VIOLIN TECHNIQUE/VIOLA TECHNIQUE: Planes / Crescents / BHG wRepHits

September 10, 2013 at 3:44 PM

Micro snippets

Okay, I have finally made a little attempt with You Tube.

Just a few snippets of a lesson. Hope you enjoy…

Planes / String Crossings #1a-c

Crescent Bow

Open & Closed Hand Groups #1 Beginning Hand Group (BHG) w/Rep Hits

Open & Closed Hand Groups #1 (complete) Beginning Hand Group (BHG) w/Rep Hits

Hope this helps—

Take care and God bless,
Drew

Author of:
Violin Technique, the Manual and Viola Technique, the Manual

From jean dubuisson
Posted on September 11, 2013 at 8:42 AM

thanks very much Drew, but I don't get what you are doing on the crescent bow video fragment. you actually start a down bow at the frog with the bow angled in quite a lot. so naturally then you have to adapt by reducing the angle, otherwise the bow would drift to the fingerboard. perhaps that is exactly your point. indeed many beginning students bow down too much angled in. so you want to counter that. is that it?

From Roy Sonne
Posted on September 12, 2013 at 12:56 AM

These are great, Drew. I had never understood the repetition hits before. The video clarified it immediately. I immediately tried it out on a student with immediate success. Keep it up. Let's have more like this!!

From Drew Lecher
Posted on September 12, 2013 at 5:02 AM

Hi Jean—I am doing an exaggerated Crescent Bow Stroke. This is so my new young student can free the action of his bow arm and begin developing a resonant spin on the sound he draws.

Here is an excerpt from my books where I mention the Crescent Bow. Think of a banana shape or smiley face—they all work.

Crescent Bow—
The most important technique for the development of tonal resonance and fluidity of bow arm motion.

The partial slightly orbital path around the scroll of the instrument (player’s left hand) enabling the tone to resonate with greater clarity and projection, additionally offering a natural way to free up the right arm’s motions through the joints of the wrist, elbow and shoulder.

1. The bow strokes are to be accomplished with a slight rounding-of-the-path, thus Crescent Bow – the curved drawing of the bow.

2. The down and up-bow paths are mirror images of each other.

3. The down-bow must have a pulling back of the upper arm in the lower 1/2 of the bow followed by a pushing out/forward in the upper 1/2 as the bow continues toward the tip.

a. The point at which the right elbow is 90-degrees determines the upper and lower 1/2 of the bow stroke.

4. The up-bow must have a pulling back of the upper arm in the upper 1/2 of the bow followed by a pushing up diagonally of the left hand for the lower 1/2 toward the heel of the bow.

NOTE: The Crescent Bow is necessary to compensate for the natural resistance of the bow caused by the string/bridge combination – the nearer to the bridge, the greater the resistance. It is like walking into the wind – we lean into the counter force.

Hope this helps—
D

From Drew Lecher
Posted on September 12, 2013 at 5:17 AM

Hi Roy—
So glad to hear the video clarified things for you! Yes, I hope to do more of these. Hand Groups will be next—maybe in 2-3 parts. D

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