98 Goofy Cello Études

Check out this new etude set, "98 Goofy Cello Etudes", that I put together with a former student that covers half through 4th positions (the "four finger positions"). It's kind of an alternative or supplement to Rick Mooney's Position Pieces Book 1 (dare I compare it to Rick Mooney's book!). It started as a project of a former student, Nick Nirva, in 2005 that I edited and expanded. It consists of 14 etudes, each of which stays in position, does not shift, and uses every available note in that position. The point is to build the muscle memory and finger spacing for each position. Now, each of these 14 etudes is transposed to six other possible positions. So, for example, Etude 1 is in first position, but it is also transposed to half, lower second, second, lower third, upper third and fourth positions. The transpositions all have the same fingering as the original etude because they are all in the "four finger positions". You can think of it as a set of intonation etudes as much as position studies because for each etude the student can compare the subtle changes in finger spacing between all the transpositions. The set is called "98 Goofy Etudes" because they have silly titles that go with the rhythm of the melody. However, if you purchase this set you also get "98 Serious Etudes", which are the exact same etudes without the goofy titles.