The
PROPER POPPER
PRACTICE PROJECT

A comprehensive, step-by-step course
to learn all 40 Popper Cello Etudes
in just one year...
and unlock your best practice.

April 23rd, 2024 Update:
I’m Accepting Applications for the Next Cohort
Which Closes May 1.

The best part?

This adds right on to your normal practice... there are play-along practice tracks, video lessons, and it's all outlined for you and can be in as little as an hour a day... straight from the edition I created with San Francisco Conservatory professor Richard Aaron.

“Just want to say… I consider this course so far to be some of the best money I've ever spent, it's had a huge impact on my practice and teaching, and I find I'm able to learn things much faster applying these methods. Thanks for all the work you're putting into this, and knowledge you're sharing with us.”
— Conservatory-trained professional, Week 5

Dear Cello Buddy,

If you'd like to level up your playing, your practice, and your confidence at the cello in the next year, then brace yourself... it's about to get real.

Hi, my name is Eric Moore. You might know me from my sheet music company, Cello Loft. I arrange, compose, and publish music for absolute beginners to the most advanced cellists.

16 years ago, I graduated from the University of Michigan, summa cum laude, as a triple major (BM Cello Performance, BM Music Theory, BM Music History). My cello teacher, Richard Aaron, approached me about working to publish a new edition of the Popper Etudes.

It changed my practice, my teaching, and my life.

At the time, I had already played all 40 etudes - as freshmen and sophomores, Richard had us learn and perform an etude a week for each other... at 8:30 Saturday mornings. To be fair, we were in Cleveland then… and it's not like there was a lot to do there on a Friday night ;)

But playing first thing in the morning for peers was a little intimidating. And that extra kick of encouragement means we all got through them at a high level.

Full admission: during college, I hated the Popper Etudes. I mean, I gave it my all, but I didn't really see the point.

They're technique studies, right? But they're really only technique studies for one kind of music - late German romantic music. My own performance interests lay outside of Brahms and Mahler and Wagner... so why play these 40 etudes?

Well, after working with Richard Aaron one-on-one to make a completely new edition of the Popper Etudes from scratch, I finally got it.

17 Drafts.

That's how many edits we did on this edition.

I entered in all 76 pages into the sheet music software, Sibelius. He handwrote fingerings and bowings. I entered them.

Then we got together and played all 40 through. Philosophies were discussed. Edits were made.

Then back to the drawing board. What could we include or change to help students get to the etudes as quickly and efficiently as possible? I added rehearsal marks to clarify the sections. Then I added repeats, DC's. Changed some key signatures.

We also standardized his unique fingering system for "Set Shifts" which are now used in dozens of other cello publications.

And as we cranked out draft after draft, I got an inside glimpse into how and why he teaches what he does. I to turn out some of the most successful cellists of this generation.

You see, when I was learning them (from another edition), I'd had it all wrong. Hence the new edition.

Here's what Etudes are all about...

There are a lot of philosophies about whether you should do etudes.

It's the kind of thing cello teachers get into fistfights about! Ok not really - our hands are too precious for that ;)

But some teachers think that etudes are indispensable to refine your technique. Others think that they're a waste of time and you can learn the technique straight from real music.

Both these sides miss the point:

Etudes aren't another just one more thing to practice -

Etudes teach you how to practice.

Each technical focus comes up in cello literature. You shouldn't learn the technique from the etudes, you should learn how to practice that technique when it comes up.

“I’ve been using this in my practice for my cello teacher and I just learn it all so much faster.”
—High school student

Here's why the
Popper Etudes
are so great…

The Popper Etudes stand out among cello etudes.

I publish the 12 Franchomme Etudes, op. 35. They're fantastic (and simpler) and they're hilarious.

I've also played the complete Duport Etudes from the manuscript. The Grutzmacher Etudes. The 12 Piatti Caprices. The six Servais Caprices. Popper's 10 Etudes, op. 76. Franchomme op. 1. I've played them all.

But the Poppers remain the most important for a reason:

They're such a thorough exploration of the problems one can encounter while playing the cello.

