The Bornhoff Approach: A Primer for cello by Debbie Lyle
A Comprehensive Curriculum for String Orchestra
Published by the Bornhoff Foundation for the Advancement of String Education
The Bornoff Approach – A Primer is a “how-to” guide and workbook created for those with little to no experience using the Bornoff Approach. It includes detailed instructions to support teachers for whom strings may be a secondary instrument, as well as extensive exercises for students brand new to music. It can be used with the original Bornoff’s Finger Patterns.
First formalized and published in the 1950s, Dr. Bornoff’s classroom approach still holds tremendous value for today’s string teacher. Believing that every child has not only the ability, but the right to learn a string instrument, Dr. Bornoff created a finely-tuned classroom approach which can develop conservatory-level proficiency without traditional private lessons.
Extensive discussion with great artists and teachers of his time – Fritz Kreisler, Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz, Gary Karr, Marvin Rabin, to name a few – left George Bornoff "determined that it is absolutely essential to teach students artistry in playing as well as technique--and the sooner the better!" His approach skillfully sequences and integrates bowing technique, fingering, positions, shifting, double stops, harmonics, vibrato and more, and through the use of meaningful repetition, nurtures emotional maturity, and creative and technical flexibility, firmly grounded with sonorous tone production and artistic phrasing. His groundbreaking Finger Patterns gives students fluency in most positions much earlier in an accessible manner.
