Alternative Scales to Improve Your Cello Technique

Learning scales on any instrument is an essential but tedious task. Scales build your technique in a universal way, forcing you to work through runs of notes that will inevitably appear in the pieces you play, while covering a consistently wider area of your technique than the pieces themselves.

They are essential to developing consistent fluency across the instrument, and for every piece you play you should be fluent at every relevant scale contained within.

The problem with scales is that they tend to all follow the same general template; you climb the scale one note at a time, then climb back down, and they all follow roughly the same shape! The standard way of playing scales also does not focus much at all on the bow, even when playing slurred scales.

There are, however, alternative ways of playing scales that turn them from cut-and-paste repetitions into more dynamic exercises.

These alternative scales will allow you to target your technique more, and also force you to test your bowing technique as well as your left hand.

Scales in Octaves

The interval of an octave is unusually awkward on stringed instruments, and the cello is no exception.

You always have to jump to a different finger, different position, or cross two strings to get to an octave note.

Because of this, incorporating octave leaps into your scales is incredibly useful.

In order to do this fluently, you need to have good control of your bow, while remaining relaxed to avoid unnecessary bouncing on the string.

You also need to anticipate the movement of your left hand, in order to travel to the next note in time.

You will want to do this by moving the necessary finger across towards the next note early, while leaving the current finger on its note.

For example, when playing B with your 3rd finger on the G string, you should move your 1st finger towards the A string in preparation for playing the octave note.

These scales work best in 1st position, and are ideal for Grade 1 to 3 players.

Below are a few patterns on a C Major scale that you can use for this idea:

Scale on a Turn

A Turn is a type of musical ornament in which you play the notes either side of your target note before playing the note itself.

You can loosely take this ornament, and apply it to every note of a scale.

This forces you to be able to run through groups of three notes at a time in quick succession, while covering every combination of three consecutive notes within an octave.

This is what it would look like written out:

You can pair this scale with the octave scale to produce the following, more advanced scale:

Slurred Mordent Scale

A mordent is another type of musical ornament, where you play the target note, then one note above or below, then return to the target note.

You can apply this to a scale, preferably using slurs.

This requires very fast finger movement between two notes, and so is a good exercise in meticulous accuracy in a small musical space.

Super Scale

This scale will only work for C Major until you’re familiar with 4th position playing! It’s a good way of turning a scale into something much longer, and is thus a good test of your technical stamina.

This scale involves running up all of the notes of a C Major scale, but starting and ending on each subsequent note of the scale.

This will run you through all of the ‘modes’ of the scale at the same time.

These scales, and many others which you can invent for yourselves, will offer you a less boring, and more diversely useful approach to your warmups and exercises.

Be sure to start these slowly enough that you can focus carefully on your technique, keeping your left hand finger movement economical, and your bow movement precise.

If you ever find yourself going through the motions with your scales, exercise your imagination, and write your own!

Build your technique and confidence with personalised cello lessons at the London Cello Institute, available in person and online, and contact us today to find the right course for you.