Home
REPERTOIRE LIBRARY
CELLOBLOG
Bio
REPERTOIRE LIBRARY
CELLOBLOG

Seating Posture For Cellists

Some cellists can play the cello beautifully even while standing. Now that shows incredible natural talent (does anybody ever actually practice this?). Normally however, the cello is one of the few instruments that must be played from a sitting position – even keyboard players can play standing up, so long as the keyboard is also raised up. This obligation to play in a seated position is unfortunate for two reasons:

But our problem is not only that we must play in a sitting position: all orchestral musicians (except for percussionists and bassists) sit to play. Our main problem is that our instrument – unlike most others – is attached to the floor, and to make matters worse it is basically attached to our chest (sternum) and left leg as well.

The fact that the cello is attached to the floor limits enormously our range of movement. This makes playing the cello appear more mechanical than playing the violin or viola. Even when seated, violinists and violists can move their instrument in every direction, but when standing they can move both themselves and their instrument all over the stage. Whereas the violin and viola really are just an appendage to (extension of) the musician’s body, in the case of the cellist the situation is reversed. The cellist is more like an attachment to (extension of) the cello than vice versa. Not only are the possibilities for movement of the lower body limited by the chair, but our upper body movement is also extremely limited by the cello’s points of contact, with both the floor and our chest.

The net result of all these attachments is that there are not many possibilities for dancing with our instrument! Is it surprising then that even many of the finest cellists are relatively immobile while playing (apart from their arms): there’s simply not much else available to move! But we do have some body parts that we can move with the music (dance) without disturbing too much our instrument. The head and neck are obvious candidates (see below) but perhaps the most frequently overlooked and potentially most useful movement is the “buttock roll” (rolling onto the left buttock on a long upbow and to the right buttock on a long downbow). Pianists use this movement a lot and we will look at it in more detail later in this article.

*************************************************************************

The subject of sitting posture would merit a large chapter in any cellist’s manual. Understanding posture at the cello is a complicated business because not only are there so many factors involved (cello size, spike length, cellist’s size, chair and floor characteristics), but these factors are all intricately interrelated. Whereas some of these elements can be changed immediately and easily (spike length), for others it is more difficult (chair height) …….. and for others, change is completely impossible (cellist’s size). We can make more sense of this complex situation if we look at each factor one by one, observing the chain of effects on the other postural elements when we alter them one at a time. Let’s start however with the most general principles of posture and ergonomics, and gradually get more specific.

GENERAL POSTURAL AND ERGONOMIC PRINCIPLES

As a general rule, any posture or movement that is unnatural or uncomfortable will cause tension in the body, produce unhealthy compensatory postures and movements, and cause us to play less well. If we spend enough hours in these unnatural and uncomfortable postures, we will eventually develop pain and repetitive strain injuries. Sitting badly can do all of this! Pain is the ultimate recourse of the body to tell us that we have not been paying attention to it and that we are doing something wrong.

We need to be very aware of the levels of tension in the different parts of the body while playing the cello – and also when we are not with our cello! This awareness of tension, with and without the instrument, is a fundamental element of “good” playing – and of “good” body use in general – but it is often neglected in instrumental pedagogy. It’s normal that learning a new skill involves tension and discomfort, so at first, we just ignore these sensations of strain. Later, we ignore these sensations because we are directing all of our attention to the playing of more and more notes, and then later we ignore the physical tension because all our attention is concentrated on the interpretation of the music. But we are creatures of habit, and eventually, we get so used to playing with tensions that we no longer notice if (or where) there is excess, unnecessary tension in our bodies.

How then can we then increase our “body awareness”? We can start by simply directing our attention away from the music (and from the instrument) towards our body. Watching ourselves in a mirror (while playing!) is not only helpful as a diagnostic tool but also has a large tension-reducing effect simply because it converts us into an observer rather than a totally absorbed, intensely focused performer. Making a video of our playing is also very useful as a diagnostic tool. Ugly, contorted facial expressions and strange noises coming from our throat are a sure sign of excessive tension in the rest of the body.

