Position of the Left Hand and Fingers

The left thumb rests against the neck of the cello. It does not encircle it, but rather touches it at a point near the nail. The way the player holds the neck of the cello depends on the proportions of the hand and on the ratio of thumb length to the lengths of the other fingers: the shorter the thumb, the less it should encircle the neck. The hand must be slightly curved over the strings in such a way that the thumb is between the index and middle fingers. The contact point of the fingers on the strings must not be too close to the nail. Finger action, as well as finger pressure on the strings, must be as forceful as possible, since as we shall see later, tone production partly depends upon it.

Naming and Labeling of the Fingers

The thumb is labeled ϙ	The ring finger is labeled 3
The index finger is labeled 1	The little finger is labeled 4
The middle finger is labeled 2	The numeral 0 is used for the open string