Rules of Thumb (Position)—A Path Toward Mastering a Dreaded Cello Technique

By Emily Wright | From the March/April 2025 issue of Strings

There’s an old Monty Python skit where a husband and wife are discussing what could be scraped together for dessert after a horrendous dinner. The wife begins listing the options: rat cake, rat sorbet, rat pudding, and strawberry tart. The husband is suspicious of the innocent-sounding option, and after a beat, his wife admits there is some rat in the tart. “How much?” he asks. “Three . . . rather a lot, really,” she says. In the end, he orders a slice of strawberry tart “without so much rat in it,” and after having eaten it, he pronounces the dish appalling.

This is what it’s like to be a cellist who loves the repertoire but dreads thumb position. There’s so much wonderful music to play, but it’s tough to stick to things without so much rat thumb position in it. You may be surprised after this rodent-inspired preamble to find I’m here as an evangelist for this maligned technique. Allow me to plead my case, and perhaps you’ll develop an . . . appetite for it. 

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Laying a Foundation

The first time a player is told that the weird  symbol is an instruction to play the note on the side of their thumb, the disbelief is palpable. It gets worse in the ensuing weeks, trying to tame a clumsy digit that feels completely inept at the task. Take heart. If you are being introduced to this technique by a private instructor, it is likely because you have great things going in your playing. It is natural that your high standards will find the lack of pitch control and general awkwardness of the technique frustrating. Steady on. The only way is through, not around.

The most commonly used thumb position shape entails laying the thumb on its side across two strings, with the upper string roughly under the middle of the fingernail and the lower string close to the large knuckle. (Figures 1 & 2)

The shape of the hand is essential. You’re looking for an arched structure with real integrity: it’s natural to collapse the first and second finger or lose the rounded shape, but the opposite tendencies are what you need to cultivate. The arch is the strongest naturally occurring structure in existence, allowing the weight of the arm to travel into the fingertips unimpeded. Continually check that the arm is the primary source of energy into the thumb. Too many musicians have injured themselves by using the thumb alone to hold the string down, driving strain and ergonomic stress into the joint and musculature of the wrist. My philosophy with regard to anything difficult on the cello is to learn it correctly the first time. The long road is the short cut, because while the journey is lengthy, you only have to do it once. (Figures 3 & 4)

The first place most cellists start out in thumb position is across the mid-fingerboard harmonics on the A and D strings. It’s an excellent introduction for a number of reasons: the position is an analogue of first position, so the note values should feel familiar. Since the thumb plays the harmonic, the skin on the side of the finger has a chance to develop a callus in stages.

Get started by playing a one-octave D major scale starting on open D, finishing on fourth finger on the A string. Now find that spot where the thumb is lightly resting across the mid-string harmonics and repeat the exercise, taking care to notice the similarities. At this beginning phase, when the notes will invariably be out of tune and the whole enterprise feels odd, try to prioritize the quality of your hand shape and a sense of softness throughout the gesture. Over time, your sense of the distances and particulars of mechanics will evolve. The care you take now will set the tone for the rest of your work in thumb position. If you start tense, you’ll stay that way. Start loose, stay loose sounds better, doesn’t it?

Once the scale is in scruffy but stable shape and you’re putting the fingers down without anything collapsing and the notes are more or less in tune, you can refine your intonation and coordination by playing both strings at the same time. Tune the notes on the D against the thumb on A, and the notes on A against the thumb on D.

Something else to consider working on: releasing fingers that are not in immediate use. This does not mean allowing them to leave the string and go flying off in random directions, but softening fingers, especially your first finger, creates a feeling of ease and flexibility in the hand. This feeling is available more than you think: most thumb position passages require only light to moderate strength and pressure. Flexibility exists on a sliding scale relative to tension. The more tension is held within your hand, the less you’re able to move around: this includes string crossings, quick runs, and shifts. 

Building Skill and Dexterity

Not unlike the grief process, the move from denial (nope, this is a fake technique) and bargaining (there must be other fingerings!) to acceptance (OK fine, I see the limited utility of thumb position) signals a readiness to move on. Exploring positions above and below the harmonic, which requires the thumb to hold down the string, should be done incrementally to avoid excessive pain or a blister.

The thumb works like a capo on the guitar: its placement can make otherwise difficult notes easily playable. Using the midpoint harmonic as our starting position, if the thumb moves back a half step so that it rests on C# on the D string and G# on the A, the fingering for the C# major scale remains the same as the one you used for D major. A key with two sharps usually feels much friendlier than one with seven sharps, but such is the gift of thumb position. So long as you understand where you are on the fingerboard, you can play in any key with less stress than if the thumb was not available.

Once you can play one-octave major scales across the A and D strings, take this new skill for a spin by digging out some old pieces, études, or scales, and play them using thumb position. Notice what becomes simpler—and what does not. This helps hone the instinct for when to use a thumb fingering; you’ll find many arpeggios, scalar passages, and octaves become cleaner and more reliable with the structure of a hand in thumb position. 

Consolidating and Expanding Confidence

Once you’re playing single notes comfortably and in tune, working with double-stops helps perfect intonation and hand shape. While most finger combinations feel relatively simple in thumb position, there is one shape—3 on the lower string and 1 on the adjacent upper string—that is tricky for most of us. Depending on your physiology, the guidance usually involves one of a few ideas: playing slightly on the side of the upper string, bending your first finger and playing the note on a different surface of the finger, or changing the aspect of the entire hand to better accommodate the stretch. My advice is to work with an instructor on this; students frequently find that the right mechanics feel wrong, and the ones most likely to injure feel more secure at first.

From this stage, the ongoing work is primarily qualitative: Can you be more comfortable? Could that shift happen with a sense of lightness? Are you breathing? Can you use vibrato with your thumb on the string? Is the quality of the note played with the thumb equal to notes played with your fingers?

The gold standard for thumb position mastery is No. 9 from Popper’s High School of Cello Playing. It’s an absolute beast, a true reckoning, a tart with only rat and no strawberry. The thing to remember about these end-of-the-line studies is that you don’t have to master them in order to benefit from the work. I’ve been chipping away at No. 9 for a few decades with no plan to stop. I learn something new every time I address it and am tantalized when I find room for improvement at the end of each period of study.

Such is the life of a musician. It’s tremendous luck for us that no matter what might be happening outside of our practice rooms, there is always the possibility within of doing something just a bit better than the day before.