Essential Beginning Cello Books in Order of Study

This book works on the very easiest note reading: open strings!

In the first lessons, several pages of this book will be assigned each week, in addition to pages in Learning the Cello, Book One.

Even when students have started playing fingered notes, they finish out this book, using it as bowing practice at the beginning of a lesson.

After this book, students will start Early Exercises for the Cello or Beginning Technique for the Cello, depending on their age.

This book seems to work best with students 11 and under. There are a number of finger-number-only songs that were writtten specifically for string classes and very young students.

Cassia has students play through these songs in the second, third, and fourth  lessons while she simultaneously uses The Open String Book for Cello to introduce note-reading.

The Hot Cross Buns Book for Cello and Early Exercises for Cello are supplements for this book.

Older students might prefer to start their studies with Learning the Cello, Book Two.

This book seems to work best with students 11 and under.

With very easy finger pattern exercises, rhythm training, and string crossing, this book introduces students to using technical exercises from the very beginning.

Older students are assigned Beginning Technique for the Cello instead of this book.

This is the duet book that most of Cassia’s beginning students work through in the first months of studying.

The top (student) part works on rhythm, note-reading, ensemble skills, and more. The bottom part provides the rich, full harmonies Myanna loves to write that are just so rewarding!

Duets are especially important for beginning students who often cannot produce a good tone yet. Playing together creates a full sound that can be very encouraging!

When a student is older or they’ve had a little bit of training on the cello, Cassia usually assigns this book as a beginning method.

Rhythm and technique-heavy, the book gives students a solid start to playing and gets them ready for Beginning Level II.

At this stage, students can really benefit from playing multiple books at the same time. Cello Book One is a similar book that can be studied along with this book to help develop sight-reading skills.

From her very first years of teaching, Cassia has been on a quest to find quality cello etudes for beginners.

This book gives teachers and students ample material for this crucial learning stage.

There are SO many skills covered in this book: rhythm, note-reading, slurs, staccato, and much more!

This book can be studied by older students from the very beginning and by younger students around the time that they start Learning the Cello, Book Two.

This book is a great way to consolidate all of the skills learned in method books.

Note-reading, bowing, rhythm, and playing in different keys are some of the skills can be learned from this book.

All of these scales are in first position and listed in order of difficulty. 

This book introduces the concept of scales in a non-intimidating way and the scale variations both teach and keep things interesting!

These exercises can help teach correct hand position!

Nearly every student who studies with Cassia will study this book intensively, focusing on curved fingers, upright fingers that are evenly spaced, thumb under 2nd finger, arm out to the side, and more.

This is Cassia’s “desert island” book; the one book she would never want to teach without. She says “I’ve tried to replace this book! I’ve just been teaching with it so long that it would be nice to have a change. But whenever I use another book instead of this one, hand position isn’t what it should be and intonation suffers.”

Cassia uses this book to teach her students the concept of reading and applying sharps and flats to notes in different keys.

The book has exercises and short pieces that are very G and C-string heavy, which can help students who have trouble sight-reading.

Cassia also uses this book to introduce extended position before moving to a book like Cello Stretching; Extended First Position.

For most of her years of teaching, Cassia has drawn from a wide range of etude books in her teaching. Many of those books are out of print and it has long been a goal to make these rare etudes accessible to everyone.

This series does just that! The etudes are grouped by subject matter and listed in order of difficulty. Realizing that some students move more quickly, there are two paths through the book: relaxed and accelerated.

Learning cello bowing technique on open strings is especially effective because there are no distractions from left-hand fingers or notes. There is also nowhere to hide!

These exercises will be the most effective if students are taught how to practice this book. 

When studying this book, students should listen for every part of every note to ring. They should work for the cleanest beginning and ending of every note.