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Tensing sautille

Technique and Practicing: Sautille gets me sore

From Johann Andrew
Posted April 29, 2012 at 03:44 AM

My teacher gave a song and I have to do sautille bowing for the piece. The problem for me is that every time I do sautille bowing, my arm starts to tense up. My arm gets sore after I am done playing. Does anyone know how to keep my arm from tensing up?

From Paul Deck
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 03:59 AM
Ease into it. Make sure you are well warmed up before you work on this piece. You might only have enough stamina right now just to play through the piece once. So don't do that. Don't hurt yourself. Work on little bits at a time, especially anything that involves string changing or string crossing or sudden dynamics. And remember just because the piece calls for a certain type of bowing at a fast tempo does not mean you can't help yourself by practicing it detache' at a much slower tempo, to address intonation and evenness problems (and memorization).

What is the piece? You can work on sautille bowing with "perpetual motion" and "etude" from Suzuki Book 1, which you will know well if you are in a Suzuki studio, and the skills you learn there will translate to your piece.

Also ask your teacher to review your technique. Where is it sore? Bicep? Forearm? Wrist? Hand? Neck? Seriously -- all these are indicators of separate types of problems. Think about the mechanics of your body. It's a machine.

From Johann Andrew
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 06:21 AM
The piece is called "Elves Dance by Ezra Jenkinson." I am sore at the forearm and the bicep. On the sheet music it says sautille under the first E in the piece. I have done different things to stop the tensing it just doesn't work
From Charlie Caldwell
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 06:57 AM
Since you have tried a few things without solving the problem, perhaps you will be open to a new approach?

Consider for a moment if you are tensing while trying to perform "sautille," then it is not real sautille.

Now, you have to invent a new way to do "sautille" in which you get the sound you want and you do not have unnecessary tension.

From Charles Cook
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Sautille isn't just a back and forth finger movement, but also a up and down or circular wrist movement. Practice sautille with just a circular wrist movement(no finger movement), then practice sautille with just finger movement. Then practice sautille with finger movement and wrist movement. You should find that playing with wrist and finger movement easy with very little tension. The more wrist movement you put into the sautille the slower you can bounce, or it can be used increase volume if you keep the speed.
From Paul Deck
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 02:09 PM
I agree that if you hurt in the forearm and bicep then it's likely your wrist and fingers are fairly locked and you're trying to force the bow stroke with the rest of your arm. You really need to build up to this gradually and methodically. And it can be frustrating, so please give yourself some time. I know this very keenly because my daughter is just breaking through this barrier with the very same piece (that's why I asked). The advice I gave you before, about starting slow with simpler (shorter!) pieces that you already know very well, came from her teacher, and wow, did it ever help. Also please ignore the metronome marking on that piece for now. Once you develop a natural bow stroke you will be able to control it from there. Especially, don't expect to start the piece at your "full speed" sautille for now ... start slower, thinking about what your fingers and wrist are doing, and allow the speed to increase gradually. You'll figure out how to start fast as the bow stroke becomes more natural.

Here is a reasonable how-to if you don't have your own teacher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsDSe_EQuO8

From Frieda Francis
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 03:07 PM
From Joel Arthur
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 04:46 PM
From Momoko Takahashi
Posted on May 1, 2012 at 07:11 AM
Sautille isn't played with the arm, but the wrist and finger balance. Is your thumb hitchhiking (see my post from March 5th, 2012 to see what it is.

The wrist movement is circular, or more like diagonal than anything else. Not sideways, not up-down, but in between. I use my forefinger and my pinky to maintain balance.

Marc Bouchkov

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