Has anyone played/taught "In Memory" in Cello Time Sprinters?
My daughter is supposed to be learning this during the two week Easter break and has come unstuck on where to shift in the third or fourth bar.

For those of you who don't know it but do know where it is logical to shift, the piece starts in 4th position on the F above middle C, the rest of this bar and the second bar are still in 4th position as there is a 4 indicated for middle C. My daughter's problems come in the third and fourth bars where she has:
F above middle C (minim), middle C (crotchet) / Bb and A (slurred quavers), F below middle C (minim).
The F below middle C has a 2 above it so must be in first position.
Question: Should she shift down for middle C (which she liked the idea of as it would just mean sliding her second finger down from F to C)?
Or should she shift down on the last F which is the first note which has a finger above it?

She got no further than this today but I can see a problem looming for a bit further in the piece where she has three slurred crotchets (G,A,Bb just below middle C) with a shift up on the A. She doesn't like slurring three notes to a bow and she doesn't like shifting from a note with her fourth finger to a note with her first finger. Any suggestions on how to practise this would be welcome.


After complaining bitterly that her teacher hadn't explained properly my daughter then said, maybe I shouldn't have insisted she give me one last piece for the holidays. Apparently this piece wasn't planned but my daughter complained so much as she was putting her cello away that she hadn't been given enough to keep her occupied for two weeks that her teacher hurridly flicked through the book to find something else she thought she could manage

For the first shift question - either is fine. I'd be inclined to shift back for the last F (so 2-4-2-1-[shift]-2) because generally in these books they will finger when they want you to shift, so it sounds like that's the fingering the editor wants.

As for practising shifting from four to one - this is just one of these things that is hard at first and gets easier the more you practise, so it's worth not trying to find ways round it and actually doing it!

The most important thing to remember is that a shift must have RELEASE first - so a shift should start with the release on the original note, then have the actual movement, and only then allow pressure to come back. If you do not have this release, a 4-1 shift is very difficult.

Get your daughter to practise very slowly - first playing the 4th finger G, then stopping playing with the bow, releasing the left hand, slowly sliding up to the 1st finger A, and only then using the bow again - a kind of slow motion. This way, you train the brain that the slide is inaudible, but you train the fingers to move in that way too.

Thanks Cellocase. That's made everything clear.