It's easy to treat a slide as something you either do or don't, when the cello can connect two notes the way a great singer does. Watch how changing the bow at the end of the slide, at its start or partway through gives the same connection a different emotional character.
The cello, along with other stringed instruments, is unique among the orchestra in its capacity to imitate the human voice by sliding (also called portamento or glissando). How many different ways are there to slide? How can we intelligently use the bow, our fingers, and the strings to deliver the exact slide a musical phrase calls for? In this lesson, Schwarz answers these questions and more – an encyclopedic discussion of portamento technique that offers endless options for experimentation.
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