For example, you're probably not playing Beethoven 7 or Wagner's Lohengrin in the immediate future. But if you use Popper 19 as a practice experiment, you'll find that those (and similar pieces) are way easier when you do play them. You'll develop a toolkit to contend with precise, expedient arpeggios in alternating string crossing patterns derived from odd-numbered tuplet groupings!

(I mean, isn’t that the motivational goal you have taped to your bathroom mirror?)

You'll be the envy of your friends! The talk of the town!

Yes, this is truly the stuff dreams are made of ;)

…And here are the most
improper Popper problems

I had a friend in Budapest copy the manuscript of the Poppers from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music so that I could do research on the original.

What can I say? There was no IMSLP and no Netflix.

So after that research, it turns out that the Poppers were published 10 at a time - not as a set of 40. And they were published in no particular order (!) and not arranged in any specific pedagogical way (?!)

Cellists who want to tackle them on their own need a guide to figure out where to start.

Richard and I spent a lot of time talking about how to put them into a pedagogically-sound order, but eventually decided not to do to our edition what had been done to the Duport Etudes... without the manuscript no one has any idea which etude is actually which number, which leads to a lot of unnecessary confusion.

An aside - a few of the more famous etudes attributed to Jean-Louis Duport were, in fact, composed by his twin brother, Jean-Pierre. #TheMoreYouKnow #TheCoolerYou'llBe #ThereWereThingsToDoInClevelandOnFridayNights #IJustWasn'tInvited

There's also a recurring criticism that many of Popper's etudes cover too many techniques at once. For instance, if you’re going to practice upbow and downbow staccato using Popper 14, why not just do Grutzmacher 13 (adding staccato)? Then, you won't have to worry about practicing artificial harmonics in a right-arm etude, too.

But it turns out that those little passages of unexpected technical challenge are the most important parts of the publication!

“When you introduced [one of the practice techniques], I started teaching it to my own students and saw instant progress. I couldn’t believe it.”
— An enrolled cello teachers, with the sentiment echoed by three other cello teachers.

So here's what the Popper Etudes are all about:

The Popper Etudes are a laboratory in which cellists should run experiments.

Each etude is your chance to experiment to concoct your most efficient practice regimen.

Do you learn music fastest by running the whole piece through? Or by practicing in strict four measure sections? By practicing a complete phrase? Or by memorizing it while you learn it? By singing it through? By playing with a recording? By echoing a few notes at a time with someone guiding you?

Can you speed up a high passage most accurately by slowly increasing the metronome? By practicing in bursts? By adding rhythm patterns? By adding double stops? By adding in set shifts and then gradually removing them?

The etudes are not about mastering the technique, they're about mastering your approach to the technique.

And if you approach them this way, you can learn all 40 in a single year.

“This sounds really hard... 76 pages is a lot!”

That's what I thought when I was tackling them as a freshman!

90 minutes of my practice day was already taken by scales, arpeggios, and double stops.

Then I had school orchestra music.
And chamber music.
And gig music for local orchestras I played with.

Then I had my actual lesson music. I remember a string of weeks when Richard had me prepare a different, complete, memorized concerto for three lessons in a row (Shchedrin 1, Saint-Saens 1, Elgar)!

And of course, I was doing all this while taking the coursework to complete a triple major.

And yet, somehow, I got it done. Week after week, at 8:30 on Saturday mornings, I'd play polished Popper Etudes at tempo for my peers.

If the Poppers had been a part of my normal lessons, I never would have had time to crank through all 40 with Richard and also learn the repertoire I did during college.

But because they were outside of my normal lesson, they occupied a different space in my day - like a separate class for which I had to do homework.

Somehow, when it's set up as just another thing to do in our daily checklist - and we're being held accountable - we find a way.

Especially when that accountability is externally-imposed, e.g. you're playing it for other people (who know it well) at this time on this day.

And the thing is, I never could have done it without that structure. If I had gotten out of college and thought, "man, I should really learn the 40 Popper Etudes..." it never would have happened.

It's too easy to say, "well, I get the gist of this etude." Flip to the next one, get the gist... and for other priorities to creep in.

It's really the accountability of knowing you have to play it for others that did it.

