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Cello Lessons: Hand Postion: Octaves

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[MUSIC]
The octave major scale hand position, when

we started exploring in thumb position,
[MUSIC]

is bookended by a third finger and

thumb articulating the octave.

That hand shape is one of our most
useful and movable tools on the cello.

And we can take that octave hand shape,
and

move it through all sorts of scales and
stuff.

And it's gonna show up in
a lot of compositions, and

also it'll come in handy in improvisation.

So how do we practice octaves?

Well let's start with a B major scale.

I'm gonna put third finger on B,
[MUSIC]

on the D

string,
[MUSIC]

then I'll lift the thumb

up
[MUSIC]

and put the thumb on B and the G string.

I've kind of got
[MUSIC]

my three fingers in half steps.

B,
[MUSIC]

B flat and A,

[MUSIC]

right here at the top of the octave

hand shape.

And you'll notice I'm lifting my arm and
my elbow so that even though my

arm is really high, I'm sending all
of my arm weight into the cello.

So that I'm not relying just on my
finger muscles to push the strings down.

[MUSIC]
So once you get these two notes in tune,

[MUSIC]

you can simply play a scale one octave up

and down.

It will sound like this.

[MUSIC]
You want

to make sure to

release while

you're shifting.

[MUSIC]
This exercise is particularly

prone to chronic holding of tension

particularly in your thumb muscle here.

And so you want to make sure that you're
not just squeezing and holding but

that particularly when you're shifting,
[MUSIC]

you're using that as an opportunity to

release.

[MUSIC]
And we'll be using our arm arcs that we

talked in our shifting principles video.

In addition to exploring major scales,
we can also practice chromatic octaves.

So if I stated with my third finger on A,
[MUSIC]

bring the thumb

up
[MUSIC]

for A on the G string a chromatic octave

practice might sound like this.

[MUSIC]
The thing that

this chromatic exercise

is really good for

is tracking.

[MUSIC]
As you move up the finger board the notes

get closer together, so

this octave frame is gonna slowly,
[MUSIC]

shrink as I get higher and higher.

[MUSIC]
When I get here,

I'm at a certain distance,
but when I'm at the first

position I'm probably about this big here
[MUSIC]

and then halfway up

[MUSIC]

the smaller, and it keeps getting smaller.

[MUSIC]
All the way.

So now like all the fingers
are touching by the time I'm up here.

So it'll help you track,

you know, the breath of the octave
frame as you go up the cello.

You can try this,
you know, on each string.

But the octave exercise is going to be
really good for developing finger strength

and also solidifying our thumb
position octave hand shape.

That's going to be so

important as we're playing in
the upper positions of the cello.

[MUSIC]

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