Right and Left Hand

Visual example demonstrating cello right-hand technique and cello bow hold

The right hand and the bow

The bow is what makes the sound and can change it. We should put a lot of care into how we hold the bow and what effect it does for the sound.

Visual example demonstrating cello right-hand technique - cello bow hold and the thumb

Points of attention:

Feel a good grip of the bow, feel every finger

Remind yourself to relax the thumb
Adjust the bow grip according to how it sounds
All fingers most of the time should be round and flexible

Visual example demonstrating cello left-hand technique in 3rd position

Visual example demonstrating cello left-hand technique in 1st position

The Left Hand on the Fingerboard

The left hand has a place on the fingerboard where it enables us to play many different notes.

Visual example demonstrating cello left-hand technique in 1st position - player view

Points of attention:

Feel the string under every finger

Remind yourself to relax the thumb
Use the weight of the arm, hand and fingers to firmly place the string on the fingerboard
Keep all the fingers rounded

After this we jump right into the topic of the 1st position.

If you wish to leap to other topics, the links are at the bottom.