Cello warm-ups: the bow arm

MATS LIDSTRÖM 

Honorary associate and professor of cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London, UK

BORN Stockholm, Sweden

STUDIED WITH Maja Vogl, Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, Lynn Harrell, Pierre Fournier

TEACHES Conservatoire students (junior and senior)

Students often tell me that they warm up by playing scales, but they forget that the whole repertoire is made up of scales, from the Bach Suites to Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, the Chopin Sonata and the Haydn concertos! We need to warm up in order to play scales, so that we can really benefit from our practice and use our hands effectively to communicate our feelings through sound, with minimum effort. We can save a lot of time by warming up all aspects of our playing before we begin work on our pieces. In this article I focus on warm-ups for the right hand, but as outlined in my book (see box, page 81), I recommend alternating these with left-hand warm-ups, which I will discuss in next month’s Technique article.

EXERCISES

The aim of these exercises is to warm up our control of the bow and bow arm, so that we can play in any dynamic and with any colour that we need. By the time we go on stage, the audience should feel there are no limits to what we can do.

WARMING UP THE HIPS AND BACK 

Many cellists try to sit still when they play, putting unnecessary strain on the back muscles. Staying flexible and involving the hips with each bow stroke will reduce our risk of injury and help us to play music such as the Courante from Bach’s Third Suite, or the Prelude from the Fourth, with swiftness and life. In exercise 1:

• Play straight, focused bows at one point of contact. Let gravity draw the arm into the string

• Prepare each new stroke at the end of the last: lower the left hip and turn the upper body a little to the left, so that it feels as though the right arm is reaching over the string. Feel the strength and flexibility in the wrist and fingers

• Look down at the bridge to see how much to raise or lower the elbow for each string-crossing. Minimise that movement

Now practise exercise 2, to warm up the vertical motion of the bow by varying arm weight, contact point and bow speed. This will help us to vary the colours within the bow stroke and master music including the opening of Bloch’s Schelomo and Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise.

SOUND COLOUR AND BOW SPEED

It is difficult to follow a fast bow with a slow bow, or vice versa: often the sound crunches, skates or cracks. Playing all neighbouring long and short notes with the same bow speed, contact point and weight will, however, limit our interpretation. Use these exercises to warm up the ability to use slow and fast strokes together in any direction, without inhibition:

• Play exercise 3 with consecutive down bows, as loudly as possible, without making extraneous noise. Repeat using up bows

• Practise exercise 4 with whole bows on every note, to force a quick alternation between fast and slow bows

Being able to change bow speed freely gives us more control over sound colour, especially in pieces such as the first movement of Brahms’s F major Cello Sonata, the last of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and the opening of Stravinsky’s Suite italienne.

FLOWING TRIPLETS 

I have known few cellists who haven’t needed to work on their triplets. Often they sound heavy, with over-emphasised down bows too close to the bridge, so in exercise 5 focus on developing swift, effortless triplets with a strong impulse to begin each one. It is so important to work on this before playing pieces like Beethoven’s C major Sonata, or the Chopin and Shostakovich sonatas.

• Play weightlessly, with clean, clear articulation. Don’t rely on arm weight at the frog to get the notes for free!

• Increase the length of the stroke to achieve louder dynamics

SAUTILLÉ AND SPICCATO 

Sautillé comes naturally to some players, but many of us have to work gradually up to faster tempos before playing passages in, for example, the second movement of the Elgar Concerto, or the last movement of the Khachaturian. To warm up, play exercise 6 from the upper arm, with a firm wrist, to help you relax into the strings.

It is also important to warm up your spiccato stroke, as needed for Piatti’s D major Caprice op.25 no.9, or the second variation in Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. To work on controlling spiccato at the maximum dynamic and height:

• play exercise 7 with a firm wrist, responsive fingers and a natural arm position, with a well-balanced bow and the elbow not too low 

• think about the horizontal motion. A stroke that is too short will be worse in quality and have less flexibility of colour and dynamic 

• in exercise 8, increase the bow’s horizontal movement for the string-crossings, with attention to the balance of the fourth finger

Now try both exercises at the very tip of the bow, rhythmically and as loudly as possible. Being able to play spiccato in the weakest area of the bow, where the sound doesn’t ring and we can’t rely on perpetual motion, will greatly improve this bow stroke.

TONE PRODUCTION

Exercises 9 and 10 are for volume and depth. They are ideal warm-ups for the Prokofiev and Kabalevsky concertos.

• Play as loudly as possible, but don’t apply pressure from above or squeeze the bow with the index finger (this would choke the sound) 

• Stay at the maximum, even if the sound collapses! Bring out as many overtones as possible, and eliminate any extraneous noise

In higher positions the vibrating string length is shorter, the string has more tension and the sound is more likely to break. Get to know the limits of your instrument, while really going for it.

IN YOUR PRACTICE

I recommend warming up at the beginning of every practice session. I tend to do my full, 45–50 minute warm-up only once every four days or so, or if I’ve been away and I’m out of practice. When we’re in good shape, we shouldn’t need to spend more than 20 minutes warming up both the left and the right hands.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

When I have a new student, I’ll take them through a chapter of my warm-up book every week or two. After a couple of months, they have the book in their heads and I expect them to use it to warm up daily. Often I have to remind them, and it can take a while to convince them to do it, but they get there – especially if I am able to show them why each warm-up exercise is important, and how it makes for more efficient practice of the repertoire.

These warm-ups can be useful for teachers, too, to warm up thoroughly at the start of the day, so that we can demonstrate more effectively in lessons. I remember that even Leonard Rose, when he demonstrated in my lessons at Juilliard, could sound less convincing when he wasn’t in shape. Then he would demonstrate when he had just come back from a tour, and he would sound incredible! It doesn’t matter how brilliant a player is. If we don’t practise, we will lose it.

Of course, all good teachers have their own methods, so just take a look at my book to see if there is anything that can be of use. You can then adapt it to your own approach and your students’ individual needs.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING

FURTHER MATERIALS

In my book, The Essential Warm-Up Routine for Cellists, I give detailed suggestions of exercises to warm up every element of cello playing.

When we have warmed up, then we can play our scales! My book The Beauty of Scales contains more insights and advice. For both publications, see www.cellolid.com