explain why?

you might get several different answers from teachers. Why not ask the teacher you are interested in if you think it's an issue? They will have their own reasons which will probably be very similar to the replies you've already had.

Exactly right.
When you start with a teacher they will let you know which books to get.
We are all different!

Well, I'm not a cello teacher, but being slightly acquainted with the Suzuki method, I might be able to give you one possible reason why.

The Suzuki method is taught by ear for the first few books' worth. So you get the basics of your cello technique and your musicianship without having to learn the reading of the notes as well. Instead you are required to do a lot of listening. Normally the Suzuki beginner is a young child, but older pupils have started as well.

Now, this means that you don't read music for a while, so it doesn't matter if the pieces you begin on are tricky to read, as long as they are easy enough to play. They aren't the same thing.

In Britain a child is likely to be getting involved in musical activities with other people at an earlier stage than Suzuki originally envisged, and would therefore be required to read the music at an earlier stage. My daughters' own Suzuki violin teacher used to start them readng about two books earlier than recommended, although they weren't reading the Suzuki pieces.

Probably a teacher who is teaching Suzuki and anothr book as well is trying to teach the techniques and tone production the Suzuki way, but also having a book of easy-to read pieces as well, so that the reading can begin in a simple way, but not from the Suzuki pieces.

Does this make sense?

Pop, sorry, but i do not understand what you have written here .

A teacher who teaches using the Susuki method will not use just one book, there are a whole series of them. I am not sure what you mean by a "regular" teacher, do you mean she teaches using the more traditional method (i.e. not Susuki)???

What i think is important is that you find a teacher that uses the method which you prefer, that you get on well, is a good cello teacher/player and you enjoy your lessons. It is not really about how many books the teacher uses. Although a teacher would not use just one or two books to teach any instrument.

In learning any instrument, one book would not be sufficient! and YES you would need more than 2 books.

I am not a cello teacher, and am sure many students are able to help other students with lots of helpful advice.
Hope that helps.

I've recently returned to playing the cello after a gap of 35 years. I'm not a beginner, but I wasn't very advanced when I was at school either.

I need a number of books. I'm in a slightly different positon since I'm an experienced musician and capable of choosing some material myself and I don't need a beginner's tutor or method book. However, I do have a book of scales, a book of exercises (Dotzauer), a book of exercises reading the tenor clef, a book of exercises for 4th position, Time Pieces for Cello 1, 2, and 3 and some other pieces.

As a number of people have said, if you're unsure, then you need to have a sit down a chat with your teacher to understand what you want and what they expect

But only one at a time, surely? We had a copy of Suzuki book 1 when my children started but that was for me to refer to, being the parent. I f I hadn't read music at all, it's quite possible I wouldn't even have had that. The children didn't use a book, just the disc for listenng to.

Or has the method changed over the past 15 years - is there now a wider range of repertoire? Back in the early 80s all suzuki pupils played the same pieces, and there were about 20 in the first book, starting with Twinkle and ending with the Gossec Gavotte. Only occasionally did any other material get introduced (my daughter played an easy set piece in a music festival, but even then we didn't use the rest of the book in lessons. I think the older ones did a set of Scottish jigs and reels - still by ear - after the end of about book 2.

I said, there are a series of Susuzi books! I do not know how a cello teacher chooses to teach.

Well, yes, but I was asking if there are now more than one at each level; nobody uses book 1, book 2 and book 3 in any course, method, scheme or whatever all at the one time if they are progressive, you'll progress from one to the next. But some piano series have a lesson book and also books of extra pieces at the same level, called "performance book" or "recital book" or something similar. There wasn't any supplementary material when my kids were learning Suzuki.

There are ten Suzuki books from volume 1 to 10. A Suzuki teacher teaches a book one by one. The learner should get skills from those books by playing and practice. That?s what the Suzuki teacher recommends. Does it make sense?

Well it makes sense for that teacher for the way they teach.
2 books makes sense the the way the other teacher teaches.
I use 2 books, sometimes 3, depending on the standard of my pupil. That makes sense for the way I do things.
Does that help?

Yes. But you have to remember that by its nature the Suzuki meathod is not at all visual. There's no reading involved in the earlier stages, and the boks don't contain any other activities etc. which some other book may present. It sounds as though this suzuki teacher wants to supplement the suzuki material in some way, and I can't say I entirely blame them. You can get stuck on the one piece for a long time because you're not ready to progress to the next Suzuki piece, and there aren't any "extra" pieces for each stage

When mine started, the teacher said my younger daughter was one of the most musically responsive pupils she'd had- however, when it came to technique she lagged a long way behind her musicianship, with the result that at the end of one year, she was still on the Twinkle variations and obviously very uninspired by what she was doing she needed lots of music, and she wasn't getting it. She was nearly four when she started, and three years later she swapped to the (non-Suzuki) cello and fairly belted through her first two grades (as she shouod have done with all that musicianship behind her)

I used Suzuki (though I didn't begin with it, and knew how to read music fluently when I started) and generally moved fast enough that I didn't have this problem. However, if a student gets stuck on a piece, my teacher at least would move to other pieces (while continuing to work on the offending bits of the "stuck" piece, or in some cases putting it away and bringing it back later) in addition. He also wasn't always strict about doing every piece in every book in order. Besides this, almost all of his students played in other ensembles outside lessons, so I'm not sure the problem you describe is intrinsic to the Suzuki method.

So to answer the original question, "Is it necessary to use two text books when learning the cello?" I would say YES! In fact i would use more than two. But hey, each to their own.