Sequence for Teaching Beginning Cello

I. Start with the big picture 

My recommendation is to always start with the whole before moving to the parts instead of the reverse. String teaching, by tradition, too often begins with the parts before moving to the whole.  Always provide a context for learning.  

How often do we jump right into instruction on holding the instrument or the bow without realizing that the students may not even know what a cello sounds like, at least not in person?  So I suggest starting with sound.  Play for your students. Give them a visual and aural goal. Ask them what they hear or notice. If you play another instrument and are teaching cello, you can still play open strings with a rich tone and/or bring up YouTube videos of cellists. Let them see and hear someone playing the instrument. This will give meaning to what they are about to learn and provide motivation.

It is important to have chair heights that promote balanced sitting positions. Books under the feet (if the chair is too high) or a wedged shaped cushion (if the chair is too low) can be used. For detailed information, please see my videos on balanced sitting and holding the cello.

Once their sitting is balanced and they are holding their cellos, I suggest letting them pluck the different strings to get the feel of the register and timbre of the cello. They are anxious to start making some sounds. Don't make them wait too long!

The teacher and students can then engage in call and response.  In a moderate 4/4 meter, using simple rhythms of quarters and eighths, the teacher can sing the note names of the open strings while plucking them. The students respond by plucking the same pattern of strings while singing. If the teacher is male, I suggest singing in falsetto; the students will be better able to match pitch if the teacher is singing in their range. I recommend sticking to just four beats per call. Also, remember to teach them how to pizzicato by anchoring the thumb on the fingerboard up away from the bridge.

Through call and response, the students are learning 

If you feel it is right for your student or class, have volunteers do the 'calls'. The students that provide 'calls' are now practicing basic improvisation.

Now that the students have had a chance to make some sound on the cello with call and response, I like to move on to action studies to prepare the students for the bow arm and hold.

I recommend starting with the large movements in the arm that will be used for the upper half, lower half, and whole bows. What you want to start developing even in young cellists is a repertoire of motions in the bow arm instead of always bowing from the shoulder.  That is the beauty of action studies; you can begin working on these motions right away.  

Here are suggested action studies,

Door on a hinge: For the upper half of the bow using the forearm with the elbow as the hinge, otherwise known as Forearm Détaché.

Grandfather Clock: For the lower half of bow, swinging left to right (not front to back) from the shoulder, as in a hinge. 

Swing: Also for the lower half of the bow. This is the grandfather clock with a bent elbow as if making a swing out of your arm (imagine  two little people sitting on your forearm swinging).

Chicken Wing: Like the chicken dance. This relaxes the shoulder for a gradual raising and lowering of the elbow in the whole bow.

Alternate between Chicken Wing and Door on a Hinge: This is leading up to the basic arm motions for the whole bow.

Wing on a Hinge (combine Chicken Wing and Door and a Hinge): This gives a basic whole bow motion.

Remember: Work on using momentum with the Action Studies. 

For further reading on the action studies and the principles behind them, please see the cello action studies page and the article on active and passive motions.

Do the Action Studies every day as a warm up. Use them as reminders during class time when the students need them. They really do help!

While continuing to work on the bow arm action studies, I like to move to the left hand with pizzicato. For more expanded information beyond what is contained in this section, please see my article and video on beginning left hand technique.

Since I believe in a left thumb that moves freely between opposing the 1st and 2nd fingers, I teach beginning students to place their thumbs between 1st and 2nd fingers; a sort of compromise.  And I don't really get too bothered if their thumbs opposes 1st finger (unorthodox, I know). For more information, please see the article on the left thumb.

I emphasis an open 'C' in the hand (no 'C sickness' please!), a straight wrist (no carpal tunnel please!), and keeping the elbow up but always with a downward slop in the upper arm (no subacromial impingement please!).

I have the students pretend they are holding a glass of juice (something healthy like, say, broccoli juice!) with an open C in the hand while bringing it towards their mouth as if to drink. Instead of drinking the yummy broccoli juice they place their 1st finger on the E on the D string instead.  If in a classroom situation, you can use fingerboard tape or stickers if you like (yep, in my opinion, it's perfectly acceptable in a group situation).

