Answers, without copy-pasting from the terms of service.

Primarily middle and high school cello students — players in school orchestra, taking private lessons, or prepping for auditions — and anyone else picking up the instrument, including returning adults. The voice is serious without being stuffy; the curriculum is paced for real students, not for casual tappers.

The theory curriculum needs nothing but your eyes and ears. For the cello curriculum — technique, bowing, intonation — you'll want an instrument in the room. Arco will wait patiently if you're still sourcing one.

Yes, and in fact especially. The curriculum is designed for people who've never held a bow, for school orchestra students in their first or second year, and for players returning after a long absence. It assumes intelligence, not knowledge.

That's the common case. Arco is built to supplement private lessons and school orchestra — not to replace them. A lot of students use it for the visual theory and the daily short sessions between lesson days. Bring compositions to your teacher; show them the progress ledger.

Yes. The triptych (staff + keyboard + fingerboard, in sync) is how a lot of our users finally understand intervals, key signatures, and chord construction — because theory stops being abstract the moment you can see it on the fingerboard.

Arco isn't a library of videos. It's an interactive workbook — you read, you play, you write, you hear. Everything is built on representations that move. A video is a document that stares back at you; Arco is one you can push on.

Yes. The playback engine uses actual recorded bowed cello across the instrument's range, with a soft bow attack, gentle vibrato on sustained notes, and a warm room. There's no MIDI cheerfulness here.

A=440 and A=442 out of the box. A=415 is available in Settings for those working through baroque repertoire. Adjusting the reference retunes the playback engine accordingly.

Yes. Sign up with your email, add payment, then change the sign-in email or hand over the password to the student. Billing can stay with you if you'd like.

In one click from your account page. You keep access until the end of the period you paid for. No phone calls, no retention dark patterns.

If something went wrong inside your first fortnight — the product isn't what you expected, you charged it by accident — write to us and we refund. We don't argue.

Yes. Compositions export as MusicXML and MIDI. You can delete your account (and everything in it) whenever you like. We save a backup for thirty days and then it is gone.

Because you're paying upfront. It's a quieter, more committed relationship — and cheaper for us to run, which we pass along.

Not yet. The site works well on phones and tablets, and the hero / triptych are fully responsive. A proper native app is on the roadmap for the year ahead.