Are you eager to learn the cello positions?

Today’s topic is very specific and is dedicated to our eagerness to fully understand the intricacies of our instrument. It’s not uncommon for me to feel that my students and their families have doubts regarding the notes and positions on the cello. Of course, this learning is like cooking a good stew: it takes time. As we play and work through different pieces and exercises, we assimilate all this. So my first piece of advice is: don’t rush and don’t get overwhelmed if you don’t understand everything at the beginning.

When do we start learning the cello positions?

In my classroom, I introduce position changes long before the student encounters them in the music sheet. I would say that from day one, I incorporate exercises and songs that work on the mobility of the left hand so that it is agile, confident, and can move smoothly right from the start. However, as I’ve mentioned, this is a process, and patience is required. By the time I talk about positions, my students already know a certain part of the geography of the cello and can move around the fingerboard in the positions I’m about to start giving “verbal life” to (when we name what we are sometimes executing only intuitively or by imitation).

Introducing cello positions to children

Introducing this topic to children is usually not too complicated, because they don’t question it further; they live in the present and don’t usually have that need to rationalize everything (there are exceptions, of course). They want to… play! So, what I bring today is a visual explanation of this learning for the adult who is studying, or for the mother or father who is accompanying their child on this journey.

Fingerboard division. What are the notes in the cello?

We can divide the fingerboard into three sections:

• Four-finger position: From 1/2 to 4th position.
• Three-finger position: From 5th to 7th position.
• Thumb position: All positions above the 7th.

When we talk about positions, we are referring to where we are on the fingerboard and what notes are covered.

Cellography. The ultimate Cello Geography class!

So, this is the general scheme, I like to call it the geography of the cello or Cellography!

First position. Notes on the cello in the first position

The 1st position is our base position. We usually start with it and spend quite a bit of time playing on this position. Our first position change occurs right at the end of Book 1 (to 2nd position), but this doesn’t mean that we haven’t played pieces or done exercises that, as I mentioned before, involve hand mobility. This 1st position is what marks the beginning of cello playing. On the other hand, it sets the pattern for the first scales we learn: D Major, G Major, and C Major, and therefore our students learn from a very young age the notes they play in this base position. Some of you might say… but there’s the 1/2 position before that. True! But we first work on it in Volume 3 of the cello. So maybe you don’t know it yet.

Second position. Notes on the cello in the second position

In 2nd position, we sometimes get confused because there is the lower 2nd and the upper 2nd. There is also diversity in how to name it, but I would say this is the most common.

Third position. Notes on the cello in third position

The same would happen with the 3rd position: we have a lower 3rd and an upper 3rd, but we tend to generalize and simply call it the 3rd.

Fourth position. Notes on the cello in the fourth position

The same with the 4th position, but we stop here, at what would be the lower 4th and most common.

Cellography! Printable pdf

Do you now have a better understanding of the geography of the cello? I hope so. However, I am providing a printable PDF in case you prefer to have it printed out and check it whenever cello geography causes any confusion.