5 Simple Steps To Smooth Bow Change

if you struggle with Mo bow changes you might be missing a couple of key points of the right hand technique one of them is keeping your bow straight and the other is understanding the actual moment of the bow change on the Frog and at the tip of the bow today we're focusing on these two topics which if you ask me are very much connected we'll go through the correct posture of the four elements of the right hand the straight movement of bow Direction itself the actual bow change at the Frog and at the tip of the bow and a few exercises for you to try we'll start with why do we need to have smooth bow changes because this is perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when shaping the melody an important thing to remember for achieving a smooth bow change is to maintain the intensity of the sound consistently this is the thing that gives us away when messing up a bow change the sound of course the ability to keep your ball straight is what gives you the confidence of having full control over the sound you want to produce after all as musicians our first responsibility is to enhance the music only this connects us to the audience in a pure and just way and we all want this Standing Ovation performances don't we so let's dive in getting your posture right is key to achieving straight bold Direction make sure that your shoulder is relaxed the feeling should be as if you're pulling it down even you should always be aware of this and be very strict with yourself otherwise you may have problems with pain or produce shallow or forced sound the elbow should be at the level of the string on which you're playing neither too high nor too low another thing to mind is for the elbow to never be higher than the wrist you don't want it to hover over the violin this will make your sound artificial and you will lack full control and connect ction to the string your wrist is level to the Elbow relaxed and responsive it is the connection between the biggest parts of the arm and the smallest elements of bow control the fingers this is why it has to follow the smallest motions and transfer them as evenly as possible the fingers should be relaxed and responsive to all the elements of the arm movement as well they're acting as cushion especially at the most difficult part of the bow change at the Frog straight bow Direction you can initially divide the bow Direction into four parts starting from the Frog down the first movement is to open your arm in front of your body like so the first movement paves the way for the second which is to open your elbow in front of you the third is to slightly pronate the wrist and the fourth is to extend your fingers to to help your arm sustain the straight bow Direction and the opposite going up fingers wrist elbow and arm now let's talk about the bow change at the Frog because this is the actual tricky part of the bow change we'll explore two different ways of approaching it in order to maintain the sound we need to regulate the weight at the heaviest point of the bow one way is to rely on the cushion movement of the wrist and the fingers when you reach the Frog they should be relaxed and responsive then use their natural circular movement to make the change the key here is to trust the movement and not over complicate it it is a very slight and passive action actually if you look at it the wrist and the fingers are following the non-stop motion not continuously doing it another way to do it is to depend on the whole arm movement when you reach the Frog you arrived at a fixed position of the four elements fingers wrist elbow and arm your fingers are already retracted you don't need to move them anymore the actual movement of the change is made by the whole arm like so B chain change at the tip of the bow a key here is for the fingers to stay passive at the moment of the change in order to sustain the sound here you need to pronate the wrist depending on the Dynamics on which you're [Music] playing now I'm going to show you a few exercises I recommend you to do all of them in front of a mirror only this way you'll be sure to see every little detail of your hand and correct yourself if needed and maybe it will be the first exercise is to ensure that your arm is always in the correct posture position on the Frog so take your bow and make a big circle with your whole hand to arrive at the fixed position on the frog from the air when you do this exercise make sure that your hand is always arriving in the correct posture position exact ly as we discussed it in the beginning relax shoulder elbow and wrist leveled to the string the second exercise will help you feel every key motion of both Direction and keeping it straight that of the arm elbow wrist and fingers we'll start at the Frog the purpose here is to focus on the first opening movement of your arm you should practice only this motion and make sure that your arm is opening right in front of you until it creates a 90° angle with your [Music] elbow the next step is to open your hand directly in front of you only from the elbow the last position is your actual bow change at the tip be careful not to break the r wrist like this your finger should be already extracted which helps your wrist maintain the correct [Music] position the third exercise helps a lot with the second for this one you should position your right arm to a wall which will make you avoid going too far with the elbow which is one of the main problems of having straight ball Direction and smooth ball changes lastly a couple of things that really should not be underestimated when making a smooth bow change are singing and breathing these two are often neglected in the students practice session and even if your teacher told you to work on them you didn't listen did you but it doesn't matter if you're a beginner or an advanced player you should always put an effort towards your imagination of producing the best phrase you could do singing is the shortest way to do it simply because because your musicality will never let you sing a melody and break it just because of a bow change once you hear the phrase as you feel it it's much easier to produce it breathing is strongly connected to singing in the sense of knowing where in Melody it is needed to breathe but this topic is for another day breathing can also help your body through the ball change a simple example is if you exhale doing the bow change at the Frog this will help but none of these tips will ever work unless you have a stable and flexible B hole so take a look at our Master Class about the basics of the Franco Belgian School B hold that you might be missing

Channel: Violedu

Views: 6,487

Keywords: Violin, Smooth, Bow Change, Posture, Violin Exercises, Violin Masterclass, Violin Tips, Skill Development, Classical Music, Violin Class, Violinist, Music Theory, Instrumental Technique, Violedu, Education

Id: ehNTgMRsQug

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2024