while standing in direct sunlight the other day during practice, i happened to notice the shadow of my bowing hand plodding through its stiff, wooden-like maneuvers. in trying to make the shadow move more elegantly - more smoothly and flowing - my wrist loosened up, my shoulder dropped - bowing began to be directed from the lower half of my arm.
i'd read that watching this procedure in the mirror is a good way of loosening up but in my case, the "chiaroscuro" version worked better.
i've been given the use of this instrument - it's been badly maintained: the bridge is missing, it needs new strings, the sound post is rattling around inside and the endpiece needs to be re-attached ... but hey! - to all intents and purposes, it's mineallmine!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7738680@N05/sets/72157628712251521/
it think it's a 6ing vielle - any tuning recommendations, preferably in 5ths or a combination of 4ths and 5ths?
More entries: October 2010
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