Practicing open Strings, 30 minutes a day for 6 months

January 23, 2008 at 05:46 PM · Leopold Auer wrote a progressive methode for violin. The first volume (for the first year) has only studies on open strings. Perhaps you should take a look...

January 23, 2008 at 05:38 PM · Open strings can certainly help your bow arm. However, you might want your teacher to check everything out every so often to make sure that bad habits do not form. Legato is usually the best place to start with open strings. Try whole bow, half bow, and different combinations, and then move on to other strokes, like detache, martele, spiccato, staccato. The goal really is to all these things with a nice sound.

I am curious, where did you find out Auer talked about open strings?

January 23, 2008 at 10:51 PM · Greetings,

I practic eopen strings for about half an hour a day. I sue Drew Lecher`s book. The alternative is work systematically throughh all the oepn string exericses in Fischerz`s Basics and see what clicks with you.

I think ther eare a few basic things one shoudl pracitce evryday.

1) 30-60 second bow stroks (with and without dynamics)

2) Rapid whole bow on all sound points.

3) String crossing exercises on 2, 3 and 4 strings, especially at the heel..

4) Pulsing exercises.

I also storngly trecommed the practic eof working passgaes form the repertoire using openm strings. I think players tend to neglect this with the result that a faulty passage is cause by lack of awarness of where the bow is oging rather than a left hand problem.

Cheersd,

Buri

Incidentally, Auer was not that rigid about holding off on the left hand if the bowing was working well.

January 24, 2008 at 12:17 AM · "I also strongly recommend the practice of working passages form the repertoire using open strings. I think players tend to neglect this with the result that a faulty passage is cause by lack of awareness of where the bow is going rather than a left hand problem."

My teacher just went over this method with me at my last lesson. My bow is drifting to the fingerboard when I play difficult measures. Playing them on open strings first, gets my brain and my arm thinking of what is going on and then adding the notes is not so much like cats fighting.

January 24, 2008 at 10:56 AM · Thanks Buri and everyone for your helpful suggestions and advice. I'll incorporate open strings with repertoire pieces.

I read about Auer's recommendation of open string for 30 minute a day either in his book 'Violin playing as I teach it.' or in the Strad interview with Aaron Rosand in November issue, I think. I don't have either copy in front of me so can't check right now.

January 24, 2008 at 11:37 AM · Check out the archives of the DeLay symposium from the summer...Brian Lewis had a good exercise on there..

Zuckerman also has good exercises, and usually just does open bow exercises in master classes.

* Down bow quickly on the A string, big lift, repeat. Shouldn't get any overtones. Use weight of arm

* Up bow, same sound, finding ways to redistribute the weight...all the way to the frog and "shake" the "hand" of the bow...(wiggling your knuckles to make sure they're flexible and relaxed)...

* Down, Up together. Freeze. Repeat.

He talked about watching the types of triangles your arm makes with the violin/bow...big into using a mirror...

Also, I really liked working hard on string crossings...finding different ways to do down/up bows between different variations of strings to catch all combinations I could think of...

I tell my students open string exercises (and scales) are like your wheaties or oat bran...not everyone likes them so much, but they help you out a lot!

January 25, 2008 at 07:01 AM · Quick question: Why open strings? Why can't you just do these same right handed exercises with scales and even arpeggios (Carl Flesch, anyone?)? Might as well work on intonation while you're at it.

January 25, 2008 at 10:21 AM · I think open strings are recommended so there's less to think about. On working on the bowing in the ways described it's more than enough to think about in terms of the subtleties. And while it may seem boring, the more one gets into it the more there is to sense and work on. I guess the more you put in the more you get out, as with everything in life.

January 26, 2008 at 12:29 AM · I like to use some of the open string exercises from the first book in the Auer series, and from time to time some I have made up on my own. This helps me get in the groove. I find it to be a very good way to open a practice session, and at times to close one as well. The arm that operates the bow and the other working the fingerboard have such different duties, and Auer felt it invaluable to separate the two from time to time, and of course at the start of one's learning the violin.

Also, to answer one of the questions aksed in the original post, keep a log of your practice sessions and use set times for certain aspects of your practice session (open strings for 30 minutes, then scales for 30 minutes, etc.). This helps to keep one from drifting and keeps you working toward a goal as it provides invaluable structure.

January 26, 2008 at 02:48 AM · Danny, speaking as a beginner, working on open strings is so very important to nailing down good bow technique. It may seem easy to pull the bow on an open string...but doing it with pleasurable results is where the work begins.

January 28, 2008 at 08:27 AM · Thanks for your helpful suggestions and thoughts, everyone. Yes, a timetable of what to practice for how long, may help me keep on track with the various exercises...

Auer said he recommended open strings for players of all levels.