When they find the 1st finger E, have them practice thumb circles right away in the left hand so they get used to using arm weight to hold the string down.  In other words, have the students pizzicato the 1st finger E while making left thumb circles without touching the neck. It works like a charm!

Here's an analogy about the left thumb I like to use...

You know how when you enter a room at night and the ceiling light doesn't work so you have to find your way carefully to the lamp on the end table by feel? When this happens you have to very gently touch and feel your way around to avoiding knocking anything over.  This is how the thumb is on the neck of the cello. It is a gentle, light touch. 

From this point, I use call and response with pizzicato in 4/4 meter, using simple rhythms with four beats per call.

Remember to sing the note names during the call and response.

Now you can teach basic tunes in D major and D minor. I like to use  Mary Had a Little Lamb (major) and Mary Lost Her Little Lamb (minor) and Hot Cross Buns (major)/Burnt Cross Buns (minor).  

Watch for squeezing thumbs and 'C sickness'.  For fun, I have handed out a barf bag (like the kind in the airliners) with an empty dramamine box inside to the students who displayed symptoms of 'C sickness". I guess this depends on your sense of humor!  But the students will remember!

As you add more fingers you can introduce them to new tunes using call and response (you can see I am a fan of call and response in the beginning).

I am getting a little ahead of myself here but once you add the 4th finger, I recommend helping the students to think in finger patterns. 

At this point, I recommend reading the article on teaching finger spacing to beginning cellists. To summarize, I believe in teaching finger spacing in conjunction with the finger patterns. The two concepts are closely related.

I am getting ahead of myself a second time, but I also agree with the George Bornoff method to teach multiple finger patterns in the first year. If you wait to teach other finger patterns only after the major finger pattern is 'mastered', the students have to unlearn the major finger pattern to learn the others. Every experienced teacher knows what I mean while trying to get violinists to play a low 2nd finger after months of only high 2nd finger.

Students can get set in their ways surprisingly quickly.  To combat this, students can learn groups of related concepts at the same time.  Their minds will sort it all out. 

While working on the bow arm action studies and the left hand call and response, I recommend moving on to teaching the bow hold. Beginning with a pencil or straw is recommended.  

I need not reiterate here what is already presented on my page about teaching the bow hold to beginning cellists. 

I recommend keeping the hands separate at this point.  It's just too much for beginning students to think about at this stage in the game. 

The teacher and students can now do call and response with the open strings using the bow.  I recommend using all four strings for the call and response. I'm not a huge fan of keeping beginning students on D and A strings too long before trying the other strings.  It's following the same principle as teaching multiple finger patterns mentioned above. Teach groups of related concepts: in this case bowing all four strings.

Also, I beg of you, besides rhythm training, please include singing in your beginning classes and lessons all the way through their training.  Besides being a great tool for intonation, string players are truly singers. 

You can start with the Forearm Détaché or the lower half but I would be teaching both right away followed by the whole bows.

This is a big moment!  After left hand with pizzicato and open string duets are getting more secure (note: not perfect), I recommend combining hands.  Watch your class closely and use your best judgement as to when to do this. It need not wait too long and the hands do not have to be mastered before combining them.  

I would start with call and response again, beginning with the 1st finger and working towards the finger patterns and tunes learned previously. 

And always refresh the students memory with the action studies learned previously. Pepper your lesson plans with the action studies. Focus on finger spacing in conjunction with finger patterns.  Use real tunes, not just exercises, and provide harmony whenever possible.  

Having said that, I also don't believe in waiting too long to introduce note reading. I usually introduce reading for open strings during the open string duets mentioned above.

So once the students are becoming more secure in their technique (that's intentionally vague), begin to introduce note reading. 

And there you have it!  That is how I set up my beginning cello students.  I hope you found this article useful. 

S.D.G.