Another general principle of posture and ergonomics is that “movement” tends to release tensions. Our arms and fingers are obliged to move in order to play the cello but other parts of our body can stiffen up through a lack of movement if we are not careful. Deliberately moving the neck, shoulders, back and hips while playing can be a useful way to release tension and avoid rigidity. A very useful trick to loosen up our body while playing is to move our weight from one buttock to the other in a sort of swaying, rocking movement in which we roll onto the left buttock on a long upbow and to the right buttock on a long downbow. Benjamin Zander talks about the great advantages of being a “one-buttock-player”. Pianists are lucky because the size of their instrument obliges them to make this movement in order to reach the notes at the extremes of the keyboard. We cellists, on the other hand, are not required to do this beneficial movement and must therefore make a conscious, deliberate premeditated decision to use it.

For any repetitive activity or long-maintained posture, a frequent question that comes up is: “which is the best posture to use” ? Probably one of the best answers to this question is: “the next one”, as this sums up perfectly the advantages of movement and change as a prevention against (or remedy for) rigidity. And we need to be aware that avoiding postural rigidity has the added benefit of also avoiding mental rigidity as these two characteristics tend to go hand in hand and could in fact be considered inseparable. It is hard to know which comes first because each type of rigidity (physical or mental) seems to rapidly create its parallel rigidity across the mind-body divide (which no doubt is further proof that there is no separation between the mind and the body!).

We can, however, look at this relationship in a more positive light: not only do postural and mental rigidity engender (create) each other but also postural and mental flexibility (relaxation) create each other. So, by loosening up and moving our body, we will also be inadvertently loosening up and relaxing our mind. It is in these conditions that our pleasure in playing the instrument takes a quantum leap forwards.

BASIC SITTING POSTURE

We want our basic general “home” posture to be as “natural” as possible, in order to avoid putting the body under permanent unnecessary strain. This certainly does not however mean that we mustn’t ever move out of our “perfect” position. Even a “good” posture, maintained unvaryingly for too long, becomes harmful. Moving the body around freely while we play – even through all of the “bad” postures – is positively great as it keeps us relaxed and loose. Ergonomic danger occurs only when one of these unnatural postures becomes our “home” posture.

So, what then are the vital elements of a good “home” (base) posture with the cello ? The most fundamental elements of a good playing posture concern the two principal axes of the body:

1. THE CELLIST’S VERTICAL AXIS:

Our upper body needs to be either vertical or leaning forwards slightly, but not permanently tipped backwards or to either side.

2. THE CELLIST’S ROTATIONAL AXIS:

We need to be facing forwards without any permanent rotation to either side.

Having considered these general principles, let’s look in more detail at the different elements of our posture with the cello. We will start at the top and work downwards.

OUR NECK AND HEAD:

Our neck must be free, mobile, and relaxed. Its normal “home” position should be more or less vertical, neither twisted (rotated) nor inclined sideways, nor tipped forwards or backwards. As the Alexander Technique emphasizes, having the chin tucked slightly in and back (in towards the neck) is much better than the opposite position (with the neck and chin jutting forwards and upwards). However, as Stephen Isserlis emphasises constantly, looking down (at the cello) rather than up and out (towards the public or the world in general), encourages both introversion and tension. And as anyone who has watched Stephen play will know, his head and neck are incredibly free. Not only does he really look up and out almost all the time, he also looks frequently to both sides. The only place he basically never looks towards is down at his cello! This certainly creates a very communicative, relaxed, open atmosphere.

We need to be very careful not to press our neck or head against the cello (peg box or cello neck). This is unnecessary and totally counterproductive and is both a symptom and a cause of excessive tension (see “points of contact between cello and cellist” below). Unfortunately, cellos have the C-string peg in the worst possible position. This peg can obstruct the neck and head from being in the ideal upright ergonomic position and can oblige us to permanently incline the head forwards in order to avoid the peg. The fact that the tuning pegs for the lower strings (on the right side of the scroll when we are in playing position) are lower than the pegs on the left side makes this problem worse. This relative positioning of the pegs is a very unfortunate tradition of violin making, copied directly from the violin but totally inappropriate for the cello. If the positions of the pegs for the higher strings were given to the pegs for the lower strings, our problem would be somewhat alleviated. The fact that cellos have been made “like that” for 300 years doesn’t mean that the design cannot be improved……… but 300 years of tradition is difficult to change. There are several possible solutions to this problem:

Of these possibilities, I would definitely recommend starting with the first solution. This ingenious invention does however need a tool to turn the peg and here is where the “solution” can become an even bigger problem. If we don’t have the tool with us, we are unable to turn the peg, and at least one of the models available requires a square non-standard turning tool that cannot be found anywhere. This means that we need to buy various extra tools from the peg-maker in order to have them safely available everywhere and anywhere that we might need them. This may be a good business strategy for the peg-maker but for cellists, it is a source of worry and a potential performance nightmare waiting to happen.

