Three-Octave Scales for the Cello, Book One Paperback – July 6, 2018

I started out like most beginning cellists learning in the first position, and ultimately feeling a little leery of going up the fingerboard. That is a shame, as it makes playing much easier and more intuitive if one learns where the notes are on the various strings, by which I mean notes that can be played on more than one string. I am now working on forming the new habit of not defaulting to first position and not defaulting to open strings. I wish I had learned that earlier. Yes, I know, it would have been more difficult then, but it is not a slam dunk now to re-learn new and better habits.All of this to say, I would order this book earlier than you think you might want or need it, and work on the scales through 3 octaves. Use a tuner to find the notes in the upper positions if you need to. Pencil in the names of the notes in tenor clef and treble clef if you need to. Just my opinion, but you will eventually need to know those things, so why wait? It doesn't really get easier, especially if you have already formed the habit of staying in first and using open strings, and of freaking out when you see tenor or treble clef.I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 because I had to pencil in some fingering changes where this book uses open strings instead of upper positions / more advanced fingering. I am not terribly advanced myself, but I do play in an orchestra and when you have pieces with 3 or 4 flats etc, you need to be able to get to them quickly; and no one in an orchestra plays with open strings. I don't find it helpful to be encouraged to default to open strings, or to go back and forth between, say, first and fourth positions, when staying in fourth (let's say) gets the job done. I do enjoy having all the major scales, minor scales, and melodic minor scales all in one succinct spiral bound book. I would call this book a must for every cellist.EDIT / UPDATE, 11/21/12:The more I use this book, the more I like it. On each page, after the 3 octave scale up and down, there are short bits where you work on, say, going from first to fourth position and back, or going from fourth to the harmonic and above and back again. You repeat those bits several times until you have the shift learned, and then you are able to play the whole scale better, faster, more comfortably and more confidently. You are then also much more readily able to play music which requires those shifts. I wish I'd had this book earlier, but I now use it every day and am making up for lost time.EDIT-UPDATE 5/17: Ok, I now know that all scale books have you use first position until you can't. They never do as I suggested above, have you stay in, say, fourth position and go from string to string. So that was an ignorant critique on my part. I still like the book a lot, and it is super-useful for learning tenor clef and treble clef somewhat painlessly. That right there is a great thing.

The scale comes first, and then every little shift comes in tiny exercises after the scale. It's like Cassia Harvey knows what I'm going to be confused about before I do (I suspect I am not that unique an adult learner). I have gone from no experience above the harmonic A on the A string to scampering up and down the fingerboard in the major, the minor, melodic and harmonic, and my confidence is solid. I trust her teaching and I will keep using her books.

The book arrived and my Granddaughter is very happy with it. I'm a little miffed at the price to send it. More than the actual book it's self. I know it doesn't cost that much to mail that thin book. Weighs less than a magazine.

Having started the cello eleven years ago at age 45 I was looking for a good way to improve my intonation as well as my reading in the tenor and treble clefs. The print size is perfect and the spiral binding allows the pages to stay perfectly flat. The author has included excellent fingering suggestions as well as useful shifting excercises for each of the key signatures. I am extremely happy with the purchase and will look at other publications by the author Cassia Harvey.

I've bought several Harvey publications and find them all to be adequate, but lacking in basic music instruction that could be helpful to many musicians that can't find or afford a music teacher. Someone with Harvey's knowledge certainly knows this information so it would be simple for her, helpful for some, and a selling point for her product.

Great deal!!

Easy to read good book

I specifically bought this book because it showed it was ringer-bound, thus easy to turn. It is not, just stapled. This is both disappointing and deceptive.Telling me I can have the hassle of returning it, etc, is of no interest to me. It is important to advertise accurately.The material itself is great educationally, but that has nothing to do with it's equally important quality.

No problem about octave methods. But, terrible binding of this book printed in Japan! (I am a Japanese.) It's same binding as score sheet musik of Dover, it can not be open completely on stand. Is this method read on our rap top? Or we have to copy all pages? もちろんEtude自体に全く問題は無いのだが、製本がかつてのDoverの大判スコアと同じ作りで、楽譜なのに完全に開かない。膝の上に広げて読むものではないので、この製本は全くもってお粗末。コピーして使うもの？なお同じHerveyの「Learning Three-Octave Arpeggios」も同じ作り。