Groove cello academy
Join the groove cello movement - a swarm of creative cellists revolutionizing their musical lives with rhythmic vitality and infusing their jamming with epic feel and grace. Engage in our LIVE Community Curriculum, consisting of courses, libraries, chats, Momentum Groups, classes, Q&As, prompts, workouts, and a logical flow to keep you moving.
Unlock your groove playing and become the jamming-est cellist you know. Sign up right now.
$97/month - gain access to everything below AND MORE
What is the live Community Curriculum?
Groove Cello Academy is a space for real growth. This isn’t some quick fix 2-week crash course. And it’s not just a random open-access video course.
Growth takes work. Growth takes community.
Joining the Academy Community space
puts you into the shared experience we all need.
Community Curriculum is a course walkthrough paced for real humans.
live zoom group classes
office hours Q&A sessions
web and mobile app access
momentum chat groups
open access member interaction in feeds, chats, and direct messages
personal profiles, customizable notifications
guided walkthrough of our game-changing courses
daily/weekly prompts for discussion, practice direction, inspiration
downloads of crazy resources like backing tracks, cheat sheets, and info graphics
new major course yearly, new small content monthly
12 months topical content walkthrough (more details below), followed by continued community activity (and annually refreshed topical content)
monthly subscription; interrupt/cancel anytime
GCA community
Login on web, Android, and iOS apps to connect with your teacher and other students. Access courses, resources like backing tracks and chord sheets, chats & feeds, build your own chat groups, and get your fix of inspiration and collaboration.
Get notifications of new activity, catch live stream video from teachers and other students. Post, like, and comment, in threaded conversations. Moderators involved daily to keep us positive and on-topic.
Practice prompts and challenges to keep us moving! Daily, weekly, monthly rhythms of content and classes.
This is the heart of your GCA membership.
more details on the
LIVE community Curriculum
MONTHLY: Every month we explore a different topic or skill set essential to playing sizzling groove cello.
WEEKLY: Every month you'll get a week-by-week subtopic flow, curated for you via posts, practice prompts, live streams, and office hours.
GROUP CLASS: The week-by-week flow culminates in our monthly group class, where we'll apply what we've learned and kickoff our next month's topic.
CAMP SEASON: The month-by-month flow culminates in "camp season" when all are encouraged to attend a destination camp of any genre, especially those that include jamming.
2023-24 CURRICULUM TOPICS by month:
SEPTEMBER. Mapping Month. Cello fingerboard explorations, boxes, patterns, scales, arpeggios, pentatonics/blues, ear training.
OCTOBER: Chord Month. All the cello chords. Boxes, 2-note, 3-note, 4-note, chords-in-keys, borrowed chords, altered chords, jazz chords, voice leading.
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: Chop & Groove* Month(s). Baseline patterns, dicing, layering, challenges, meters (4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 5/8, 7/8, etc), micro grooves, improvising grooves, new groove library entries, all our best tips and tricks and moves
JANUARY: Fingerpicking & Basslines. Jazz cello pizzicato technique, cello fingerpicking patterns, bassline styles (bluegrass, boogie, salsa, jazz walking, etc), Bossa Nova pattern
FEBRUARY: Jazz. Chord-scale method, blues, bebop, diminished, modes, chords & voice leading, comping
MARCH: Chord Progressions. Ear training for chord motions, typical progressions (bluegrass, Celtic, blues, jazz, general), creating progressions, reharmonizing tunes
APRIL: Music Theory. Key build-outs, how to build chords, side-by-side scale comparisons, ear training, loads of Q&A.
MAY: Backups (Arranging lite). Build cello chop & chord backups for favorite tunes, arranging, phrasing, What makes a good backup?
JUNE (camp season): tunes, styles, jamming. Highlighting common jam tunes in various genres, specific style points, jamming etiquette, jamming mentality, stories from camp, NEW tunes we just learned at camp!
JULY (camp season): tunes, styles, jamming. More cello jams more times.
AUGUST (camp season): tunes, styles, jamming. That "mountain top" feeling. Mmmmmm... momentum.
* to be clear, every month is “chop & groove” month. It’s the Groove Cello Academy after all. We’re always on this train. This is just the season we hyperfocus on curriculum, concepts, and bringing it all together
Fundamentals of groove
Fundamentals of Groove is your guide to a trustworthy foundation in groove cello. Build your technical skills, explore your creative voice, discover tools for building your own grooves, deepen your rhythmic integrity, and improvise in a groove-based jam setting!
included with your GCA membership (valued at $249)
chords course 1
The building blocks of our harmony, the standard forms you need for all your left hand chord work, just enough music theory to get you jamming right away. These chords are great for chopping, strumming, fingerpicking, you name it. Chord graphs for everything and sheet music for some of the more complex exercises.
included with your GCA membership (valued at $149)
3d chop - next level
3D Chop is a three-piece toolkit of chop techniques. Putting them all together gives you a complete percussion package for jamming. Now you can play bass, chords, and drums all at once.
included with your GCA membership (valued at $75)
advanced chop & groove
Level up your cello grooves from medium to parkour. This is where we access your creative freedom and build the epic-est, jamming-est patterns.
Improvise your grooves for real. Understand and internalize the guts of any groove. And learn two advanced chop etudes.
included with your GCA membership (valued at $149)
shady grove II - solo groove
Groove hard on solo cello, in bluegrass style! This is your extensive introduction to bluegrass/country folk style, bowing techniques, and improvisation over a tune.
included with your GCA membership (valued at $149)
tunes library
[only with monthly subscription to Groove Cello Academy]
An ever-growing bank of the best traditional tunes for cello. Demos, sheet music, tips & tricks, and backup grooves for each.
included with your GCA membership (invaluable)
groove library
[only with monthly subscription to Groove Cello Academy]
An ever-growing bank of micro-grooves in various styles and time signatures. Expand your vocabulary of rhythmic and chop patterns and master the art of the improvised groove.
included with your GCA membership (invaluable)
group class
Join our LIVE group classes on Zoom. Guided practice, workouts, new grooves & skills, jamming, backing tracks, Q&A and good hang.
included with your GCA membership (valued at $50)