My son has been working hard on smooth slurs, but the opening two bars of "Banaha" I noticed this week are "hoppy". This was odd because he had just been playing c-g-c-g practising making the string changes as smooth as possible and also the bow changes inaudible (and that was all his own idea, he explained what he was doing to me). I coud hear that he was stopping the bow in the middle of the slur (which is from open A to the F# on the D string). When I watched I realised that his left hand fingers were quite a distance from the string while he played the A, and he was pausing to adjust to the F#. When I suggested that he could leave the 3rd finger on the D string while he played the open A he said he couldn't do that without also touching the A string. Now, this is something that he really needs to sort out - I will write a note in his book asking the teacher to have a look - but I was wondering if this is a common problem with beginners? My first thought was perhaps he should be using the tip of the finger rather than the pad, then I thought it might be that he needs to have his thumb rotated more towards the left...

Any thoughts, anyone?

Caveat that I'm not a string teacher....

Sounds like a bit of hand adjustment is needed to get the third finger on the F# more vertical - whole hand may need to "rotate slightly clockwise", which would bring the thumb slightly away "off to the left" as it were. I think lifting the elbow would achieve most of that...

However, do speak to the teacher

that's what I thought... Thanks, lesson tomorrow!

If your son's hand is still growing, reaching over without touching will become easier.

The following is nothing to do with the technical question, about which you seem to know what to do.

Partly because the sound of the open A string on my 'cello is very different from that of a fingered note on the D, I would, if possible, play A-F# all on the D string. It's not even an extension. Of course, in context it may be inappropriate.

Having recently started learning the cello myself, I had exactly the same problem! Your suggestion was absolutely right but it is tricky until you get used to it. The main advice my teacher gave me was to keep my fingers nice and curved so that they don't interfere with adjacent strings.

Hope that helps - he'll get there with practice!

He's still at first position, no extensions!* I totally agree re the sound, but I don't think it's really expected from your average G1 pupil (well not on the 'cello anyway, it would be a no-brainer on the violin...)

* apart from those that he's worked out in order to play Hedwig's theme.

It's a super piece for grade one - those slurs at the beginning DO take a lot of effort to get smooth but definitely NO extensions!! - not just because it's Grade 1, but also because you want to get the ringing-singing African a capella sound and character to do the piece justice.

Yes, I agree that the open string there sounds nice in this context.

I thought it was terribly sweet that he had worked out his own exercise for legato practice - I had just pointed out that in his slurred scales he always seemed to put a little gap when he changed bow direction so he decided that he needed to work on it. But given that his list B choice is Faure's Berceuse (aka Berkus) he needs to get a good legato. I also pointed out that not every note preceding a rest necessarily needs a flourish! (you can imagine how that sounded on the open G at the end of the first phrase of Berceuse...)

I looked hard at his left hand/arm yesterday and his thumb is more or less at the centre of the neck, but his elbow is rather low. We'll see what his teacher says later on/

Bowing is ALWAYS harder on stringed instruments than 'fingers' - you are not alone!!