3. Bowing

Bow arm and hand set-up:

• Imagine that you poured water down your shoulder. It should flow down your arm and off your fingers without pooling around the elbow or wrist.
• All right hand fingers should actively support the bow (no fingers floating into the air). Keep your thumb supple.
• Don’t scrunch your fingers together; create “windows’’ between all fingers.

Bow exercises and warm-ups:

• When adjusting your bowhold, either let the bow rest on the string or hold it in midair with the tip pointing straight up.
• Practice scales slowly with one note per bow. Inhale steadily during the down bow and exhale during the up bow.
• As you play a scale, tap each of your four fingers on the bow, one at a time. Feel each finger make contact with the bow.
• Crescendo as you play one bow from frog to tip. Decrescendo as you play from tip back to frog.
• The area code challenge! Use your area code or another three-digit number to play a scale at a steady tempo. E.g., if your area code is 585:
  1. On the first down bow, slur together 5 notes.
  2. Then up-bow slur together the next 8 notes.
  3. Down-bow slur together the next 5 notes. Repeat steps 1. to 3. until the scale is over.
• The “spider crawl:” holding the bow with the tip pointing towards the ceiling, use your fingers to “crawl” up the stick.
• “Grasshoppers:” set the bow on the string, then lift and land in a different area of the bow.
  • For example, frog to tip, frog to balance point, frog to middle, balance point to tip, etc.
  • Make sure your bow lands parallel to the bridge.
  • For a challenge, play an up bow at the frog, hop to the tip, and play a down bow. Repeat!

• “The Snake” Exercise
• Casals’ Crawl

Other bowing considerations:

As you are dreaming up your ideal sounds, keep the following six factors in mind:

• Arm weight
• Bow speed and amount of bow
• Contact point: bow placement between fingerboard and bridge
• Amount of hair on string
• Bow angle
• Part of the bow

Guiding questions:

• How can articulation contribute to realizing musical character?
• Should the note start with a consonant or vowel sound?
• What is your plan for bow distribution? Take into account rhythm, articulation, dynamics, and phrasing decisions.