Thumb Position - On Cello

On Cello

With the cello, in the "neck" positions (which use just less than half of the fingerboard, nearest the top of the instrument), the thumb rests on the back of the neck. However, in thumb position, the thumb usually rests alongside the fingers on the string and the side of the thumb is used to play notes, along with the other left-hand fingers. The fingers are normally held curved with each knuckle bent, with the fingertips in contact with the string. If a finger is required on two (or more) strings at once to play perfect fifths (in double stops or chords) it is used flat. In slower, or more expressive playing, the contact point can move slightly away from the nail to the pad of the finger, allowing a fuller vibrato.

Thumb position can be, and is (by virtue of the requirements of the extensive repertoire) employed many times, and not only in the higher range of the instrument. —Potter,

The cello thumb position is introduced on the second or half-string harmonic, because of the ease with which this note may be found, the succession of notes from seventh to thumb position being in "a natural sequence and range," and the stretch required to reach seventh position without removing the thumb from the neck. Bylsma attributes the tendency of many composers of the 19th century to prescribe thumb position only on the a string to the fact that they were not string players (in contrast to Boccherini, for example, who routinely used a and D, and also used G).

In thumb position, the, "'standard' finger pattern," between the thumb, first and second fingers, is whole, whole, and half tone. Thus if the thumb is placed on A, the index and middle fingers are placed on B and C.

As with the double bass, one issue with the use of thumb position is that it is harder to produce vibrato with the thumb than with the fingers, because fingers have much fleshier pads than the side of the thumb. Some cellists use finger substitution to replace the thumb with one of the fingers.