FOR THE CURIOUS CELLIST

Thumbposition: Practice Material

On this page can be found a lot of practice material (exercises, studies, and repertoire excerpts) for using the Thumbposition, in all the fingerboard regions. A lot of the exercises can be usefully practised in different keys without any changes in fingering, but as we move down into the Neck Region, the use of thumbposition usually becomes more and more uncomfortable because the distances between the fingers become larger. The first five categories are placed in order of increasing left-hand movement up and down the fingerboard:

In One Position: Simple

In One Position: But With Internal (Non-Whole-Hand) Movements

Moving Around With Whole-Hand Shifts: Chromatic

Moving Around With Whole-Hand Shifts: Scalic Stepwise

Moving Around With Whole-Hand Shifts: Larger Intervals

Shifting Within Thumbposition

Shifting On The Thumb          Octaves

Fourth Finger Use In Thumbposition

Shifting To and From Thumbposition

Repertoire Compilations Using Thumbposition (classified by composer)