Photo: Yan Krukau

Why is cello so hard?

PITCH. This is probably the first thing most people think of, and for good reason. It is very difficult to play the cello in tune. If you imagine a guitar or a mandolin, you can see in your mind's eye those thin, extremely helpful metal frets that run across the fingerboard perpendicular to the strings.

adultcello.com - Is Cello Hard to Learn? Insights from an adult learner

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This is probably the first thing most people think of, and for good reason.

It is very difficult to play the cello in tune.

If you imagine a guitar or a mandolin, you can see in your mind’s eye those thin, extremely helpful metal frets that run across the fingerboard perpendicular to the strings. These frets tell the player where to find each note physically. Now take a look at the cello’s fingerboard: barren as the Russian steppes in the dead of winter. As cellists we have to use a type of three-dimensional muscle memory to remember where each note is located. We break the fingerboard into hand positions (1st, 2nd, etc), then memorize the exact arm angle and hand shape needed so that our left hand rests in each position with the fingers hovering over the correct notes, ready to play. What further complicates matters is that just as the frets on a guitar get closer together the higher you go up the neck, such is the case with the cello, which means that every hand position requires a different memorized hand shape. There are a number of physical guideposts we cellists use to orient ourselves in various positions on the fingerboard, but in general even those guideposts merely act as a memory aid and 3D memorization is still required. The real ass kicker comes when you realize that - unlike a piano - a cello requires a player to use more than one pitch for the same note name. Let me explain. On a piano, a C natural is a C natural is a C natural. You press the button and out comes a C, same exact pitch every time. This is because the piano employs a tuning system called equal temperament in which all 12 semitones within a scale are exactly the same distance apart (100 cents). On a cello, however, we have the freedom to “temper” our notes so that they are as in tune and resonant as possible, and that means that if I have to tune an E natural against my open A string, it will be different (higher in pitch) than if I have to tune the same E natural against my open G string. This issue is admittedly more of an advanced player’s problem, but it highlights one of my favorite aspects of learning the cello: the better you get, the more complicated the difficulties become, and thus you can spend your whole life learning an instrument without ever finding yourself at the end of the cul-de-sac. The good news is that touch isn’t the only sense we deploy when we play the cello. We also use hearing, and in my personal experience, I find that whenever I break through the ceiling and find myself at a new level of cello playing, it is because my ears have opened up in a new way and are able to hear issues that previously went by undetected. In order to fix a problem on the cello, you have to be able to hear the problem. Your ears will be able to tell you when a problem has occurred, and only your ears will be able to tell you if the solution you try has solved the problem, whether it’s a matter of pitch or of bow technique.

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