![]() Playing the cello thus becomes an exercise based on fear, rather than a musical adventure full of daring (compare the safe, conservative fingerings in example 1 with the flashy, bold fingerings that could replace them). The old, pre-Casals school seemed to be about how to get around the instrument while avoiding difficulties, and using shifts that are as short as possible. ![]() Unfortunately, most books on cello scales are outdated and based on a 19th-century idea of how to manoeuvre on the fingerboard. When you are warmed up, you may well reach for a scale book to guide your practice. Warming up enables us to draw on our full potential, and should precede anything that requires musical expression, such as scales. You should be properly warmed up even before starting to play them, in order to execute the stretched positions and double-stops with a balanced left hand, and to play string-crossings with a bow that can respond to every type of contact with the string. Some musicians look at scales as warm-up material. Add in musical expression and dynamic control, a brave approach to fingerings, and a commitment to minimising string-crossings and audible shifts, and scales can be a powerful source of inspiration for practice and performance. Scales make up much of what is beautiful in cello music, and as such they rely on a creative mind when it comes to bow speed, bow distribution and the choice of bowings. This article was originally published in The Strad’s April 2012 issue. Mats Lidström: viewing scales as exciting musical challenges
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