Freedom of the Fingerboard
£8.50
Some simple exercises to help young cellists to develop a confident left-hand technique
Composer: Joan Dickson
Instrumentation: Cello
Suitable for all young cellists wishing to feel at home all over the fingerboard
Download editions are supplied as a single PDF containing the double bass part and piano accompaniment
Proceeds from the sale of this booklet go to the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund
Description
In the words of Joan Dickson:
This book contains a series of short exercises suitable for students “as soon as they know the sound of a diatonic scale and can sing in tune.”
“In the early exercises the shifts are no larger than a tone or a semitone, and as the move is always to a note that has just been played, its exact place and the sound of it are already known”
“Exercises involving the thumb are included very soon, as also are high jumps and big slides”
“The aim of these exercises is to ensure that long before pupils meet high positions in pieces they should feel at home all over the fingerboard, and not be scared stiff (like I was and many others before and after me) of anything above fifth position.”
ISMN: 979-0-708191-37-7
Joan Dickson
Joan Dickson (1921 – 1994)
Joan Dickson was born into a very musical Edinburgh family, and throughout her childhood friends and family members gathered regularly to enjoy playing together, fostering her lifelong love of chamber music. She became internationally known as a cellist, an inspired teacher and a chamber musician of distinction: she was a founder member of the Edinburgh Quartet and later joined the Scottish Trio.
Joan was a close friend of Nannie Jamieson and a founder member of the British branch of the European String Teachers’ Association (ESTA). She served on its Executive Committee for many years and was Chairman from 1990-1992. The exercises in Freedom of the Fingerboard were first created for ESTA workshops and have proved very popular in Britain and many other countries.
Freedom of the Fingerboard was first published, by ESTA, in 1993 and Joan generously gave the proceeds from the sales of the publication to the Nannie Jamieson Nutshell Fund. This fund provides bursaries for students and established teachers who are ESTA members and wish to attend workshops and short courses to develop their teaching skills.
For Joan, chamber music was the essence of all that is great in music and she saw it as infinitely beneficial in the development of young players so in 1997 ESTA established the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund in her memory. The fund provides bursaries to enable pupils of ESTA members to attend chamber music courses and to help provide opportunities for children to play chamber music.
To mark the 30th anniversary of Joan’s death, this new edition of Freedom of the Fingerboard is published and with the permission of her executors the proceeds from the sales will now go to the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund.
