# ABRSM Grade 1 Cello - Kid Safe Lessons For Neurodivergence

An episode of [Toddle Poddle](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1710389589), 18 Oct 2026, 6:31.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75850017/podcast_1792349736.mp3

Lesson by Sarnia from Continuum "Branle des Sabots" (from Orchésographie, arr. Paul Harris & Catherine Black) – Featured as List A, item A2 on the ABRSM Cello Syllabus from 2024. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/toddle-poddle--5908781/support. 👇🏼FREE KINDLE BOOKS👇🏼 https://amzn.to/474y2KX As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Apple Podcasts 🦊 🐞 👶 🌈 🦋 🦆 🐭 🐯 🦧 🍟 Rat Gang Crew Paperback Kids' Kindle Kids' Blog YOU TUBE 🦊 🐞 👶 🌈 🦋 🦆 🐭 🐯 🦧 🍟

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Hello everybody, welcome to the show, the first choice for
[0:05] Speaker 1: our ABRSM exam this season. And it's the A1 choice,
[0:13] Speaker 1: the Tuono Arbo dance, it's a dance track, fantastic, how exciting.
[0:19] Speaker 1: First off, first off we are doing a dance and
[0:23] Speaker 1: I am very excited about that for one because I
[0:25] Speaker 1: love a dance track. Now look, this was written a
[0:28] Speaker 1: very long time ago, 1520. Many, many years ago, this
[0:32] Speaker 1: gentleman was born, 1520 to 1595, and he was a cleric.
[0:36] Speaker 1: And I'm very glad he wrote it, because I love it.
[0:39] Speaker 1: Let's have a quick look at it. First of all,
[0:42] Speaker 1: it's in 4-4 time, so that's the meter. That's 1, 2, 3, 4.
[0:46] Speaker 1: It's actually 116 beats per minute, BPM.
[0:48] Speaker 2: So....
[0:55] Speaker 1: One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
[0:59] Speaker 2: One, two, three, four.
[1:01] Speaker 1: That's how our tempo should be if we're playing it
[1:05] Speaker 1: at top speed, at recommended speed. If you look at
[1:08] Speaker 1: the top there, it's got moderato, C116. Now, the problem is,
[1:16] Speaker 1: I think it's a bit nippy. I think Moderato is
[1:20] Speaker 1: understating the fact. So we're going to slow it down.
[1:23] Speaker 1: By all means, listen to it, how it should be played.
[1:25] Speaker 1: You should do, but don't get too bogged down with it.
[1:27] Speaker 1: Listen to that once, have a rest from it, pick
[1:31] Speaker 1: up your bow and your cello and play it very,
[1:36] Speaker 1: very slowly. You know, we believe in slow practice here
[1:39] Speaker 1: at Continuum. Slow practice is the key to success always.
[1:44] Speaker 1: And we're not going to try and get our 10,000
[1:46] Speaker 1: hours in by next Christmas. which is, you know, what
[1:49] Speaker 1: they try and tell you on Instagram is going to
[1:51] Speaker 1: be possible, because it's just not possible. And what we
[1:54] Speaker 1: want you to play is beautiful music, not fast music,
[1:58] Speaker 1: where you're missing out all the beautiful idiosyncrasies that are possible.
[2:03] Speaker 1: When you practice slowly, when you practice slowly, we can
[2:06] Speaker 1: really listen to the start and finish of each note,
[2:08] Speaker 1: and we can really work on technique from day one. So,
[2:13] Speaker 1: how are we starting off? We're starting off on the
[2:16] Speaker 1: root note, the C note. And it's a loud note. Now,
[2:19] Speaker 1: this is tricky for us musicians, for us cellists, because
[2:24] Speaker 1: coming down and zooming, you know, going straight in to
[2:28] Speaker 1: a loud note, and it's quite a slow note, it's
[2:32] Speaker 1: two counts, means we've got to get it right. We've
[2:36] Speaker 1: got to get it spot on. And we're going to
[2:38] Speaker 1: be using our fourth finger for that as well. So
[2:40] Speaker 1: we're using our rather pathetic pinkie. So there's a lot
[2:44] Speaker 1: going on in that first note, a lot depending on it.