The head is one of the few parts of our body that we can move freely without disturbing (altering) any of the cello’s points of contact with the body. While playing, it is a very good idea to deliberately experiment with gentle, slow head movements, moving the head and neck amply in every possible direction without stopping playing. These movements have an extraordinarily powerful tension-reducing effect on the whole body (and mind).

THE SHOULDERS:

Having the shoulders low is very relaxed and comfortable. Raising them up, however, gives a very active, dynamic position. I have often observed very fine orchestral group leaders raise their shoulders just before playing a particularly important or expressive passage and then lower them again for the return to more “normal” music. If you are playing many hours a day, having the shoulders permanently elevated in this “active, soloist” position will be tiring and ultimately damaging. Many orchestral players develop right shoulder problems, caused in part by excessive use of this “active” posture.

THE BACK

It is much better to lean slightly forwards than to lean backwards. Leaning backwards permanently with no back support creates considerable muscular tension. If we lean backwards onto the back support of the chair then we are in a very restful, passive, immobile position – good for sleeping and relaxing but not ideal for active music-making. If we lean slightly forwards we are in an active, dynamic and balanced position which allows us great mobility around this point of balance. This is much healthier for the back.

It is absolutely essential to retain the lumbar curve. If we let this healthy curve collapse for long periods of time, (either by slumping forwards or backwards) we risk chronic lower back pain.

THE BUM (BUTT)

Question: why do conductors, soloists, recitalists, singers, rock and pop musicians etc almost always stand in performance? Answer: because the standing posture is so much freer and more expressive than the sitting posture. No matter whether we are standing or sitting musicians: the elaborate dance we do with our upper body when playing, gains in freedom and expressivity when we allow our lower body to participate. While it is not easy to find ways to do this for those of us who are obliged to sit on an unmoving chair while playing, Benjamin Zander does have a very simple but extremely useful suggestion regarding this: he calls it “one-buttock playing”.

When we sit squarely, solidly and equally balanced on both buttocks, we are in a very stable working position. But we are definitely not in an active, dynamic, mobile, expressive, dancing position! Playing music is not a boring desk-job and too much stability is not conducive to musical or corporal expression. Allowing ourselves to rock from side to side, resting our weight alternately on one buttock and then the other brings important benefits to all aspects of our playing: corporal, psychological, visual, communicative, musical etc.

Imagine a standing performer whose upper body is dancing around but whose lower body remains permanently vertically immobile, without ever swaying from one foot to the other. How unnatural, rigid, wooden and unexpressive this would be! Using the one-buttock concept can help us to avoid falling into this “seat-trap”. Stephen Isserlis is an excellent example of a cellist who “rocks”. Perhaps one of the reasons why rock music was actually called rock music was because it really sways (energetically) from side to side to side! So rather than playing like physical rocks, stuck immobile in the earth, we need to actually rock, which is, strangely, the complete opposite. Now there’s an interesting linguistic question ……

THE LEGS

The “traditional” sitting posture – with our thighs at 90º to our body (parallel to the floor) – is actually quite unergonomic. This posture has been shown to create significant tension in the lower back. When however we sit with our thighs sloping downwards a little towards the floor, this tension is greatly reduced. The only way to achieve this thigh angle on most chairs is to sit near the forward edge of the chair. Unfortunately, some chairs are so badly designed that it is almost impossible to sit comfortably on this forward edge (see The Chair).

HOLDING THE CELLO: POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN THE INSTRUMENT AND OUR BODY

While our two arms are working away on the cello, the instrument is maintained stable via three permanent points of contact:

None of these contact points are “active”. We don’t actually grip, squeeze or even really “hold” the cello. The cello simply rests passively on those three contact points.

Our right leg is also usually in contact with the cello, and sometimes even (hopefully never) we might find ourselves pressing our neck against the peg box or against the cello’s neck. We need to be extremely aware of the tension levels at all the points of contact between our body and our instrument but most especially at these two. Both of these contact points are not only unnecessary for holding the cello: they are real danger zones. Pressing with either the right leg or the neck on the cello is not only unnecessary, it is completely counterproductive.