So long as you're advanced enough to have a few concertos under your belt, you can learn the 40 Popper Etudes in a year.

Especially with a guide who's been there...

I've had students as young as
11 years old complete
all 40 Popper Etudes...

And guess what? I can assign them any piece of music and they can tackle it (no, like seriously. Solo part to Boulez’ Messagesquisse? Sure. Dutilleux’s cello concerto Tout un Monde Lointain? No problem.)

It's remarkable. The weirdest and most avant-garde experimental stuff (my own bread and butter) they know how to tackle. Extended bow techniques in quarter tones (or narrower) within a nested tuplet...

They can do that.

And it's not because we've worked on extended techniques extensively or quarter tones extensively or nested tuplets extensively… though that sounds like a pretty fun Friday night to me! #AintNoPartyLikeAQuarterToneParty

It's that they've figured out how to contend with each and every problem they face in the practice room.

...and they didn't have me there
guiding their practice
each and every day.

Even though it's possible to teach all 40 Etudes during a conventional one-hour week lesson, I've decided that it's really not enough if you want to dive deep into their true purpose: mastering your own practice.

Now you're probably thinking, "I'm an advanced player! I've already mastered my practice - I've learned some concertos, won awards, sat first chair year after year..."

So what's the difference between an advanced player and a professional?

Professionals have a practice system.

Explored thoughtfully, a single pass through the 40 Etudes will save you thousands (yes, THOUSANDS) of practice hours over your cello career.

I know because I specialize in performing the most difficult contemporary cello music out there. My practice revolves around nested tuplets, quarter tones, extended techniques, and unconventional notation systems.

Here's an excerpt of a piece I commissioned and recently performed:

Repertoire that would have taken me weeks to learn when I was "advanced" only takes a few hours now.

And it's all because I've experimented for years to find my most efficient practice system.

It's so systematized, I can tell you the six steps I take with each and every piece of music I need to learn.

My answer may not be yours... I've run hundreds of practice experiments over the years. And during over 10,000 hours of teaching, I’ve guided my own students through them, too.

But don't worry about running years of experiments...

Because I've got great news:

I've created a comprehensive, step-by-step course to help YOU complete The Richard Aaron Edition of all 40 Popper Etudes

In just ONE year...

(And learn how to master your practice itself.)

It’s called…

The Proper Popper Practice Project

A year-long course
that will help you
master your practice
and your technique.

“A lot of fun!”
— A surprising number of these students, emailed to me out of the blue. I mean… it’s the Popper Etudes!

Apply Now

You'll go from "yeah... this is impossible" to "yeah... I got this!" over the next 52 weeks.

I created this course to teach you everything you need to know to tackle all 40 Popper Etudes.

This course is designed to help you level up your practice (and by extension, your playing):

Using the 40 Popper Etudes as the vessel, I will share my 40 favorite practice techniques with you and I'll help you:

Learn all 40 Popper Etudes, using the revolutionary edition by University of Michigan and Juilliard Professor Richard Aaron's to master your technique
Design and run 50 (yes, 50!) practice experiments to master your practice
Save 1000's of hours of practice in just 90 minutes a day.

In order to do this, I've organized the 40 etudes into 10 modules of four etudes each, organized by technical theme (in order of difficulty), so you’re not diving straight into thumb position double stop trills ;)

Each etude has bite-sized videos that can be easily referred back to, plus guided practice-with-me tracks to explore 40 different practice experiments.

You'll be part of an intimate community of cellists who are on a similar journey and get direct feedback from me along the way.

And by the end, you checklist types will be able to mark off the 40 Popper Etudes from your to-play list ✅

I am currently working with the first and second cohorts.
Click here to join the newsletter for information about the next launch.

April 8, 2024: I am accepting applications for the third cohort: CLICK HERE

Teachers click here

This all sounds great! So what’s the plan?

During each 5-week module, you'll play 4 etudes.

Each week, you'll be practicing two Popper etudes - one that you started last week and one that’s new this week.

You'll watch a video guide to the etude that explores what I'm thinking about for each etude.

You'll watch a video guide to a practice method to experiment with in conjunction with this etude.

