THE PROBLEM

You’re studying the repertoire you’ve always wanted to play, practicing hard, and including a healthy dose of technical exercises and studies in your routine, but you can’t get past managing the difficulty and onto expressing the music.

THE SOLUTION

Take time to study the pieces you are working on away from your instrument and identify the areas you know you’ll struggle with, or that you know other cellists tend to struggle with. Analyze those technical difficulties: do they relate to the bow or the left hand? Have you encountered them in previous repertoire you have played or are they new to you? If new, it is essential that you get your teacher to show you how to approach them and suggest what material you can use to practice and develop the technique in question. Avoid immersing yourself in the piece before you feel comfortable with the new technique—you will only become frustrated with the music if you keep hitting a brick wall in certain parts. Remember that there is very limited value in practicing exercises and studies without a thorough understanding of what you hope to gain by doing them.

HOW TO NAIL IT

1. Practice Scales & Arpeggios
Analyze the keys, time signatures, and rhythmic devices covered in the piece. Identify any arpeggios, scales, and diminished or dominant sevenths that occur. If you can’t play them from memory with a sensible fingering pattern, there’s a good chance you’ll stumble when you encounter them in the piece. The same applies to irregular time signatures or tricky rhythm patterns—scales are the perfect place to apply these slowly and methodically until you “feel” them. Louis R. Feuillard’s classic Daily Exercises, available from Schott Music, has a complete section dedicated to scales and arpeggios and all of their variants across the entire range of the cello with alternate and uniform fingering patterns. I’ve found this section to be an invaluable resource for familiarizing myself and my students with the entire geography of the instrument, and it is just as invaluable for becoming completely comfortable playing in remote keys and reading difficult accidentals.

The way in which scales are approached in most classes tends to promote a negative attitude toward these useful learning tools, leading students to learn what is required of them and then to forget it all once they’ve moved on to the next lesson.

2. Do Your Research
Be on the lookout for interviews and discussions with famous cellists, and articles or essays on the repertoire you’re playing. What could be better input than the perspectives of your favorite cellist? Through this process, you’re bound to get further tips and insight into what technical exercises will best serve your study of the piece in question.

Also, many sheet-music editions offer valuable advice about the finer points of the piece, but these often focus on interpretation and should be consulted when you’ve settled on your supplementary exercises. Be on the lookout for master classes in your area, regardless of whether your repertoire is being covered or not—chances are you’ll be studying the piece dealt with in the class at some point. Be sure to take notes, ask questions if the opportunity arises, and discuss the class with fellow cellists.

3. Consult a Trusted Companion
The Bärenreiter edition of Popper’s High School of Cello Playing, Op. 73, also published by Kalmus and readily available on amazon.com, comes with a text volume that gives an overview of the studies as a whole, a more detailed overview of each study, and a list of repertoire that each study resembles in technical challenges. Although the repertoire lists are by no means exhaustive, they are extremely useful and encourage the player to think of more pieces to add to each list.

For an extremely in-depth and thought-provoking perspective on cello technique, look no further than Christopher Bunting’s Essay on the Craft of Cello Playing, a 1983 Cambridge University Press book that is out of print in the United States, but available online from various UK outlets. It is divided into two volumes, the first dealing with bowing and the second with the left hand. In his essays, Bunting does far more than discuss the mechanics behind cello technique—he is equally interested in the psychology involved and offers some enlightening perspectives on our art.