Let’s look now in detail at the three permanent and essential contact points between cello and cellist, one by one, starting again at the top and working down.

CHEST:

The exact location of the point of contact of the cello with our chest is a very personal matter and, in my experience, we don’t usually have many doubts about where we want this point to be. In fact, when we pick up a cello to play, before we stick the spike onto the floor we usually first find this cello/chest point of contact and we seldom change it while we are playing. This is because a change here displaces the cello fingerboard vertically in relation to the left arm position so we can lose our habitual sense of where the notes (positions) are. Even when we change the spike length we don’t normally change the chest-cello point of contact, preferring instead, for the same reason, to change the cello’s vertical angle.

While playing, we can change this point of chest/cello contact instantaneously by leaning forwards or backwards. This is a very interesting phenomenon to experiment with. As we lean forwards, the cello rises up our chest and becomes more vertical while leaning backwards does the exact opposite. These changes can have significant effects on our playing.

THE BOW’S POINT OF CONTACT AND THE CELLO’S POINT OF CONTACT WITH OUR CHEST

Changing the height at which the cello touches our chest can have an immediate effect on the bow’s point of contact. Short-armed cellists may tend to play excessively “sul tasto” (with the bow over the fingerboard). One way to immediately and automatically encourage playing closer to the bridge is to raise the cello’s position on our chest which we can achieve in any of the following three ways:

All of these manipulations have the effect of raising the cello higher on our body (chest) and thus bringing our point of contact of the bow with the string closer to the bridge.

Long-armed cellists may have the opposite problem – that of playing with the bow’s point of contact too close to the bridge. To remedy this, they can move the bridge further away from the body by doing exactly the opposite of the above, in other words by doing any of the following manoeuvres:

HIGH ON CHEST OR LOW ON CHEST ? ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

As we bring the cello’s point of contact higher up our chest, what happens ?

All of these points seem at first to be quite advantageous, except perhaps for music that stays almost exclusively in the low fingerboard regions (almost always from the pre-Romantic period). In our ultimate choice of playing position, it is probably better to err on the high side rather than on the low side (in other words, it is probably better to have the cello a little too high than to have it a little too low). Certainly, to find our optimal chest/cello contact height, it is a good idea to experiment with this element to discover the relative advantages and disadvantages and ultimately decide just how high is too high.

When the music that we are playing goes up (and stays up) in the higher registers we may want to lean forwards temporarily in order to benefit from the double advantage of having both the bowhand closer to the bridge and the lefthand higher up the fingerboard.

LEGS (AND CELLO ROTATION):

Because the cello’s neck passes on the left side of the cellist’s neck, the cello’s point of contact with the left leg is – unlike its contact with the right leg – permanent and essential. The left leg has two essential functions in holding the cello: it stops the cello from both rotating (on its spike axis) and from slipping away to the left. If a cellist with very short legs places the left knee “under” (behind) the cello, then although the cello cannot rotate (this is good) it still can slip away to the left (this is bad). This double function (stopping the cello from both slipping away to the left and from rotating on its spike axis) is a permanent necessity. This contact, although essential and permanent, is still only a “passive” contact: the left leg doesn’t actually ever need to press on the cello, rather it is the cello that just sits on (or leans on) the leg. The left leg doesn’t have to do anything – just be there!

As we discussed above, in spite of the right leg’s relative unimportance for holding the cello, the contact of the cello with the right leg can be quite problematic. The problem is that we often tend to press unnecessarily (and often unknowingly) with the right leg onto the cello, thus creating harmful and unnecessary tension. We must be very careful not to squeeze the cello body between our two legs. For this reason, it is a very useful exercise to practice playing without any contact at all between the right leg and the cello.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SHORT AND LONG LEGS

The length of our legs has a considerable influence on our seating posture with the cello, notably in its important consequences for the degree of cello rotation, cello verticality and on the choice of the spike/floor contact point.

Being small is, in general, a considerable handicap for playing the cello (see Size). The only advantage that being small (and short) gives a cellist, is that cellists with short legs have the possibility of placing the right knee behind the cello. For this, we need to have quite a long spike (to make room for the leg) and a reasonably high chair or stool (which allows us to have our right thigh pointing at a descending angle to the floor). Because of this thigh angle, our right foot may need to rest more on the toes than being flat on the floor. This posture actually (surprisingly) has several advantages:

95% of cellists cannot do this however because their legs are simply too long. Those long legs do however have plenty of other advantages for the cellist. Most notably, long legs allow the cello to be rotated towards the right (clockwise as we look down the fingerboard towards the bridge) which provides enormous benefits for playing on the “A”-string for both left and right hands. Short-legged cellists are very limited in their ability to do this rotation because, as we rotate the cello to the right, it rapidly loses its vital contact with the left knee, which means it can slide off to the left.

