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Because of its large size, the cello can be intimidating, clumsy, and awkward for beginners. The goal in the first lessons is to feel comfortable with the instrument and to avoid bad habits that develop from poor posture and incorrect hand positions.
Posture
Before playing the instrument a beginner should learn to sit with a straight back and toward the front of the chair. Some teachers believe that the feet should be even with each other, while others instruct that one foot should be placed slightly ahead of the other. This is essentially a matter of comfort. All teachers agree that both feet should be flat on the floor with more weight on the balls of the feet than on the seat of the chair. Students should feel as though they could stand up at any moment. With their weight on the feet, students will play with a straight back and avoid the tendency to slouch or lean back.
The legs should exert a gentle pressure against the cello, which will naturally lean toward the player’s right knee. Cello teachers disagree about how much endpin to extend, but the best distance is where the student can play comfortably without leaning back or slouching. Even though good posture calls for a player to sit with a straight back on the edge of the seat, this should be a relaxed position in which the student’s arms feel free. Students with unnecessary tension in their playing position commonly hold their shoulders up high and grimace as they play, but good cello posture should be relaxed and not cause discomfort.
The Right Hand
The basic right-hand technique is best learned without the instrument, using only the bow at first. The thumb should be placed under the stick between the frog and the grip and arched so that the hand forms a backwards letter C. Teachers should check frequently that the thumb is bent properly because this is crucial to a good hand position and is difficult to see as a student plays. The middle finger should be opposite the thumb; if the stick were not there, the tip of the thumb would touch the first joint of the middle finger. The tip of the second finger should extend back to the silver ring on the frog. (Cello fingers are numbered differently than for the piano because the thumb is not numbered. The first finger is the index finger, the second is the middle finger, and so on.) The first finger then rests on the stick right next to the second finger and contacts the wood between the first and second joint.
If the thumb is bent properly, the opposition between index finger and thumb will grip the bow firmly enough to apply bow pressure on the strings when playing at the tip. The third finger covers the mother-of-pearl or dot, and both the third and fourth fingers rest behind the second finger and should curve over the stick rather than rest on top of it; these fingers help to guide the bow. When learning this position, place the turning screw on top of the right knee so the bow points upward at the ceiling and the hand position can be seen clearly, especially where each finger is placed in relation to the others. Watch for the natural tendency to bunch the fingers too closely together.
After learning the proper position, students should practice the bowing motion first on the left shoulder so that the danger of the bow dropping from its own weight is eliminated. This fear of dropping the bow often causes students to grab and grip the bow rather than holding it in position. Instead of gripping the bow like a vice, students should think of holding a ripe peach with the thumb applying some pressure but not enough to squeeze juice from the fruit. A gentle, relaxed hold on the bow will produce a bigger and fuller sound than a tight grip.
The next step is to draw the bow on an imaginary cello. Check that the fingers are curved and that the bowing motion is fairly straight. The stick should be tilted slightly toward the body, which adds slightly more sound and increases flexibility.
Finally students are ready to bow on open strings while the left hand simply rests on the left knee. Gradually add simple rhythms from any of the basic Suzuki tunes. After a student learns one rhythm, move on to a different pattern on a different string to teach how to change strings in a rocking, teeter-totter motion.
Good tone on the cello involves several sophisticated concepts that are best developed later; keep things simple at first. The early lessons should focus on bowing midway between the fingerboard and the bridge, even though much later players will learn to play at various points on the strings. Demonstrate at the first lesson the good sound produced by a straightly drawn bow in contrast with the unpleasant sounds that a bow drawn crooked will make; it may help to demonstrate a wretched sound played with a crooked stroke to show what to avoid.
The bow should always move parallel to the bridge, a concept that becomes complicated because there is a different plane for each string and accordingly, a slightly different motion to keep the bow parallel to the bridge. For example, a player will draw the bow out and away from the body on an A string down-bow, but the bow should be closer to the body on a C string down-bow. It is easiest to teach this by demonstrating how the bow should move on each string.
