Please help, first finger on D sounding creaky. I have no idea why and it’s driving me crazy.
I played cello as a kid and am just getting back into it. I got a rental cello (it’s brand new and cheap).
At first practice was going well, I found that I remembered a lot and was seeing improvement. But not even a full week into having my new cello, towards the end of a longer session I noticed that my playing sounded creaky when I played first finger on the D string (ONLY). After some futile struggle I figured my finger was tired (it was a bit purple) and that I should rest.
Next day same problem so I took a few days off of practicing. It still sounds creaky. I’m starting to worry it’s something with the cello.
I tested by using my middle finger in the place of the first finger and it still sounds creaky. I also tried using my first finger in the place of my second and it sounds fine.
It’s not consistent and sometimes I’m able to get it to sound normally, which makes me think I might be doing something wrong with my bowing (having some trouble keeping my thumb relaxed) but I’m confused as to what suddenly changed as this didn’t happen in the beginning.
Ive tried adjusting the bow position and pressure but the only thing that sometimes works is playing very slowly (though that only works for the down bow)
Here’s a recording of it (I begin with playing the open D string for reference). (Also, despite what it sounds like I am not constantly stopping and starting my bow from what I can tell)