30-second Bow strokes??

June 12, 2012 at 8:23 AM

I've just read the discussion started by Noël Kingsley and he was saying things like long bows up to 30 seconds and going from p to f in a bow stroke up to 20 times (at the fingerboard or at the bridge). And Stephen Brivati said that he did 30-60 second bows with and without dynamics. Did I misunderstand or do you really sustain ONE bow stroke (from frog to tip/tip to frog)for so long? If so, please give me some advice on how to do this. If I keep a nice, rich sound I could only sustain piano for like 10 seconds max, maybe just a little bit more with pianissimo.

So my question is if you really sustain 1 stroke for 30 seconds or more.

From Bart Meijer
Posted on June 13, 2012 at 9:06 PM

It's a practice I neglected for too long to be able to do it now. I remember that it did get better with practice, and that 30 seconds was manageable. But the thing about such seemingly impossible goals is the journey they set you on: paying attention to every detail, and enjoying that. Have fun!

Bart (who is now learning to maintain the sound of three strings at once, another such conundrum; no idea how to do it, yet)

From Atilla Yasar
Posted on June 14, 2012 at 8:55 AM

Well, I didn't really ask for motivation, but it's true that the journey is the most entertaining thing about impossible goals :P

I wonder how awesome it'll be to be able to maintain a phrase for 30 seconds on a single stroke o.0 And what it will do to the quality of my sound!!

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