Posture Checklist

Are your feet flat on the floor? Right foot should be slightly behind the left foot.

Is your cello sitting between your knees? If you tilt your head to the left, can you feel the cello’s scroll?

The scroll can be slightly behind your ear or next to it – this depends on the height of your cello spike. What length is comfortable for you?

Do you have enough room to bow on either side? Are your shoulders relaxed? Can you hug your cello comfortably?

Bowhold Put your right arm in front of you and let your fingers and wrist flop loosely.

With your left hand, bring the frog of the bow into your hand. Is your thumb sitting in the ridge on the back of the bow, slightly bent? Is your middle finger sitting on the silver part that holds the bow hair in place? Are your index finger, ring finger and pinky sitting comfortably around the

middle finger? Make sure your pinky is sitting on the front of the bow. Try pushing and pulling your pinky – your bow should wobble backwards

and forwards. “The Spider”: make your hand crawl up and down the bow whilst keeping

your perfect bowhold. Don’t let your fingers collapse. How many laps of the bow can you do?

Long tones on open strings: Are you bowing into the front-right corner of the room? Do your wrist and elbow from an “L” when you play at the tip and a “Z”

when you play at the frog? Can you see the Sydney Harbour Bridge between the hair and the stick of

your bow? Have you played open strings using slow, connected bows on every string

for at least five minutes? Challenge yourself to use the slowest bows you possibly can and connect down bows and up bows as though you haven’t changed bows at all.

Left Hand Pretend to hold a glass of water in front of you. Is your arm relaxed but straight?

If your wrist or elbow is bent, gently stretch them out. Your wrist should be in line with your shoulder – not too high or too low.

Are your fingers spread evenly? Important: Your thumb should be opposite your middle finger.

Bend your elbow and bring the imaginary glass of water back towards your cello and onto the neck, in first position.

Check that your thumb is still opposite your middle finger.

You are now ready to practise your scales and exercises!