Whereas a long-legged cellist has the option of lengthening the spike and playing with the cello in a more horizontal position, the short-legged cellist is more or less obliged to maintain the cello in a more vertical position in order to not lose the cello’s point of fixation at the left knee. Normally, the longer our spike is pulled out, the more horizontal the cello becomes and the less our ability to rotate the cello without losing that vital left-leg contact. This means that one way to maximise this rotation without losing the left-leg contact is to use a shorter spike length, which has the effect of increasing the cello’s verticality. An alternative way to achieve this helpful rotation without shortening the spike is to raise the left knee by placing a foot-stool (like classical guitarists) or any other vertical support under the left foot.

LONG LEGS, CELLO ANGLE AND PLAYING ON THE “A”-STRING

Surprisingly, cellists with long legs have an advantage when it comes to playing on the “A”-string because those long legs allow them to roll the cello around on its spike axis, rotating the”A”-string side of the fingerboard higher, into a much more ergonomic position for both the left-hand (fingerpads) and the bow. Short-legged cellists are limited in their ability to do this rotation because, after a certain (very early) point in the rotation, the left leg can no longer grip/block the side of the cello and we are no longer in a viable playing posture. One way for short-legged cellists to see how much nicer it is to play with the cello rotated around is to put a little stool (like a guitarist’s foot-stool) under the left foot. Now the knee and thigh are raised up and we are consequently able to rotate the cello a whole lot more without losing our vital leg/cello point of contact.

Alternatively, for short-legged cellists, to facilitate playing on the “A”-string without needing a stool or a leg-lengthening operation, we can shorten the spike, bringing its point of contact with the floor closer in towards our body. This has the effect of making the cello more vertical, which allows us to rotate it a little further around before our left leg loses its contact with the instrument. Basically, the more vertical the cello is (the closer the spike point is to our body), the more we will be able to rotate it in this favourable direction, and consequently the easier it will be to play on the A-string.

THE FLOOR:

The stability and placement of the spike/floor contact, together with the spike length. are critical for our comfort. See The Spike for a detailed discussion about these factors.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN FACTORS (VARIABLES) THAT INFLUENCE OUR SITTING POSTURE ?

There are basically five variables involved in a study of any cellist’s sitting posture:

the chair …….. the spike length ……. the cello size ……. the cellist’s size (and shape) …… the floor type and inclination

Let’s look at these factors one by one:

THE CHAIR

Chairs come in an enormous variety of shapes and sizes. The chair is often a big problem for us and deserves a detailed discussion (click on the highlighted link).

THE SPIKE (LENGTH AND LEFT/RIGHT POSITIONING)

The length of the spike is the single most important element after the chair in determining our sitting posture. It is also the only one of all the seating variables that can always be immediately and easily changed according to our desires. The left/right positioning of the spike is also important. Click on the highlighted link for a detailed discussion of these elements.

CELLO SIZE AND CELLIST SIZE

Cellists, like chairs, also come in a  great variety of shapes and sizes. Matching cello size to cellist size is very important for our left hand (see Hand Size), however it is not a very important factor in our seating posture. A small person can sit comfortably with a big cello (although they will probably have problems actually playing it) and a big person can do the same with a small cello. We just need to adjust the chair height and spike length accordingly. A tall cellist will clearly benefit from a higher chair and a longer spike.

THE FLOOR

The contact of the spike with the floor has to be perfectly stable.  A spike holder that is attached to only one leg of the chair (it has to be the left leg) will tend to slide out to the left and this creates instability and tension. Spike holders that are attached to both left and right legs of the chair are far more ergonomic.

Fortunately, we don’t usually have to play on a sloping or irregular floor. A floor that tips you forwards should not be a problem (and could even be an advantage).  Sloping backwards might cause you to fall asleep while playing (as long as you have a good backrest). But a chair (or floor) that slopes sideways will cause major problems. After one performance of a Wagner opera on a sideways-sloping floor, half of the string section of a professional orchestra had repetitive injury problems.