My daughter is ten and about grade 3. (She can play in first and fourth position and knows how to do forward and backward extensions). She has a ten week break for lessons over the summer and her teacher just told her to play whatever she wanted and to work on intonation (without giving any ideas as to how to do this). My daughter is the sort of child who likes things to be very structured and would prefer to be told exactly what to do in a practice session. Last summer I spent time every day helping her to work systematically on sight-reading (notes and rhythm) which was very beneficial but I am a bit at a loss as to what to suggest she does this year.

Any ideas?

Perhaps some work on tenor clef reading? You could transpose some tunes into tenor clef for her? I've been playing through my music collection playing right up into treble clef.

If she is to work on intonation (i.e. getting notes spot on in tune), she could try playing all sorts of simple tunes like nursery rhymes. She could start on, say, open D and work out the tune without having music. She should know when the note is right or wrong if it's something she knows really well and this will really make her listen to her playing.

I don't know when tenor clef comes into use for AB exams but it is definitely too early for my daughter. Her music is all written in the bass clef and she has only just got to grips with reading the treble clef (in her music theory classes) so I'm not going to complicate things by introducing another clef.


Thanks this sounds like a good thing to try.

What about general structure of practice sessions? Do you warm up by doing some scales? Shifting exercices? Bowing exercies (in which case what as she doesn't have any)?

Her trombone teacher has been much more precise. He has told her to play three long notes, do lip slurs, some tonguing exercices, a scale, sight-read a new piece, work on a holiday piece and then play an old favourite. What I was wondering was how to transfer this sort of idea to the cello.

On the grounds that it's easier to rearrange an existing structure than come up with something out of the blue, how about this for a starting point based on those ideas but adapted for strings

1. Warm up RH - long notes on open strings - say 3-4 bows on each string, trying to get as even and good a tone as possible. If this gets boring, maybe some days she could try making the bow last 2, then 3, then 4 seconds or beats, ie working on how to economise with the bow/use different amounts of bow - she could even be more adventurous with timings. Or practise getting louder/softer or staying at as even a tempo as possible. Maybe she could have a pot full of different possibilities and pick one out each day (ie one day would be "practise getting louder", another day would be "practise making your bow last for N beats").

2. Warm up LH - Play 2 slow scales or arpeggios, working on listening to the tone and intonation. Make the 1st scale a reasonably easy one, the 2nd one with a shift.

3. Sight read a new piece (if she has any that are suitable)

4. Do a shifting exercise or an exercise using extensions(if she doesn't have any, maybe you could create some simple exercises shifting to and from 4th position, and using extensions. They don't have to be complex to be useful I'm sure the cellists on the board could help if you need it. Probably best to concentrate on one skill in any one exercise, and repeat the exercise on all strings)

5. Play something by ear - maybe she has a couple of simple favourite tunes? She could pick a different starting note each day and see how many different keys she can play a tune in by the end of the week/the month/the summer.

6. Play a holiday tune.

7. Play an old favourite.

Maybe the sight-reading/exercises could be interchangeable (ie SR one day, shifting the next, extensions the next) and she could pick two activities out of 5 6 and 7 each day, depending on how long things take and how much time she has to devote to them.

Hope this gives you a few ideas anyway

Rick Mooney has written a couple of great books to help secure playing in different positions. I think 4th position is in his first book. They have some good execises which would help with intonation as well as securing playing in different positions.
having looked through no 2's violin notebook one of the things his teacher uses scales for is to practice different bowings and rhythms eg 2 slured 2 seperate or sluring in pairs or 2 semiquavers followed by a quaver etc.
you could make a practise chart with her help to decide how much time should be spent on what.

Any joy, kerioboe? Any of this any help?