Evenness: Sustaining between stages

Music Lesson: Bowing Technique

As in the pressure exercise:

• Sustain long bows between the stages of the speed exercise.
• Feel the flow, evenness, and momentum of the bow.

Then, keep the same feeling of flow as you continue without stopping, straight into the divisions:

Along, along, along, along, along, along.
That's it. Six. One, two.

Just draw the bow continuously for a minute.
Feel the flow and the momentum.

The same again. Just feel.
Now the same with the speed.
So much better every time, isn't it? Very good.

And do four on the next one. But play deep into the string.

Important Points on Bowing

Naomi, you know, when we start out learning to play a string instrument, the first problem is just how to draw the bow parallel with the bridge. And we concentrate on that for a long time.

But there are two other things that are just as important:

1. Distance from the Bridge
2. Playing Down Vertically into the String

We don't want to just think in terms of "down bow" is sort of that way, and "up bow" is sort of that way, which makes you play like this way, pushing and pulling.

I know. I'm saying we mustn't press, but still, we need to engage the string. So you need to:

• Be near the bridge,
• Play deep into the string,
• Really engage the string.

Bravo! That's excellent. Now do six.

Counting Bow Strokes

Okay. Yes. If you do six, which number happens exactly in the middle of the bow?

4. 4 is half of 6.

And if you're doing 8, which number would begin right in the middle of the bow?

Five. Right. Five is half of eight, as we know.

But you're going one, two. You're starting the third around there. We want:

• One,
• Two,
• Three, right in the middle of the bow,
• Four,
• Five,
• Six.

Okay, save it along, along. That's it. Okay.