Improve Your Skills in Four Excerpts with This Cello Fingerings Quiz

By Benjamin Whitcomb | From the September/October 2025 issue of Strings

Are you one of the many people who wants to improve your skill at devising good cello fingerings quickly? Try your hand at these four short excerpts, then see below for suggested solutions.

Cello Fingerings Solutions

Good fingerings usually embody one or more of the principles of good shifting. These, for example, may include shifting on strong beats, favoring stronger fingerings, avoiding awkward string crossings, minimizing large shifts, and maintaining repeated fingering patterns. Here you’ll find the fingerings I would suggest for the four excerpts, along with a bit of commentary. Each number represents the first finger used in a new position, “x” means extension, and a Roman numeral refers to the string on which to play.

Solution 1

Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique 

Throughout the passage, these fingerings have the player shifting on strong fingers. Notice that mm. 3–5 maintain the same sequential fingering. In mm. 1 and 3–5, make use of shifting at a half step, which is so small a shift as to practically be a “freebie.” In m. 7, I advise shifting to 5th position since the following measure requires it anyway.

Solution 2

W.A. Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551

Note again the use of sequential fingerings. I also have placed the shifts either on strong beats or after rests. Note as well the degree to which awkward string crossings have been avoided.

Solution 3

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major

Shifting on a weaker finger (4th finger) is much more prevalent in this solution, but it seems a necessary evil. Once more, shifting on strong beats and sequential fingerings are frequently used. The string crossing pattern is kept as consistent as possible. Note the substitution shift in the first bar.

Solution 4

Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48

Sequential fingerings are used in mm. 2 and 4. They are not used in mm. 6–8 in order to make best use of shifting during an open string. Most shifts occur on strong beats, particularly during 16th notes. An exception occurs in the last measure, but that shift is to the very familiar 4th position.

Cellist Benjamin Whitcomb is a professor of cello and music theory at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. A performer and clinician, he is also the author of The Advancing String Player’s Handbook series, Cello Fingerings, and Bass Fingerings.