Hi, I really enjoyed reading the threads here and had found them very useful for someone who had little knowledge about the cello. I've a question here and hope some of you out there can give me advices. I'm a 26 years old chinese girl who's interested in learning cello. The thing is I've got pretty small hands. Many years ago I learnt guitar and found it very difficult to stretch my fingers across various chords. Such as the piano, since young I've always heard that people with longer fingers do better. Determination and practice certainly play a part. Still I would like to know will someone with small hands have difficulty with the cello? Any reply is much appreciated.

Well, there is such a thing as a smaller cello for smaller hands/person.
4/4= Full size cello
7/8= A little smaller
...and it goes down from there...1/2...1/4 all the way down to practically Viola size, just much thicker.

-I don't know how big/small you are so I don't know what to tell you. When I was in the 6th grade (12 years old) I started off with 1/2 maybe 7/8 I can't recall. If your fingers aren't flexible, I don't think it matters how long they are. There are a few pieces of music where the fingerings were soo far apart that I had to use my thumb, #4=pinky finger, 3=ring, 2=middle, 1=index and #0=thumb fingering.

I've heard that some adult women prefer to play on a 7/8 cello, because it's supposively easier to reach the higher notes.

Thanks Sean and Riki, your comments are really helpful.
I'm 157 cm tall, and my hand size is only about 2 cm longer than a pen. Am glad to hear adults do use a smaller size cello. Guess it'll make more sense for me to start learning cello for a good period of time before purchasing a suitable size. Thank you all

I don't bebelive more and more time after time by practise and playing.Yoyo Ma's saying of mentally playing has opened my mind one day,playing cello well mentally(understaning)must be very important indeed,even soully I think,I'm a Chinese and hands are not big and even third finger of left hand has been broken before...but...but if you/I really love playing cello and want to be well and great by never really fall down,I believe I can otherwise better give up, I mustn't fall down only because of feeling of not big hand,it's really not the most important element of playing cello well and great indeed. I didn't sart leaning cello by by self but I do love it more and more from lower stage to higher. I must well showing people I'm right when I alive.

Hi I am a professional cellist. I am only 158 cm. Most of my middle school students are taller than me and their hands are bigger than mine. But size does not determine how well you can start cello. More crucial are the agility, flexibility and strength (do not mixed this with TENSION) of your fingers.
So I would suggest, invest time on finger strngth exercises and make sure you use your fingers with no tension but keep them loose to train each finger individually.
As far as cello shopping, I've shopped cello for years. Some poorly-set-up 7/8 cellos actually have larger interval distance than a small 4/4. The most important is the string length- from the nut to bridge. I think look for 1.a thinner neck, 2.shorter string length and 3.thinner body cello would be suitable. Good luck!!

Just want to be here again.

My last cello hero Jaqueline Du Pre's great playing,especially Elgar concerto to me there is no one can compare,but she is only a human.There must be many hands biger than her the cellists around.