Colourstrings® Cello ABC is finally available in digital format! Cello Books A, B, C and D and Piattini are released as electronic publications.

Patting: one bar, one page, one lesson. Cello fingerboard orientation using an etude by Alfredo Piatti.

Csaba Szilvay tells: ”This edition started when I was looking for a piece for a seven year old student that utilized the whole fingerboard, the Colourstrings® symbols (bird-moon-sun), and the first six positions. This Etude by Piatti met my teaching requirements, but it is traditionally a piece studied by advanced players. My colleagues told me that if I gave my pupil this piece, he would be sure to quit the cello! The result was, however, the exact opposite. It quickly became his favorite piece and after performing it well, in an exam, it gave him the motivation and courage to play other repertoire. When the Etude was broken down and presented to him one bar at a time, the challenge was not at all daunting. Having seen the results of presenting this piece in a simplified way, many colleagues and students became interested in this experiment.”

The Colourstrings® method uses a colour for each string and focuses on teaching children rhythm and technique on open strings while gradually introducing them to more complicated methods.

About the Colourstrings® method:

Colourstrings® is child-centred. The materials are colourful, stimulating and entice children to embark on musical adventures that will enable each of them to fulfil their musical potential through fun and creativity, without pressure. It is an extension of the Kodály philosophy: everything starts with singing to develop inner hearing. Central to the approach is the role of play and imagination - often the value of play can be overlooked in the rush to get on with the ‘real' lesson.

Colourstrings® is a Kodaly based, child centred approach to music education that has been in existence since the early 1970's. Its originators, the Hungarian brothers Géza and Csaba Szilvay, revolutionised music education in Finland to such an extent that Colourstrings® has become an integral part of the state music school system there.

Colourstrings® has gained an outstanding reputation for the skill of its teachers, the success of its students and the inspiring ideas that drive it:

”This excellent method for the young musical generation has proved to be really very successful. It is by now a fully established method and has already produced many fine string players.” MAX ROSTAL (The Late Professor, CBE, Honorary President ESTA)