A useful game is for a student to examine a teacher’s bow on the string and examine it as it is placed, correctly or incorrectly, and then adjust the teacher’s arm if necessary to make the bow exactly straight on the string. To practice straight bow strokes, students should simply place the bow straight at the frog and then at the tip, and then draw the bow from the frog to the tip to learn the path in a connect-the-dots manner. It helps for beginners to watch the path of the bow in a mirror. The mirror should be placed to the left so the edge of the bridge is clearly visible. It might help to use both hands and finger a note while drawing the bow; otherwise a student could play the exercise well with the left hand at rest but draw the bow poorly when the left hand is added.
The weight of the arm should transfer from the shoulder down through the arm and to the bow, but students occasionally collapse the wrist so that it sinks below the bow or lower the elbow beneath the bow, especially on an up-bow. The weight of the arm will in-evitably sink to the lowest point, which should be the bow, but a poor position with the wrist or elbow below the bow disrupts the proper transfer of weight. If a student is told to raise the right elbow, the natural tendency is to raise the right shoulder as well; teachers should stress the distinction between moving the elbow and moving the shoulder. Raised shoulders are generally an indication of tension and should be avoided.
In addition to playing halfway between the bridge and fingerboard, beginners should also initially play with the middle part of the bow instead of drawing full bows. Beginners also tend to press too hard with the bow and draw the bow too slowly, both of which produce a scratchy tone, so tunes with faster rhythms work better than whole notes at the start. Students should work up to playing with full bows.
The Left Hand
A difficult problem for beginning cellists is the wide spacing between the fingers of the left hand in contrast to violin or viola hand positions. The spacing in the left hand causes many young cellists to struggle with intonation. Teachers are divided over whether to use tape to guide finger placement for beginners; some find it helpful while others argue that students should learn to find the proper position without stickers from the beginning. In either case students should learn to adjust their fingers based on what they hear instead of visual guides as soon as possible. If used, tape should mark the positions for the first and fourth fingers.
Many problems stem from the distance between notes played by the first and fourth fingers; notes played by the fourth finger tend to be flat. Students often place the first finger incorrectly because they take it for granted, but they should learn to hear the whole step difference between the open string and first finger. It may help to mark the third finger position so the half-step distance between third and fourth fingers is close enough.
The left-hand fingers should arch slightly. Flat fingers should never be used, and only the fleshy part of the tip should contact the string. The proper finger position enables the arm to add pressure for good contact on the string. Flat fingers, sometimes referred to as collapsed fingers, have less power in contacting the strings, and the tone suffers. Short fingernails are essential because long fingernails interfere with the contact between the fleshy tip of the fingers and the string.
The Left Thumb
The placement of the thumb greatly affects proper hand position. Whether in standard first position or in an extended position, the thumb should always be placed opposite the second finger. If the neck of the cello were to disappear as a cellist played, the thumb and the second finger would touch. It may help young players to think of the thumb and the second finger as friends who always stay together. The thumb should be arched and contact the back of the neck of the cello, never wrapped around the neck like the thumb of a guitar player because this would disrupt the balance of the hand. Although the thumb remains in the same basic position at all times, it should be mobile and slide easily from one position to another. A rigid thumb causes students to struggle with shifting and tends to clamp the hand to the fingerboard.
Even if a beginning cellist applies all of these techniques properly, a faulty left-arm position will cause problems. Most beginners allow the left arm to droop down when the hand is on the fingerboard, but this hinders the movement in shifting positions. Beginners should strive to create a gradual slope from their left hand extending out to the elbow. The left arm should not be perpendicular or parallel to the floor; halfway between is best.
After students learn the basic position they are eager to play a tune. To avoid confusing the techniques used by each hand, they should start with pizzicato. For pizzicato the right thumb should rest against the fingerboard above where a player would bow, and a song such as “Hot Cross Buns” or “Mary Had a Little Lamb” works well to start. With a piano accompaniment the tune will sound great and give the student a sense of accomplishment. Although the techniques involved in cello playing may seem complex and overwhelming to beginners, with careful instruction and a watchful eye toward common pitfalls, teachers can develop talented cellists and preclude later difficulties in playing.
