Audience: "Your student has such a great ear!"
Teacher: "No, her mother has very good eyes!"
Starting out you’ll want to give yourself some way besides just using your ear to know if your first position fingers are out of tune. Often when you purchase a student cello it comes with the tapes pre-installed. If not, I’m here to help! Even after installing tapes dozens of times, I find that I don’t always get it just right the first time. It’s tricky so don’t rush through the process and don’t be afraid to remove a tape and start over!
Once the tapes are installed it is easy to see if you are playing in tune. Younger students should take advantage of a watchful adult and older students should practice in front of a mirror. These tapes will be the foundation for you building your left hand technique by facilitating proper cello posture through the catapults exercise.
Pro Tip
Some music stores sell tape kits but I recommend you save your money and hit an autoparts store on your way home. You can get a full roll of pinstriping tape for half the cost and in a wider variety of colors.
So if tapes are so helpful why don’t professionals use them? Better yet, why aren’t cellos made with ornate lines built into the fingerboard like the inlaid purfling that surrounds the cello body? The answer is that precise intonation of any note within a melody changes due to the function of the note; it’s not absolute. String instruments, like the human voice, can raise or lower the pitch of each note such that it resonates perfectly in ratio with the root or tonic of the key. In the key of E you would play the E so that it is perfectly tuned with your tuner. In the key of F that E is called the leading tone and sounds better when it is played slightly sharp. In the key of C that E is called the mediant and sounds better when it is played slightly flat. Harmonic instruments like the piano use a more tempered system where every note, except A 440, is slightly out of tune such that every note on the piano sounds acceptable but not exactly in tune in every key.
If a professional cellist were playing perfectly in tune with the music you would see their fingers above and below the tapes as they adjust the pitch to sound perfect in the key. This skill can be taught but is most often developed intuitively with practice over time listening for a ringing tone.
When you are just starting out, the visual reminder of the tapes can be a huge help. Suzuki Book 1 only uses the keys of D, G, and C major so there is not much adjusting to be done regardless. For now, if your finger is on the tape then you are in tune! Eventually, remove the tapes and adjust intonation to the key in which you are playing.