Posted by Gabriel Villasurda on January 09, 2008 at 10:04:44:
In Reply to: What to do with advanced cellist? posted by Kelly on January 08, 2008 at 12:30:41:
These are the kinds of "problems" that teachers LOVE to solve. It will call upon you as a teacher to be creative.
Keep going with the scales as you mention. You might also have a look at the free materials on my website: www.stringskills.com
The scales and "outside" materials are great for your cellist to prepare on her own. It would be great if you could continue to have her play with the rest of your class on a daily basis.
You might consider doing one or more of the following:
1. Transcribe your unison class materials up an octave. i hope you know at least one notation software program. If not learn it.
This may also involve the use of tenor clef, something your girl will need down the road. Beg, bribe or pay some decent adult cellist to finger them for you. The girl's private teacher should be willing to help if you offer to treat him/her to a lovely home-cooked dinner. A good cellist could finger 10 pages in under an hour. I'll bet you that if you prepared the notation, you could get someone from this very chat group willing to help you out. You could even do it all by e-mail.
2. Write special "descant" parts for your soloist that harmonize with what your "regular" kids are playing. Give your soloist a chance to shine by playing the descant alone then put it together with the whole class.
Great teachers know how to keep their "stars" stimulated and how to use the situation to "raise all boats." I'll bet that once you get your cello girl playing the descants, you'll catch some other player (even on a different instrument) trying to get in on the action. Seize the opportunity to stimulate that player too.
When I taught 5th grade beginners in a school where there were scads of 10-year advanced Suzuki players I took this approach. Over the years I created quite a collection of descants. Some had a fiddle flavor, some were just parallel 3rds and 6ths. The sky's the limit.
You might give us some idea what your "regular" kids are playing--name of the method book and page number. Maybe someone out here in cyberspace will give you more concrete ideas.
Gabriel Villasurda
Michigan