Chords

A chord is two or more notes played together and on the cello you can play two, three or four note chords (although there are problems which are explained below). Chords can be open strings played together, fingered notes or a mixture of open and stopped strings. A two note chord is called a double stop. Three and four note chords are called triple and quadruple stops.

If the double stop is difficult (the left hand span is awkward) a cello section will play this divisi (meaning divided - the notes are shared out between instruments). A composer can write non div under the chord if they really want the players to play the double stop. This does increase the risk of tuning problems.

Chords on the cello depend on the fact that the strings are tuned in fifths. Patterns that are 'tried and tested' tend to include open strings as much as possible and use finger patterns get bigger as you go up the chord. A simple C major chord is a good example: the open C string, the open G string, an E on the D string and a C on the A String (intervals: 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th). Less common are patterns where the intervals get smaller, simply because they're more difficult.

A common problem within music written for the cello is chords which are not physically possible, in particular chords with narrow intervals such as the C major chord David attempts to demonstrate above. This chord has a C on the G string, an E on the D string and a G on the D string, but it's not possible to play (you can't play two notes on the same string at the same time!), so the chord has to be arpeggiated (split, so that the notes don't sound at exactly the same time). But even if David arpeggaites the chord it's resonance will be lost.

All bowed string instruments have a bridge which is curved. This curvature allows string players to play one string at a time with the bow, but means that they can only play on two or at the very most three strings at a time. Even by moving the bow further up the fingerboard (where the curvature is less great) David can only play 3 strings before he has to arpeggiate.