Learning one of the most beautiful instruments in the world takes some practice-and some great in home cello lessons. Some instruments lend themselves to a little more self teaching, cello doesn’t really fall into that category. The cello creates a beautiful sound, and there are some basic elements that are needed to achieve this sound.
Proper Intonation
First, let’s define faulty intonation. Faulty intonation is the failure to tune intervals (the distance between pitches), both melodically and harmonically (intervals played harmonically are notes that sound simultaneously and melodic intervals are played successively). Whether it is the inability to match pitch or play a melody in tune or tune a note in a chord, all have to do with the failure to tune intervals.
Having identified the problem, we need to come up with ways to improve intonation. An in home cello teacher can take a few steps to help improve this issue while modeling it for the student.
Practicing double stops is something that can help improve the ear and thus intonation. These can be practiced in a method book, but also simply in the piece of music the student is working on. The lessons in your home cello teacher will help fine tune this skill with hands on instruction. It is
priceless.
As you practice double stops, your ear will become more and more sensitive to intonation and your left hand will develop more muscle memory regarding finger spacing.
Things To Remember
Keep fingers aimed more toward the bridge instead of parallel to it, remember to use the back of the thumb instead of only the side in thumb position, don’t shortchange the last note
before a new bow or phrase, stop leading right hand movement with the wrist and
the speed of the shift needs to match the speed of the song.
Proper posture and sitting position while playing the cello is easy to overlook but is vitally important for efficient technique. In fact, it is difficult to over emphasize its importance. How we sit does not simply affect our backs, as important as that is; our posture affects our whole body and especially our arms. If we are out of balance, this necessitates greater
use of muscles to counteract this imbalance. When we are balanced we expend
less energy to keep ourselves in position and it frees up our back and core
muscles to assist our arms for the important job of playing the cello.
We should also avoid hunching over the cello while playing..
This was to counteract the motions in the arms in an effort to keep the upper
body balanced. Some authors state that with good posture we do not need the
upper back muscles to keep the upper body in balance and they can be used instead
to support the motions from the shoulders to the fingers. This results in a
more efficient transmission of power from the back muscles to the arm muscles.
Yes, our upper back muscles will assist our arms all the way down to the
fingers if we adopt proper posture! Cello lessons at home, given by a qualified instructor will address these things.
Growing up watching the TV show “Fame” caused a great admiration for the cello. Watching that beautiful instrument take the stage front and center is truly something to behold. One of the beauties is also how wonderfully is supports the other instruments in an orchestral performance. The cello is a great instrument to stand on its own, or be used in a quartet, ensemble or orchestra. Finding a great teacher to give cello lessons at home can be the difference between loving the instrument and a student striving to continue, or the student giving up because the proper techniques mentioned above are never addressed. The individual attention given when cello lessons are given at home is something that has no comparison!
Are you ready to get stared?
