A Cello Teacher's Companion Guide: The Cello and My Life

by Charles Sugden

Overview

This volume comes as a very welcome addition to the Cello Teacher’s library of resources.  Cello teachers and advanced students especially, but also mature beginner students, will find plenty to experiment with from these pages. Inspired to some degree by William Pleeth’s classic, ‘Cello’, Charles Sugden has handed on to his colleagues a very passionate and personal account.  It is full of the distilled wisdom of a lifetime’s music-making, teaching and being taught.  This Companion Guide is especially for the teacher who knows they are still being taught.  With lessons from the historical greats, to personal triumphs and failures, this is a compendium of discovery, meshed into many personal stories that bring alive the relationship of teacher, pupil and music.  It is therefore an enjoyable read, not seeking merely to inform, but further to inspire. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781916387300
Publisher:	Rev Charles Sugden
Publication date:	05/30/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	50
File size:	584 KB

About the Author

Rev Charles Sugden, MA, ATCL, the son and grandson of headteachers, was educated at Bilton Grange and Radley College, where he obtained a Music Scholarship. At Magdalene College Cambridge he read History BA Honours before embarking on a PGCE at the same university. His first teaching post was at Denstone College in Staffordshire where he taught History in the classroom and flute to individual pupils. His musical experiences have been many, from youth orchestras to city orchestras, always undergirded by the experience of his father's example of enjoying chamber music in the family home. His flute teachers included David Butt (principal of the BBC Symphony Orchestra) and his cello teachers have included Joan Dickson and Pamela Hind O'Malley (the latter a pupil of Pablo Casals). Of his own teaching ability, two past cello pupils have written : "We got on very well and he took me right back to the beginning, playing simple pieces along with scales and arpeggios and many exercises in fingering and bowing to improve my technique. He encouraged me to join an orchestra which helped to boost my confidence. He was a stern teacher but always made the lessons fun. In the three years that he was teaching me I progressed from playing simple tunes to Bach and Beethoven. Many years later I am still playing in the orchestra and will always be grateful to Charles for getting me started again." Jenny Manley "Charles gave me a good start when I had lessons with him as a complete beginner (fairly late in life!) The technical side of cello playing was taught with thoroughness which led to the ability to make musical sounds. Encouragement to achieve went alongside patience and understanding." Alison Francis In 1992 Charles was ordained priest in the Church of England, and he has combined music and ministry in every post he has served in. For 17 years he has been honorary chaplain to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Charles is married to Kath and has 2 children. His current post is Rector of Frenchay and Stapleton parish churches in Bristol Diocese.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The motivation to teach

2. Practising regimes

3. The special nature of the cello

4. Encouraging motivation in the pupil to practice and improve

5. The relationship between technique and musicianship

6. Some practicalities

7. Each finger (and thumb) has strengths and weaknesses

8. Right hand and left hand roles 

9. Pizzicato

10. Posture

11. Tone

12. The kinetic nature of moving from note to note

13. Vibrato

14. The bow

15. Miscellany

Appendix 1:  First Ten Lessons