Polonaise or bluegrass?
These three collections of cello duets leave little to be desired in terms of style.
Duo playing by pupils and teachers is an essential element in music lessons. The interaction in playing music together helps to recognize and solve elementary intonation and technical problems more easily. The following collections are stylistically very different. They can be used from around the second year of lessons.
Elmar Preusser has his Duo treasure chest in a more traditional manner. The original compositions and arrangements impress with their broad stylistic spectrum from the Renaissance to modern times and their consistently systematic technical structure from the 1st to the 4th position.
Pop hits for cello contains evergreens from the movie and hits from pop music. In addition to the 2nd cello part, a CD with funky accompaniments is included in a complete version and a play-along version. The technical level of booklet 1 is still exclusively in the 1st position with a tight fingering. It makes sense that most of the song texts are printed in the score.
With the Groovestrich School the Californian cellist Susanne Paul offers an original introduction to the world of Latin American music. 15 short duo pieces demonstrate the "groove stroke", a type of stroke used in samba, bossa nova, salsa, jazz, rock or bluegrass. The pieces are rather easy for the left hand to master. However, the special bowing technique requires an advanced level of left and right hand coordination in order to bring out the rhythmic finesse. All 15 pieces can be listened to in a sound cloud on the website www.groovecello.de. This collection is also highly recommended for teachers!
Duo treasure chest, edited by Elmar Preusser, ED 21386, € 14.00, Schott, Mainz
Pop For Cello 1, edited by Michael Zlanabitnig, ED 21134, with CD, € 18.50, Schott, Mainz
Susanne Paul, Die Groovestrich-Schule, PON 1012, € 19.95, Ponticello-Edition, Mainz
