Welcome to Shifting! Third position is a great place to start shifting. Place your 1st finger where your 4th finger would normally go on the A-string. Your 1st finger is now over D. Check your 1st-finger D with the open D to make sure you are starting with the position in tune. Spending two minutes […]
F Major Two Octave Scale – 3rd Position Read More »
Time to Extend Your Playing! You already know the D major one octave scale now its time to extend your playing. A two octave D major scale means extending on the C and G strings to reach F# and C#. I highly recommend you checkout the video lesson on forward extensions where I go into more detail
D Major Two Octave Scale – with Extensions Read More »
Reach Back for Flats! So much of the music we play requires flats and the second you start adding flats to music you’ll find you need extended 1st finger. Very often students encounter backward extensions in orchestra music before the student has encountered a single flat in their solo repertoire. The Suzuki Books do not
Cello Backward Extensions – D-flat, A-flat, E-flat, B-flat Read More »
Reaching New Heights! Extensions are EVERYWHERE in cello music. Most beginner and intermediate cello music can be played with first position using forward and backward extensions. Once you are comfortable with forward and backward extensions, a whole new world of music is opened up to you. With forward extensions, you can now play in A major, D
Cello Forward Extensions – F#, C#, G#, D# Read More »
This Is Where Intermediate Begins! C Major will stretch you beginners out there into intermediate cellists. For the first time you have to combine multiple finger patterns. The string crossings with the slurs start to get trickier to coordinate. Plus you are using all 4 strings! Start on the C string, it is the fattest
C Major Two Octave Scale Read More »
G Major Is Easy and Super Helpful G major one octave scale is the second scale I teach for a number of reasons. The second half of Suzuki book 1 for cello is in G major. If you can play these simple one octave D and G Major scales then you know every note in
G Major One Octave Scale Read More »
Keep The Vibrato Party Rockin’ By now you should have a beautiful vibrato on every finger and have full control of vibrato speed such that you can color each note according to your own musical desires. If this is not the case then I highly recommend the previous 6 video lessons on vibrato! Start on
Cello Vibrato No 7 – Mastery Read More »
Play The Cello ~ Don’t Let It Play You By now you should have a beautiful, wide vibrato. This video lesson will help you develop the full range of vibrato speeds so that you can color your music with more subtlety, energy, and emotion. Vibrato is the soul of tone. You should have already developed
Cello Vibrato No 6 – Speed Control Read More »
Every Finger For As Long As You Need If you’ve made it this far then you should have a beautiful vibrato on 2nd finger but it probably comes and goes. If you vibrato on the note for more than a few seconds then don’t be surprised if your hand starts to tighten up. This is
Cello Vibrato No 5 – Every Finger Read More »
Baby Steps to Success! You are finally going to make a true vibrato! But the first step is to successfully execute a pre-vibrato. A pre-vibrato is just like vibrato in that your finger presses the string all the way to the fingerboard but instead of staying centered over a single pitch, the hand slides a
Cello Vibrato No 4 – Pre-Vibrato Read More »