Her approach to teaching now is his – with a twist. Every time Mooney sits next to a cello student, he relies on the mathematical training he initially pursued to broaden his career prospects. When I was in High School my teacher gave me this scale and arpeggio book. It is an excellent resource. Included are scales, broken thirds, arpeggios (tonic, sub-dominant, dominant seventh arpeggios), triad with inversions, thirds in double stops, sixths in double stops, octaves, broken thirds in octaves, octave arpeggios, octave scales, tenths, arpeggios in double stops, scales in chords, chromatic scales, and a scales in natural and artificial harmonics. Whew! What is unique about this scale book is that Yampolsky makes the exercises musically attractive by varying the bowings and rhythms in each key. Internationally recognized lecturer and master teacher Pamela Devenport teaches Long Term Cello Suzuki Pedagogy at the School for Strings, New York, NY, and at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. Ms. Devenport has shared her unique blend of expertise and experience with hundreds of people in the Suzuki Community throughout the world. She has recently published her first book, Cellostart available through United Writers Press. In 1986 Ms. Yamagata was awarded the SHAR Distinguished Young Teacher Award by the Suzuki Association of the Americas and has served as a presenter and Cello Coordinator of the biennial SAA Conference. They’ve got long hair, they bang their heads, and their hair flies around,” he said of the group. “But I wanted to put something together that was more suitable for a student group.”

It’s not just that the kids here can play the instrument well, but also that they have been taught in a way that makes them receptive to new ideas, and has given them the ability to implement those ideas,” said Mooney. “But I have been other places where students were actually unable to do the things I asked them to do.” Mooney used to travel widely to teach. Today, he boards a plane far less often. Yet every year, in the depths of that capricious annual interlude known as Chicago in winter, Mooney departs sunny Southern California to teach at Cello Fest. A cello choir is similar in some ways to other ensembles, such as orchestras. But it also is unique, because a single instrument, the cello, plays all parts in all musical registers.also comes highly recommended to me by cellist and improvisor, Crispin Campbell, cello faculty emeritus at the Interlochen Arts Academy. I don’t have to be responsible for making institute students well-rounded cellists,” he said. “What I get to do is diagnose what I consider to be the thing that’s going to help them the most right now – and work just on that.” Nearly every child who plays an instrument wants, at some point, to quit. Festivals and institutes can reignite both a child’s passion and a parent’s commitment, Mooney said. Such workshops offer young players a sense of accomplishment, perspective, camaraderie and motivation on the winding road to proficiency.

series (four volumes), combining his knowledge of child psychology with a systematic approach to violin pedagogy. It became the most popular violin method in Germany. His son, Kurt Sassmannshaus, currently chair of the string department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Dorothy DeLay's teaching assistant for 25 years, has joined his father as co-author to make the series available in English. They also joined forces with cellist Michael Corssen to make the series available for cello, recently published by Bärenreiter in the spring of 2009. The result is a wonderful new method available for cello teachers. I highly recommend that cello teachers of beginning to intermediate cello students have all four volumes of this series in their library. Beginning-Intermediate Level I admit to not being particularly adept at improvisation but this book comes highly recommended to me by Crispin Campbell, cello faculty emeritus at the Interlochen Arts Academy who also happens to be a fabulous improvisor!But 40 years ago, as a college freshman majoring in music, Mooney was neither competent nor confident. So ill-prepared was the teen for the career he envisioned, that his cello teacher sat him down one day to deliver harsh news: Find something else to do with your life.