Take a second, think about that…okay, feel alright? Now, your fourth finger is on C a half step above C [4] on G. To review, 1 on A, 3 on B, and 4 on C , all on the G string. Half position is our normal first position, just down a half step. If we use A as an example, this means that we will have our first finger on Bb, 2 on B, 3 on C, and 4 on C.
These concepts are all very important to the foundation of cello playing. Please learn first position as shown in the cello fingering chart above first. When you feel like you can get around perfectly in first position and your repertoire allows it, play around with the extended and half position.
Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Blog Menu. Blog Home. Cello , Music November 5, Sign up successful. In the neck positions, we cover an interval of a minor or major third from the first to fourth fingers — a minor third in closed positions and a major third in stretch or extended positions.
In closed positions we play semitones between adjacent fingers and whole tones between the first and third fingers or second and fourth fingers. In stretch positions we play semitones between the second and third or third and fourth fingers; whole tones between the first and second or second and fourth fingers; and an augmented second equivalent in sound to a minor third between the first and third fingers.
This is shown in fig. With the arm extended forward, even when the fingers remain at roughly a ninety degree angle to the strings, it is difficult to use the fourth finger without introducing a significant level of strain to the forearm. For this reason, and the fact that the intervals are physically closer together, we adopt the three finger system form fifth position onwards. Now whole tones can be played between the first and second fingers or the second and third fingers, which maintains the maximum interval of a major third within one position.
Just like first to fourth positions, each position from fifth to seventh has variants upper and lower versions and extensions. Fig 6 shows the extended position where there is a whole tone between the first and second fingers F — G ; and the second and third fingers G — A. Chromatic variations within the position must be addressed by moving one finger while keeping the rest of the position stationary. Take a look at the following sequence, which occurs within one position upper fifth in the range of a minor third:.
The second finger is a semitone above the first finger in bars 1 and 2; and a whole tone above in bars 3 and 4. The first and third fingers remain in place so that the position itself remains stationary.
The following exercise will help to develop stability in a stationary three finger position with chromatic variation, and should be repeated in all variants of fifth, sixth and seventh positions as you become familiar with them.
Typically, the first three finger position we encounter on the cello is upper fifth. There are many exceptions. During this time, and before Renaissance music , much of the music that we might play nowadays on the cello, was still written for instruments of the Viola da Gamba family, of which even the bass version has a higher range than the cello the standard frets go up at least to a C.
The smaller tenor and treble Gambas go even higher, so we can find Renaissance music for Gamba that uses very high registers see Ortiz: Ricercares. The most well-known example of this difference in range between gamba and cello is shown to us by the Bach Gamba Sonatas.
If we play them on the cello, we are obliged to use the Intermediate Region with and without Thumb Position whereas in the first five Bach Solo Cello Suites we never need to go above the Neck Region. Obviously, music written for a five string cello will require the use of the high registers if we play it on a cello with only 4 strings. In the Baroque and Classical periods, five string cellos were much more common than nowadays. Advancing on to the Classical Period now, Schubert never took the cello above the Intermediate Region.
Even his Arpeggione Sonata , if played as intended on a five string instrument, only very rarely and briefly goes up into the Thumb Region. Certainly playing it on one would bring it back to a level of difficulty comparable with his C major concerto and other music of the period.
Composers were and are limited by the technical abilities of the musicians who played their music. The fact that Bach never used the higher registers on the cello probably shows that no cellist in his court was familiar or comfortable with these higher registers.
The Cello Sonatas by Salvatore Lanzetti, published in , use the higher registers and require the thumb frequently, because Lanzetti was both a cello virtuoso and composer. The same principle applies to composers of the Classical Period.
We can suppose that this, as in the case of Bach, was because none of his cellists were comfortable or secure up there.
In symphonic and chamber music repertoire of all epochs, there is — and always has been — less reason to take the cello up high, as there are all those other instruments on the same stage for which the higher registers are their natural registers.
Why make a tuba play like a trumpet when you have trumpeters sitting right there in the neighbouring chairs? For concertos and virtuoso showpieces however, it is spectacular and dramatic to take the solo instrument to its limits of technical and expressive possibilities. This is why it is in these types of pieces — no matter from which historical period — that we find the greatest use of the higher registers. Practicing in the Neck Positions will do very little to improve your playing in the Intermediate and Thumbpositions, in the same way that swimming freestyle crawl will not help a swimmers backstroke or butterfly strokes to improve significantly.
To achieve the goal of comfort and security in the higher regions, we need to work on those regions in an isolated, focused and intense way with other material studies, exercises, concertos, virtuoso pieces — and violin music rather than the standard chamber-music and orchestral repertoire.
Study material, and more detailed discussion for these higher regions can be found in the Intermediate Region and Thumbposition pages. Psychology Chamber Music Urtext?
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