You’ll be able to practice with me through 60-minute and 30-minute guided practice tracks.

After each 4-etude module, we’ll have a masterclass where you’ll play one etude for your cohort. They’ll be super fun and supportive and full of puns, but I’m sure you will be nervous. That’s ok - there are 10 weeks of practice experiments that relate to performance anxiety, so the masterclasses are experiments, too.

What will I need to do?

Straight up, this is a big commitment.

I think if you're an efficient practicer (and by the end of our experiments, you will be!), you can learn any of the Popper Etudes in two weeks: 60 minutes a day the first week, 30 minutes a day the second. That's about 10 hours per etude. You’ll be working on two etudes each week, so you’ll need to plan on about 90 minutes per day.

You’ll choose one etude to polish for two extra weeks extra in addition to the masterclass; don’t worry, your practice time will stay at 90 minutes max.

So, what’s included in the course?

Videos to making learning them MUCH faster - $16,500 value

(Think of this as a 90-minute session with a personal trainer for your practice… every day.)

Video Lessons detailing unique Practice Experiments to level up your practice for all 40 Etudes, grouped by theme and in order of difficulty (40 at $100 per video)
Tips, Tricks, and Traps for all 40 Etudes (40 at $100 per video)
60-minute Play-along Practice Tracks for all 40 Etudes (40 at $100 per video)
30-minute Play-along Practice Tracks for all 40 Etudes (40 at $50 per video)
Bonus videos including topics like Cross-rhythms, Harmonics, and an entire series on tricks to conquer Performance Anxiety (25 at $100 per video)

Masterclasses - $1,500 value

10 Masterclasses and Discussions - we’ll find a time where everyone can meet to talk, ask questions, and commiserate ($150 per masterclass)

Materials & Swag - $185 value

PDF Download of the Popper Etudes ($25 value)
Printed Copy of the Popper Etudes ($35 value)
Exclusive PDF’s with supplemental markings for your Popper Etudes ($50 value)
My Pedagogical Guide to teaching the Popper Etudes ($50 value)
Proper Popper Practice Project T-Shirt ($25 value)
Proper Popper Practice Project Stickers for your cello case and computer
Certificate of Completion
Extreme Bragging Rights

This is swell, but is it really necessary?

A few of the freshmen my year in Richard Aaron's class had gone through all 40 Popper Etudes before they even auditioned for college.

And during my last year of high school, I studied with two teachers at the same time - one for repertoire and one for technique.

If you're looking to audition for college (undergrad or masters) and you haven't played the 40 Poppers, you are at a disadvantage. And if you're auditioning for Richard Aaron's studio, having not learned them (let alone from his edition) is almost unthinkable.

It is entirely possible that without a support network, accountability, or instruction, an incredibly motivated cellist could learn all 40 Popper Etudes, but honestly that thought is daunting, isn’t it?

It’s worth mentioning that I have a tenure-track University cello professor with a Doctorate from a conservatory who is not only currently enrolled, but also started studying with me privately because of this course.
It’s that good.

Invest in Your Playing

If you were to come study with me privately, and we spent the whole year on Popper, you'd be at my normal private studio rate of $600/month.

So for a 52-week course, I really should be charging at least $7,200.

Not to mention the hundreds of hours of additional materials that I will provide to help you speed through them...
Plus, printed, digital, and annotated copies of the Poppers…
And a guide to teaching them yourself…
And a community to learn with and hold you accountable…
And the most important part - that sweet, sweet swag.

With all that included the total cost of the course should be $18,185

But I know you're probably still studying with a primary teacher, and lessons are expensive!

And though it’s fair to say I’m one of the leading experts in the world on these etudes, I wanted to make this course more accessible.

The course is priced at $2950

That’s $15,235 off the total packaged price (and $5150 off studying them with me privately for one year).

Except if you enroll by Friday, March 29, 2024…

I’m offering it $400 off - a special price of $2550

Total savings - $15,635.

This will be the last time I offer it at such a low price, I only allow five people per cohort, and it’s first-come first-served by application.

So if you’re ready to level up your practice and save thousands of hours practicing over your cello career, then it’s time to: