Chats to 'Cello Students

by Arthur Broadley

The Use of the Thumb.

A knowledge of the correct use of the thumb for the purpose of stopping notes on the violoncello, is of the utmost importance to any who wish to have anything like command of the instrument. It is quite certain that the 'cello would not be anything like the perfect instrument it is, if the player was confined to the neck positions. As already explained, the neck positions only extend to a couple of notes beyond the half-string. When it is necessary to go beyond this, the thumb is taken from its position behind the neck of the instrument, and firmly placed in a horizontal position across two strings, thus stopping a perfect fifth.

The student should attend very carefully to the hints here given respecting the part of the thumb which actually stops the strings. The first joint of the thumb should be slightly bent outwards, the higher string should pass across the side of the thumb just under the root of the nail, the strings being about half-an-inch apart, the lower string will be that distance nearer the tip of the thumb. On no account must the thumb be so placed that the higher string interferes in the slightest with the joint of the thumb: this would make it impossible to quickly slide along the strings without disturbing the relative positions of the two strings. Continued practice with the thumb will form two grooves on the under side of the thumb, exactly the width of the strings apart; when this comes about, no inconvenience will be experienced either in rapidly sliding along the strings, or in putting on sufficient pressure. A common experience with students first learning thumb positions, is the feeling that the fingers are too long. To remedy this and also to gain sufficient weight on the fingers, some young players will allow the knuckles to protrude and the finger joints to bend inwards. I have noticed this time after time in pupils, even when they have overcome the same difficulty in the neck positions. In a short time the hand will get accustomed to the change of posture, in the meantime the knuckles must be kept quite flat, and the finger joints bent outwards. When the muscles, which have hitherto remained idle, are fully developed, the player will be able to put sufficient pressure on the strings without any assistance from the weight of the hand.

With respect to the introduction of the thumb; it is not always necessary in the high positions to use the thumb to actually stop certain notes, occasionally certain scale passages occur which may be fingered as the ordinary scales—that is, with the thumb following behind at the distance of a tone. However, the most important reason for rejecting the thumb for speaking notes and "fingering" the passage, is that of phrasing. In expressive movements, exactly as one finds it necessary in the lower range of the instrument to leave out the use of the open strings, or play in a higher position than necessary, so in the high thumb positions the same unity of feeling must be observed by a nicely arranged system of fingering. The reason for an objection against the indiscriminate use of the thumb in slow cantabile passages, is that the tone produced when the note is stopped by the pressure of the thumb, is not of the same character as that produced when the tips of the fingers are used. Perhaps it takes a very fine ear to distinguish this difference. In quick movements it is not discernible, but on a sustained note the tone produced by the thumb is to a great extent colourless. That there should be a difference in tone is hardly to be wondered at, when one considers the acute sensibility of touch at the finger tips. It is possible that the necessary varieties of pressure, or more accurately, "touch," which are requisite to a soulful performance, may be more readily accomplished with the tips of the fingers, owing to a greater concentration of nerve matter there than at the side of the thumb, but this we must leave to physiologists; those whose ear is so delicately formed that they notice these slight varieties in tone colour, will perhaps be thankful for the hint whereby a soulful manner of fingering and phrasing in the high positions may be acquired. The fear of being thought dogmatical in this work, prevents me giving examples of this method of fingering in the thumb positions, as, of course, each player will naturally adopt the system which suits his style the best, but to the student I would advise that the passages are phrased exactly as one would sing them, entirely irrespective of strings or positions; using the finger tips in preference to the thumb for the speaking notes wherever possible.

In quick movements the use of the thumb is indispensable. In many cases one is compelled to use it even in the lower neck positions so that certain passages may be possible.