[2:46] Speaker 1: So what you really have to focus on while you're
[2:48] Speaker 1: playing that is making sure your bow is nice and perpendicular.
[2:53] Speaker 1: Or the contact point of the string and the bow
[2:59] Speaker 1: hair is not an X. It's a cross. It's a
[3:02] Speaker 1: plus sign, not a kiss, OK? So that's one thing
[3:05] Speaker 1: to be very aware of. Let's... Let's talk about singing
[3:11] Speaker 1: and the importance of singing in your head before you
[3:15] Speaker 1: even start. If you imagine singing the note, you will
[3:19] Speaker 1: do so much better. I can't sing deep, that deep
[3:24] Speaker 1: C adequately, so I go up an octave. But whatever
[3:30] Speaker 1: you do, however you get it, as long as you're
[3:31] Speaker 1: pitching it correctly, even if you're in a higher register,
[3:34] Speaker 1: that's absolutely fine. As long as you've got the melody
[3:36] Speaker 1: and everything. But, you know, you should really know it
[3:40] Speaker 1: just by heart as soon as possible, which is why
[3:43] Speaker 1: it's a really good idea to keep listening to the
[3:46] Speaker 1: recording that the ABRSM have released officially. That's a really
[3:51] Speaker 1: good idea to do that. Unfortunately, I can't play it
[3:53] Speaker 1: here for copyright reasons, but I can. I can I
[3:56] Speaker 1: can sing it a bit. So that's what we shall do.
[3:59] Speaker 1: We shall be singing things. I'm going to slow the
[4:02] Speaker 1: speed down, guys, to about, I think, 90.
[4:07] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[4:08] Speaker 1: And I think that's just much more doable for us, actually.
[4:12] Speaker 1: Let's have a little let's count in in 90 and
[4:18] Speaker 1: see how that sounds.
[4:22] Speaker 2: One, two, three, four. One and two and three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, rest. One, rest. Two, rest.
[4:36] Speaker 1: Right, you'll notice there's a big contrast from the early
[4:44] Speaker 1: loudness to that final bar. When we contrast with the
[4:48] Speaker 1: first bar completely by doing it really quietly... and also
[4:52] Speaker 1: creating a space between the notes. So we started off with...
[4:59] Speaker 1: And we ended up with.
[5:03] Speaker 1: Very different, isn't it? Same note, bit of a rest
[5:07] Speaker 1: in between both, and a really different attack, a really
[5:12] Speaker 1: different definition of the note. Because all we've done, actually,
[5:16] Speaker 1: is played it quietly. And isn't it amazing how Playing
[5:20] Speaker 1: it quietly and sticking a rest in between the notes
[5:23] Speaker 1: makes such a difference to the whole sense of the
[5:26] Speaker 1: movement of the dance. So we're going from this quite,
[5:31] Speaker 1: I would say, important beginning and start and the second
[5:37] Speaker 1: bar with this little flurry.
[5:42] Speaker 2: Slowly, of course.
[5:43] Speaker 1: And then we're keeping quite a regular pace And then
[5:50] Speaker 1: suddenly at the end there, we're completely contrasting with something
[5:54] Speaker 1: actually quite beautiful. So I think work on those bits.
[5:58] Speaker 1: Really understand that this is a piece, it's a dance.
[6:01] Speaker 1: And originally what would have happened is this dance would
[6:04] Speaker 1: have sped up as it went on. It would be
[6:07] Speaker 1: repeats and it would get faster and faster. It would
[6:09] Speaker 1: be chaos, absolute chaos, but great fun. Everybody would be
[6:12] Speaker 1: laughing and stamping their clogs and it would be really super.
[6:15] Speaker 1: What they've done here is they've made it all the
[6:18] Speaker 1: same pace. so that it's a bit easier for us
[6:22] Speaker 1: grade one ABRSM people. But they've given us a lot
[6:26] Speaker 1: of lovely contrast and a lot to get our teeth into.

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