Hello & Seasons Greetings!

I bought a Cello for my 50th birthday but have not found a local teacher due mainly to my rural location. Despite searching the internet, speaking to anyone with music interests/contacts and placing adverts in the paper, I closest tutor I found is about 100kms away. He is happy to take me on as a student but it's not really viable when I take into account the additional cost of a 200km trip and 3+ hours of driving. I can't source online lessons as there is no landline and terrible phone/internet reception here.

After tip-toeing around my Cello for almost a year I got fed up with not doing anything and decided to teach myself at least the basics. My approach is:


- I can read sheetmusic (having learnt Piano when I was young)
- Have a repertoire of music to draw on; sheetmusic and from memory
- Download YouTube lessons to a USB Stick and save them on my PC; I can access lessons or revise as needed
- Electronic tuner; Tune the cello, assist with correct fingering and train my ear!


The idea is to get started on the instrument whilst I keep searching for a tutor. I welcome your suggestions and ideas with my little project. Thanks in advance!


PS: Must add I already have an audience! A male king parrot often perches nearby and chatters happily as I practise.[/I] http://www.8notes.com/images/smile.gif

I started the cello in February. I created a blog. TheMidLifeCellist dot com. I also have a face book group I'm trying to start of adult beginner cellists if your interested. Maybe something on these sites could help.

While I don't have a cello (yet), I found an outstanding resource on YouTube. Look for Hans Zentgraf. He has a series of video tutorials that, on the surface, would seem to be extremely helpful with beginner cellists, regardless of age. He is German and has somewhat of an accent, but is easily understandable. He provides plenty of exercises to learn the fingerboard, which he stresses over and again. He also has a several videos where he picks songs from several different books for cello and piano, in which he teaches how the piece is to be played, then provides the piano accompaniment for you to play along. One thing he reiterates is that you should practice everything slowly. After all, if you can't play it slowly, how can you play it fast?

Anyway, look for Hans Zentgraf - he has his own channel. Of course, he also promotes his website, where you can sign up for lessons beyond the level of the free ones on YouTube, which is another option for you. You'll most likely have to use Skype, but at least you can have audio and video with a live teacher. I plan on first purchasing a cello (or renting one) and using the free videos to get my feet in the door. You can also go to http://ismlp.org (that's the International Sheet Music Library Project, which has tons of Public Domain sheet music) and search simply for "cello" to see all sorts of cello sheet music. If you look at Amazon and get the names of music that is at least 100 years old, you can most likely find the same sheet music at ismlp.org and save yourself a bob or two.