I have a few new posts I've been working on, loaded with information and resources -  they're going to take a while for me to get together, in the meantime, here's a short little post featuring some beginner resources which I find useful, hope you do too (please note, these are affiliate links). 

For younger beginners, I nearly always start with Early Start on the Cello by Egon and Kurt Sassmannshaus. The format of this book is very welcoming for young musicians, with very big print, and illustrations throughout. I find it has a great balance between a focus on reading, and aural development - many of the pieces are songs which children will already know. And there are plenty of open string pieces/exercises - a must in my book! 

A wonderful method for teaching younger beginners, which I am intending to study (when my little ones are older!) is the Colourstrings method - you can find out more about the method in Australia here. There are two resources below which relate to this method. 

For older students, I normally begin with Feuillard's method. This book has dense text, with plenty of reading and technical exercises - I don't sound like I am selling it here, but I really do like this book! it moves quickly onto shifting and more advanced technical concepts. While there are little pieces, in duet format, at the end of each lesson in the book, I do find the need to supplement this book with plenty of outside sheet music (one such example is below - Melodies by Old Masters - technically not for beginners, but can be studied by older students after a few successful months with the Feuillard). 

That's all for now, will be back next week with more!  

There is a lot to fit in your weekly music lesson: technical work, learning new repertoire, polishing old repertoire, sight-reading and ear-training all need plenty of time and attention. While most playing-related skills can be easily worked on at home, students don't always have the know-how to go away and develop their relative pitch (or what musicians like to call their 'inner ear'). As students approach the higher grades too in the AMEB syllabus, more is required in terms of the student's ability to distinguish intervals, cadences, and two simultaneously played musical lines, among other things. 

Today's post lines up a couple of helpful resources which students can use to develop their ability to recognise intervals. Most reading this post will already know that an interval is the distance between two musical notes, played either together, or subsequently. This is something which will need to be explained further in lessons, but for those with an understanding of what intervals are, here are some places where you can test your interval recognition:

VCU Music Theory 

Sometimes it's useful to identify intervals by recognising them as they are found in songs. The above website very helpfully gives you a list of intervals and the songs where each interval can be found.

Teoria.com

​This great website gives you the chance to customise which intervals you will be tested on; there are also a number of other tutorials on their pages. 

Musictheory.net 

Another excellent resource for testing intervals (check on the 'Intervals' link); there are a number of exercises on other aspects of ear-training which this website provides. 

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