Comments

Great Blog Buri. Many thanks. I certainly need to practice just the bow arm, detached from the left hand. Adam, if you start flopping your wrist up and down to do the string crossings you will find that the amount of pressure on the string will be constantly changing and also the amount of bow hair on the string will change. Most of the string crossings should actually be done by moving your arm. An excellent way to practice this is to place the bow on the string and finger with the left hand. However, do not move the bow back and forth horizontally. You will find that the bow will follow the left hand for arm levels. After you do this several times, play normally and you will probably know where the strings are. Greetings,
whta Bruce says -exactly=. I think the active wrist business has been highly exaggerated by some schools of violin playing. Perhaps its similar to Flesch finger exercises. They have a place in the practice room but not somehting to be actively pursued in actual performance.
Claytons Haslop`s excellent materials also recoommend paying attention to the back and forth arm movement and letting the eyes takes care of the string crossing. It is a similar cocnept I think.
Thanks Bruce,
Buri Something else to think about: Find the places where you can make a circular motion to bring you to the next string. The first place is going from the 3rd to the 4th note. You can use the scooping motion of the bow to bring you to the A string. Unfortunately, some of the circles will go in the wrong direction, for instance going from the 4th note to the 5th note. Like Buri says make sure your E string arm level is quite near the A string level, not too low. I just wanted to thank Buri for this great practical advice; equally as useful for returning adult beginners like myself as for all you budding virtuosi.

Elizabeth

Not to sound unoriginal, but this blog once again proves a goldmine for useful advice. Thanks for posting, Buri - and thanks to Bruce as well! Mr Berg,

Is the scooping motion you are talking about mostly executed by the forearm?

The scooping motion must not be described, otherwise it will become a technique, not a motion.

Just imagine scooping ice cream out of a container using your right hand (if you are right handed.) The best way to do this is an up bow scoop. If you can imagine a down bow scoop, which by the way would not be the most efficient way to scoop ice cream, then you will have the down bow version. And, yes to answer your question this will probably turn out to be a forearm motion. However, to complicate matters if you tend to be an overly analytical person, you elbow, wrist and fingers will probably follow this motion.