Take Your Bow: Cello
by Celia Cobb and Naomi Yandell
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2018
- Publisher
- Trinity College London Press (TCL018069; ISBN 9780857367273)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Twenty short concert pieces for beginning string players by Celia Cobb and Naomi Yandell, two experienced string teachers. The book is part of a mixed-strings series: the cello pieces fit with the violin, viola and double bass books in any combination, so they work for individual lessons, group classes and school ensembles. The authors set out to write "fun, child-centred pieces" [1] that also bring in sounds not usually met this early. Several pieces are set for Trinity's Initial and Grade 1 cello exams, and the edition includes piano accompaniments and backing tracks.
Technical overview
The opening pieces use only open strings, arco and pizzicato, in 2/4, 4/4 and 2/2, with counted rests at the start. They practise string crossings, bow division (quarter, half and whole bows), bow retakes, stopping the bow in rests and open-string pizzicato double stops. According to the authors, later pieces add harmonics, left-hand and snap pizzicato, triplets and irregular time signatures.
Technical focus
- Bow Control
- Bow Retakes
- Collaboration with Piano
- Detaché
- Double Stops
- Dynamics
- Ensemble Skills
- Pizzicato
- Rhythm
- String Crossings