About the Cello.

The cello is much bigger than a violin, and in contrast to that instrument, it is played in an upright position between the legs of the seated musician, resting on a metal spike, called the endpin. The player draws the bow horizontally across the strings. The cello has four strings tuned in fifths : C ( the lowest ), G, D and A ( below middle * ; these are tuned precisely one octave below the viola. Thanks to the huge range of the instrument written music for the cello often swaps between the bass clef, tenor clef, and treble clef. The name cello is a shortening of the Italian violoncello, meaning "little violone".

The violone is an outmoded instrument, a huge viol, like a modern double bass.

It is part of the standard orchestra and features in the string quartet and lots of other chamber groups. Cellos are a part of the standard orchestra. Often , the orchestra includes 8 to 12 cellists. The cello section, in standard musical seating, is found on stage left ( the spectators's right ) in the front, opposite to the 1st violin section. In secondary orchestra seating, he / she sits nearest the conductor and stage left compared to the cellist next to him / her ( the cellist sitting "second chair" ). A lot of the time, cellos provide part of the harmony for the orchestra. On numerous occasions, the cello section will pick up the melody of the piece for a short period of time, before returning to the harmony. An exception are Apocalyptica, a bunch of cellists famous for their versions of heavy metal songs.

Find out more on the subject of How to play violin