Pachelbel’s Canon Reveals the Secret to Cello Intonation

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]So, I want to start off by saying, just very simply, that there's no such thing as a perfect intonation every time or a correct place for for your finger to be in to be, you know, in tune at all times. You can tune with a tuner, but the important thing is after that, turn the tuner off. Sometimes we have the tendency that if we have our iPad or our phone and we just look at it for every single pitch, that we're training our ears and that we're developing our intonation. And this is absolutely incorrect.

[00:00:29]>> Pachelbel's Canon might be one of the most familiar pieces in the classical world, which makes it the perfect place to talk about intonation. Hidden inside those simple opening notes is one of the most important skills a cellist can develop, learning to hear when the cello is in tune. In this lesson, Tonebase Cello's Mafalda Santos shows that good intonation isn't about putting your finger in the correct place, and it's definitely not about staring at a tuner hoping it turns green. Instead, she'll show you how to listen for sympathetic vibrations, pillar notes, double stops, and that almost magical moment when the cello gives you more sound back. This is a clip from Mafalda's full course on intonation. Click the link in the description to start your 14-day free trial of Tonebase Premium and watch the full course. One of the most helpful guidelines for intonation is to play our pillar notes. So, the pillar notes will correspond to the strings that we have on the cello, so A, D, G, and C.

[00:01:23]Um and our purpose is to play those pillar notes in a way that makes the entire cello vibrate.

[00:01:31]So, when you play a note in tune, for example, >> [music] >> you will notice, and and I'm sure you can see that on the camera, the open string is vibrating.

[00:01:41]>> [music] >> So, when you're playing right at that center of the pitch, um it's very interesting because it's like your your cello enjoys it, so you get this purring out of the cello, this extra resonance.

[00:01:55]Um so, in essence, you're getting free sound because you're making um, you're triggering sympathetic vibrations and you're triggering overtones. So you will see a low A for [music] instance.

[00:02:08]And I'm sure you can hear the upper A.

[00:02:12]>> [music] >> A low D.

[00:02:18]>> [music] >> Here you can actually hear both. You can hear the the open string D and a little bit of A as well.

[00:02:24]>> [music] >> And then >> [music] >> So this also triggering so much resonance from the from the low C. So you can see how far it rings even after I've stopped I've stopped playing with the bow. So as we go into our Pachelbel, um, just think of the first two notes, which is exactly what we have there. So first we play a D.

[00:02:51]>> [music] [music] >> So as we go into this A the A will be in tune and and you will hear this all of this vibration. And of course you can also play the the D as an open string.

[00:03:13]>> [music] [music] >> So these two notes are just really where you will hear already a lot of the resonance. So a great way to to You might be thinking, "Okay, but how how do I actually know it's in tune or how do I know if it's the the maximum amount of vibration?" You do that by experimenting. So if I play a D for instance >> [music] >> and I bend the pitch, now I'm bending the pitch downwards.

[00:03:52]>> [music] >> And and upwards. So, you will essentially hear and it might take a little bit of time, but it needs some some patience. You need to be also bowing at at a good sounding point and with a healthy sound, but you will essentially hear this this uh point where where where the cello just gives uh gives more sound. And the other great way, for example, for this initial pitch is to play double stops um with with our open string.

[00:04:18]So, if I Here we have the unison, and you will hear it's quite horrendous. Um if I if I play it a little bit um off the center of pitch, you will hear all of this um yeah, like all of this clashing of the waves of kind of a wah wah wah wah.

[00:04:37]>> [music] [music] >> So, you notice how you were hearing that that clash, and then gradually as I adjusted so it was too too flat on purpose, and then as I adjusted upward, um it's like the pitches became became one. Again, it's This is really a a very zen exercise and just a very patient way um of of training our ear and training our bodies to to look for all of this resonance. So, I briefly hinted now that double stops are are a great tool. Uh you can also use them just within within um the position position, for instance, for this um A. So, you have >> [music] >> And here, for double stops, very very important to just keep the bow moving.

[00:05:26]Sometimes we get a little bit stuck, but >> [music] >> And then play around with what you're doing here, um and I will show you um going from from, you know, the center of pitch bending in each in each direction.

[00:05:42]>> [music] [music] [music] >> So, it's very interesting. It's like you have I mean, you could even have this in a in a um you know, in the beginning of a of a movie, you know, as the logo is coming you know, the logo would would show up complete once you have this sort of um opening where the the interval is actually in tune. And then um you can also use the open string >> [music] >> for the B.

[00:06:24]And then we have an F sharp. And for the F sharp, we can't actually play it with the D open string. And here we're playing everything with D because we're in D major. Um so, how do you do when you have a pitch that you cannot physically compare >> [music] >> to the open string? One great technique that you can use is to tune the B >> [music] >> and then tune the F sharp to this B.

[00:06:51]And in this way you have a really good relationship >> [music] >> with with this pitch. Everything is is in tune in this in this um sound world, in this harmonic context. So, the reason why I was already extended >> [music] >> here I was playing the B with the with the with the second finger is of course because we need the extension to reach that extra half step, otherwise we would get an F natural.

[00:07:21]>> [music] >> And um I just wanted to say a little bit about, you know, proper extension mechanics because I think that's something that really gets in the way of good intonation. Um you might hear >> [music] >> this or overshooting if there's if there's tension or if we overestimate where the note might be. So, for extensions >> [music] >> just a few things to keep in mind. You might notice immediately, as soon as I as I play the B, I'm actually releasing the first finger. If I keep this here, there's a 0% chance of me reaching the F sharp in tune because I cannot even reach it. Uh if you have bigger hands, maybe you're you're you can, or maybe you you don't hold the extension quite as much and you still get it, but you see just how much strain this is. It looks It looks awful and feels awful.

[00:08:11]So, so our thumb is traveling along with our second finger in the extension, and I'm releasing the first finger um as soon as I as soon as I can. So, this will allow me then to support my fourth finger with my arm, which is something I've been talking about quite a quite a bit in some other courses.

[00:08:34]So, it's not also not just trying to reach with our fourth finger.

[00:08:38]It's supporting with the arm. So, all of this essentially gives you more options of where you're placing the pitch, so you're not just limited by um something to do with with physicality.

[00:08:48]And especially if you have, you know, smaller hands, um smaller smaller arms.