Bowing Beethoven 7

January 9, 2007 at 10:45 PM

O.K. Now I know what is hard about Beethoven Symphony no. 7. Playing the bowings UP TO SPEED!!! It is a whole different ballgame with the metronome cranked up to mark. Whew. Getting those notes clean isn't the major problem (though I had to go over and over a few shifts until my fingers were cranky). The bow. GRRRR!!! I found it less awkward further away from the frog, but doing it that way is not as crisp, obviously. Not that it sounded particularly crisp at the frog. More like a semi truck going over speedbumps.

So...does anyone know some good exercises for the bowing in mvt.s 1, and 3? The books I currently use are Kreutzer, Schradieck, Dont, and Mazas. Or something that isn't really an etude, but an exercise...besides the obvious, playing the bowings without fingers and with string crossings on one finger. Or going up the scale. Maybe it is something that needs technical address...i.e. higher elbow and less wrist, or flexability in the fingers for those short, quick notes. The problem i was mostly having was going from the long notes to the quick, finding myself in the wrong part of the bow..unless I moved the bow during the note before it a little bit.

Anyway. Back to it...

Jennifer

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on January 9, 2007 at 10:58 PM

Greetings,
I was going to point to the bowing as the difficulty but I knew you`d discover it yourself ;)
Cheers,
Burp

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on January 9, 2007 at 10:59 PM

Greetings,
don`t need etudes, use scales.
You could cook the Kreutzer f major if you were in a reall mood.

Cheers,
Buri

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on January 10, 2007 at 11:23 AM

Sorry, the 7th is one of the few Beethoven symphonies I haven't played. I've played 2,3,5,6, and 9 at various times. Even with the hard bowing, I'm jealous! I'd love to be playing it!

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Bowing Beethoven 7

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