Cello learning...?

Question

How hard is it to learn the cello? I'm 21, I played piano for a few years, and I'm considering renting/buying a cello and trying to learn. I don't necessarily want to pay for lessons, could I learn online? Any answers will help.

Answer 1

Learning by yourself by books or online is not the best way to start cello. There are many aspects to playing cello that would best be taught by a teacher, especially the technique. It's always better to be taught the correct way from the beginning. I can tell you from experience, it's not a good feeling to be knocked down after playing for a while and start from scratch!

It will take time to learn how to hold a cello and bow. (It took me at least a year to really feel comfortable playing cello..) Since you've had musical experience with piano, reading music won't be a problem--you'll just need to connect the notes on paper to your fingers.

You should rent your first cello from a local music shop. It's not as expensive as buying, and you can always decide to bump up the quality of the cello later when you've got the technique down.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I strongly suggest taking at least a few lessons.  Cellos are very expensive, so if you're willing to pay for a cello, you can easily pay for a few lessons to get you started.  Videos and online lessons can't hear you making mistakes, can't see your fingering or bow hold, can't correct your intonation, and can't show you how to fix your cello when something goes wrong.  Also, even if you do make progress, chances are good that you'll be picking up bad habits that will keep you out of playing in an ensemble in the future.

While we're on that subject, like I said, cellos are very expensive.  If you've never played before, you really should rent one for a few months before investing.  You don't yet know how it should sound, how the set-up should look, how a good cello plays - it's like buying a car without ever having driven one.  You'll likely end up with a lemon.  And yes, instrument lemons are even more common than car lemons, especially among strings - anyone can slap together something that LOOKS like a violin or cello and see it cheap on ebay, but that doesn't mean you can get a sound out of it.

In short, my advice is rent a cello for a few months and take lessons.  If you like it, you can invest in one and continue studying on your own.  If you don't, you won't have wasted hundreds, even thousands of dollars.  If you can't find a shop near you that rents cellos, you can rent them from a few places online.  Here's a good one.  http://www.stringworks.com