My 10 best cello warm-ups

This is a fabulous warm-up to do to set up your posture at the start of any practise session. Put your bow in a safe place, and hold your cello fingerboard with both hands. Stand up and sit down 5 times as quickly as you can. While you do this you might notice where your feet ‘want’ to be for the most agile and alert physical posture. This is probably going to be your best cello-playing position, so keep referring back to this to check if any bad habits are creeping into your cello playing. A hedgehog body posture is not desirable!

With your bow in a safe place, stretch up your arms up as high as you can. 

With your bow on the floor or in a safe place, try some backwards shoulder rolls. This is really good for releasing any stiffness: it’s a great to do this both at the beginning and at the end of any cello practice session.

With your bow on the floor or in a safe place, hold your hands together behind your back and stretch your shoulders backwards. This is also an important stretch for releasing residual tension: do this stretch both at the start and at the finish of any cello playing session. 

With your bow in a safe place, hold your arms up in a playing position: imagine that your arms are wings, and both elbows are free and able to move. A similar warm-up is to imagine that you are dancing a partner dance: notice that as you touch your imaginary partner, your shoulders will remain low, but your elbows will be free and out to the sides.

This is a really good warm-up for building finger dexterity. Touch your thumbs of both hands several times to each of your fingers. In cello technique we need to build the connection between your thumb and all your fingers – but especially to the middle finger, which is crucial for both fingering and bowing technique! Notice how your fingers naturally curve when you do this.

With your bow in a safe place, alternatively make a fist and stretch out all your fingers 5 times. This can also be called a ‘Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star’ warm-up with younger children.

While holding your bow in your left hand, imagine that you are dipping your right hand in a bucket of water: splash the water around as if you are creating a lot of bubbles. Next, imagine that you are lifting your hand out of the water and letting the water drip from your fingers. Shake the water off your fingers if you wish. While you have this very floppy hand and finger feeling, place your bow inside your right hand at the frog position, where you normally hold the bow. You will naturally have a beautiful bow-hold! All you need to do is curve your thumb in so that it rests Imain the normal position. You can then place the bow on the string and try some bow strokes. 

Imagine that you are a ‘zombie’ and lift your right hand in the air, with the wrist a little higher, and the fingers very floppy. You will actually have a great bow hold with these ‘floppy’ fingers: you can try putting the bow inside your hand, and curving in your thumb to touch the frog of the bow in the normal way.

Imagine that your fingerboard is a long ski-jump. With your left elbow fairly high, slide your left hand quickly down the strings, lifting off near the bridge as if you are taking off on a ski-jump. This is a great warm-up for setting up an agile arm position.