I’ve been playing cello for four years now and I want to get better, but I don’t know how. I started playing when I was placed in the wrong course at school and I ended up in the experienced class instead of beginner. The first year was taught by a proper strings teacher, but I spent most of the time self-teaching in order to catch up with the class (having played piano for several years really helped with the transition). Then, by the start of the next year, my teacher moved schools and my class was left with a band teacher who hadn’t taught strings in over 10 years.
Now, I’m in twelfth grade and worked my way up to the principle cellist in the school orchestra but I know there are some key skills missing (such as vibrato and tone). Playing at school was enough for me but now because of COVID, I’m stuck at home and want to take advantage of the copious amount of extra time I have and improve my cello skills.
Due to never having a proper cello teacher, I don’t actually know how advanced I am. I have a friend who is in the RCM system who said I would be around a level 3/4, but even so, I don’t know where to start or how to progress without a teacher.
Is there anything someone could recommend for me to do?
(For reference, here’s an example of something we played in orchestra last year):