I just began playing the cello. I do not yet have a teacher but plan to get one. I`ve been a saxophonist for about six years and intend to major in music as a woodwinds player (4sax/flute/clarinet/oboe/bassoon), but adding strings to my repertoire is kind of a fun secondary pursuit; also I hope it will help me to become a music educator and give me a more intimate knowledge of the orchestral instruments and how they function.

I`ve been doing a bit of work in Potter`s book "The Art of Cello Playing." After the enormous amount of knowledge I gained from "The Art of Saxophone Playing" and applying it to the sax with amazing results, I figured I`d give this book a try. But I am having a few problems.

First off, my lefthand index finger gets sore very quickly, and the other fingers seem to have trouble pushing the strings down. The strings are about a halfinch from the fingerboard at the end of the fingerboard, I`m not sure if this is just because I`m a beginner or if the action is too high, but this feels REALLY tough to play on.

Secondly, when I bow the strings, the C and G especially tend to play harmonics, or octave up. I find that when I use a great amount of pressure this goes away, but such pressure feels incorrect and hurts the wrist after a short while. My bowgrip is almost flawless and I am drawing it correctly according to the few lessons I have had. Could it be that the hair is too old? I tighten it a great deal, so that when off the string, the hair is between 3/4 inch and 1 inch from the stick. Is this ideal?

I know I am a beginner but I can`t help but feel that getting tired after 20 minutes of practice, of simply 1st position fingering and open-string bowing (the two not yet combined), and getting really sore fingers, could perhaps be because of a difficult setup in the instrument or the bow. Thanks for any suggestions.

For one thing how long exactly have you played the celloand how many lessons have you had, just curious?

About 3 weeks, practicing roughly an hour a day (through the pain) and 2 lessons. My teacher is a very good player and seemed to have no problem playing my cello with my bow, or if he did, he didn`t say anything about it...

For the harmonic problem you may be a bow position ,you might be putting it too close to the bridge. Try to keep it around the middle. As for the problem with getting tired ,just give it time. It is probably because you just started and are not used to the instrument. Also do not tighten the bow too much ,you can warp the bow and ruin it. Try to keep it maybe even 1/2 of an inch away from the wood.

For one thing, don`t even use the bow for a while. I would suggest for you to just pluck more until yoiu get that down because plucking is a lot easier than bowing. If you want to play something with the bow, then pluck it first. Did you say that your left hand fingers were getting tired from pressing down the strings? The strings have to be a certain distance from the finger board or else if it was too close the strings would buzz or vibrate. Just press down the strings as hard as you can, if not then you might hear a harmonic pitch or a shreaking sound. Remember to put rozin on the bow if the rozin comes off the bow. Oh and one more thing, what type of Cello do you have, how old is it, and what type of wood is it made out of?

Well the strings certainly don`t buzz or vibrate. I know all about the proper bowing procedure, rosin, how much to tighten it (I was wrong about the inch, it IS more like half inch or less). My problem I think is the action. My fingers can barely press the strings down at all, it feels as if it takes way too much force and I am squeezing the neck with my thumb really hard. It`s screwing up my lefthand position because only when I push incredibly hard does the pitch come into tune; if I don`t use all the strength in my body it will be flat and this throws off all the intonation...

I`m really not sure what kind of cello it is, it doesn`t seem to say anywhere on it what it is. It looks very new, and is probably not of the highest quality, more like a student or an intermediate model.

HELLO, the label is inside of the cello, right through the F holes!!!

your so mean to me and others.
im never talking to you again.
your just a stupid little no-muscle
WIMP without a brain. so shut-up!
who cares what brand it is. its
a very nice cello. and i have
a very good musical talent. u dont.
so there! hahaha
sean the loser

Gee wizz sorry

Whatever whatever whatever, anyways is there any name in your cello. Oh and one more thing, I have a cello with no name in it which devaluates it about 5-10,000 dollars, yet it sounds just as good or better than them. I also have a violin with no name in it.

I`d appreciate people not using my name to make their posts, thanks. Please either disregard that last one by "Ian" or know that that is someone else entirely.

Sorry Sean, I appreciate your dealing with my incompetence, but now that you pointed out to me where to find the info on the cello, here it is, everything that`s written on the label inside the right F hole:

Model: (R501E4) Serial: (6120XXX)
SCHERL & ROTH
Genuine Reproduction of
ANTONIUS STRADIVARIUS
Made in Germany, Adjusted in Elkhart, IN. U.S.A. (4/4)
A Product of UMI.


Everything in parentheses is penciled in, all else is machine printed. The R in the model # may be a B that has the bottom worn away, not sure.

I completely understand Ian. People kept on doing that to me all the time on another website. Well actually this one:

http://209.41.168.45/forum/index.cfm

BUT THEY GOT BANNED AND WEREN`T ALLOWED TO COME ON THAT WEB SITE ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST IN CASE ANY WISE GUYS WANT TO CAUSE TROUBLE!!!!!! TRUST ME THERE WAS PEOPLE ON THIS www.8notes.com WEBSITE TO GIT BANNED.


Anyways "Ian", there was no date of make on the lable.

Oops, I mean GET, not GIT lol

Nope, no date on the label. I could tell you with some certainty that it`s no more than ten years old since it was purchased.

Getting a bit of a better sound now and more of a handle on the fingerboard. I think my D string is a little worn out, the tone on it is of a much lesser quality than the other strings, shifts to octave and octave + 5 harmonics easily, and sometimes gets a "whirring" noise. The string feels coa-rse, I think it needs replacing. Otherwise things are going well, my bowing is improving, and still the lefthand index finger gets sore but not for as long and it can hold the string down better. I tried a bit of bowing scales today and had much better results than my previous attempt! But I`m still not pursuing that outright, until I master first position, finger strength, and bowing open strings. I`ll keep you updated on my progress but still now have a few questions:

-Is it worth it at this point to purchase a new bow that is better balanced and designed for my needs? Or would it be better to get used to this good but obviously stock bow first?

-I want to replace the D string. I have no idea how old the other strings are, but I`m guessing they`re fairly broken in. Is it advisable to replace just one string like that? Or should I just go full set at once? Will this affect my progress at all e.g. harder to finger and such?

#1. Do you have a plastic bow or a wooden bow? Plastic bows are crap, they can break very easily and would make not as good of sound as a wooden bow.

2. Well for one thing, you can see that a string is wound with wiring very tightly, but if you see spaces in between each strand that means that the string is going bad. I remember once that I was tuning and tightening the "A" string and the pitch kept on going down, yet the peg wasn`t loosening. So I kept on turning the peg to tighten the string and the string broke. You can always tell if a string is going bad just by looking at it,(the weakening is usually near the bridge). I know some strings are better than other ones and make the cello sound better (which are also more expensive), but what makes a cello sound good is the cello itself, like how old it it wht wood it is made out of.

-What type of wood is your cello made out of: part- pine, spruce...??