Today's message should be very helpful to you if you are like many a violinist, and can always use an insight or two to keep your right arm technique sharp.
You see, most fiddlers have four main challenges where it comes to their bow-arm; keeping it straight, keeping it horizontal, achieving clean, non-disruptive string crossings, and coordinating changes of string and direction with the left hand.
Now, you may think of disagreeing with me. You may be thinking, 'my biggest problem is with spiccato, or up-bow staccato, or martel, I can do those other things.'
If that's the case, I'd say, you'd be wise to pay attention, your spiccato difficulties may have more to do with these things than you think.
Actually today I'm just going to discuss the first two elements - keeping the bow straight and keeping it horizontal. For most of us 'straight' is pretty well understood to mean parallel to the bridge. What is less understood, in my experience, is the need to conceive of all the elements of the bow arm - hand, forearm, and upper arm - as inhabiting one two-dimensional plane of movement.
And for this to happen there are exactly 3 joints we have that must ALLOW this to happen - the wrist, the elbow and the shoulder.
Take the wrist - one of the most common no-nos I see is the RAISING of the wrist at the frog. Raising the wrist immediately takes one component of your bow-arm out of that horizontal plane of movement so necessary to an efficient, seamless bow arm.
So how should the wrist flex? The wrist must flex forward, remaining within the 'plane of motion' the bow arm inhabits whilst also maintaining the bow in a position parallel to the bridge.
This idea of staying in the plane of motion also extends to the elbow. I see a lot of players introducing unnecessary complications to their bow-arm by elevating and lowering the elbow in the course of drawing a full bow.
Well, there's just too much going on, and all that contrary energy is getting fed right into the bow stick.
And last, there's the shoulder. Oh yea, the shoulder. How fresh is the memory of my father standing next to me tapping my shoulder to get it to relax during my early years of practice.
Though relaxed, the muscles in the shoulder must nonetheless control critical movements of the upper arm that comes into play at the lower part of the bow and during string crossings.
I'll talk more about string crossings soon, yet for now it's important to understand that, although the shoulder is bearing the weight of the arm and bow, it must be relaxed, as it plays a critical role in moving the bow straight and horizontally at the frog.
This is to say, you cannot confuse the vertical movements involved in string crossings with the lateral movements of the upper arm involved in bowing.
This morning I again made a worthwhile investment into my practice by playing Kreutzer #2 at the extreme frog. And you might be interested to know that for me to accomplish it, at tempo from top to bottom with a really smooth detach bowing, I 'belly-breathed' like a stallion in heat. You see, you've got to keep the upper body absolutely relaxed to do play cleanly this way, and belly-breathing is a secret every violinist should know to facilitate this penetrating kind of relaxation.
You see, most fiddlers have four main challenges where it comes to their bow-arm; keeping it straight, keeping it horizontal, achieving clean, non-disruptive string crossings, and coordinating changes of string and direction with the left hand.
Now, you may think of disagreeing with me. You may be thinking, 'my biggest problem is with spiccato, or up-bow staccato, or martel, I can do those other things.'
If that's the case, I'd say, you'd be wise to pay attention, your spiccato difficulties may have more to do with these things than you think.
Actually today I'm just going to discuss the first two elements - keeping the bow straight and keeping it horizontal. For most of us 'straight' is pretty well understood to mean parallel to the bridge. What is less understood, in my experience, is the need to conceive of all the elements of the bow arm - hand, forearm, and upper arm - as inhabiting one two-dimensional plane of movement.
And for this to happen there are exactly 3 joints we have that must ALLOW this to happen - the wrist, the elbow and the shoulder.
Take the wrist - one of the most common no-nos I see is the RAISING of the wrist at the frog. Raising the wrist immediately takes one component of your bow-arm out of that horizontal plane of movement so necessary to an efficient, seamless bow arm.
So how should the wrist flex? The wrist must flex forward, remaining within the 'plane of motion' the bow arm inhabits whilst also maintaining the bow in a position parallel to the bridge.
This idea of staying in the plane of motion also extends to the elbow. I see a lot of players introducing unnecessary complications to their bow-arm by elevating and lowering the elbow in the course of drawing a full bow.
Well, there's just too much going on, and all that contrary energy is getting fed right into the bow stick.
And last, there's the shoulder. Oh yea, the shoulder. How fresh is the memory of my father standing next to me tapping my shoulder to get it to relax during my early years of practice.
Though relaxed, the muscles in the shoulder must nonetheless control critical movements of the upper arm that comes into play at the lower part of the bow and during string crossings.
I'll talk more about string crossings soon, yet for now it's important to understand that, although the shoulder is bearing the weight of the arm and bow, it must be relaxed, as it plays a critical role in moving the bow straight and horizontally at the frog.
This is to say, you cannot confuse the vertical movements involved in string crossings with the lateral movements of the upper arm involved in bowing.
This morning I again made a worthwhile investment into my practice by playing Kreutzer #2 at the extreme frog. And you might be interested to know that for me to accomplish it, at tempo from top to bottom with a really smooth detach bowing, I 'belly-breathed' like a stallion in heat. You see, you've got to keep the upper body absolutely relaxed to do play cleanly this way, and belly-breathing is a secret every violinist should know to facilitate this penetrating kind of relaxation.
About the Author:
Clayton Haslop is the Concertmaster on many Hollywood movie soundtracks including The Matrix movies, Titanic, Avatar, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Star Trek, Up, Jurassic Park, Apollo 13 and The Perfect Storm. Clayton Haslop's bestselling Instructional DVD courses are used by beginning violinists to professionals worldwide.
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