Bow Exercise Lesson

This exercise is like exercise one but uses very short bows.

Instructions:

• Go faster than that and experiment.
• Go lighter and heavier and just see what happens.
• Find the balance.
• Stay at the point.
• Stay on sound point five, and try lighter.

"There you go. A little faster. Try and keep everything else still, Naomi. So that only the bow is moving. None of the rest of you. Good."

Transition to Sound Point Four

• Now move to four.
• A little heavier.
• Faster.
• Deeper into the string.
• Faster stroke.
• Get it wide.

"Do whatever you can to make it wide. And now three. Stay at the point. Stay at the point."

Maintaining Focus on Sound Point Three

• Some point three this way.
• Now stay at the point.
• Deeper in the string.
• Stay on three.
• Bravo.

"Now slow down, number two. Little heavier. Stay at the point. Deeper into the string."

Exercises on Sound Point Two

• Now very, very slow in the bridge.
• Slower. Go slow and heavy.

"Watch this, watch this. That's lovely, but, you know, just hold on. Hold on a minute. Just leave the bow there. What you want is this feeling of the bow just sitting there. That's all it is. Now, don't press in any way. Just go there. Beautiful, beautiful."

Transitioning to Sound Point Four Again

• Now move to four.
• Heavier.
• Go wide.
• Can I try for you? Rather than it sounding like this, a little bit like that, try and make it really, really smooth there.

"Make the downs and ups equal. Now move to three. Deeper. That's. Stay in the string."

Working with Sound Points

• Now much slower on sound point two.
• Slower. Go deep into the stick.
• Play deep into the stick up here.
• No, no, no. But just at the point.
• But play deep into the stick.

"You need to feel the bow here when you're doing the strokes here. So feel the bendiness. If you put the bow on the string at the point here, and now just feel the bendiness of the stick. That's what you're wanting to play into at the point. So again on sound point two."

"There you go. Less bow, though. There you go. Thank you. That could be faster and lighter, but not that light and faster."

Focus on Strings

"John, just focus on the string. Make it wide. That's good. Now move into four. Little heavier, little slower."

• Heavier.
• And now three.
• Heavier and slower.
• And two.
• Heavier and slower.
• That's it.
• And one.
• That's good.

"Let me do it for you. You give me the bow. You stay there. Listen to this. I would think more of that."

Adjusting Bow Techniques

"Hold on, hold on. That and that. Something like that and this. This and then. But start. That could be lighter, you know. That's right. Good. That's too slower."

"Now, the difference between five and four is not much heavier, but not much slower. Now three. Yeah. Wide here. Deeper in the string. Good. Now much slower. Half that. Well done."

Encouragement and Feedback

"And so very talented because I can hear you reacting and experimenting. Heavier, lighter, heavier. Because, you know, what's slightly frustrating is when people just... and they're not reacting to it. Hear your reactions too. Very good, very good."

"Deeper, deeper. Push in, push in. Very good. Everything we're trying to do is all about ring and resonance."

Returning to Sound Point Five

"So begin again on sound point five and stay on it for a minute. Just adjust the speed and the weight and get the maximum ring you can out of your cello."

"Now, Jonathan, when you play on sound point five, or you think you're playing on sound point five, the wood is on five, but the hair is here. So I stay there."

Experimenting with Bow Movement

"Experiment something, you know, we need to make the downbows and the upbows sound the same sounds. Dada, dada, dada. Try. Da, da, da, da, da. Lighter, near the fingerboard. Lighter, lighter."

• Go to four.
• A little heavier.
• More weight.

"Go to three. Heavier. Go in heavier. Go into two. Heavy. Nearer the bridge. Heavier."

Circular Movement and Bow Weight

"Just as an experiment, would you try. You're doing this wonderful circular movement around the string. Can you do a little less of it? Just where you were. Keep it even more deeper."

"Deeper in the string. That's better. Nearer the bridge now. Heavy and slow. Heavier. Go nearer. Slower. Heavy."

Finding the Right Weight

"You know, you could start a little nearer the fingerboard. Just start here. On the violin, we use just the weight of the bow and it's already enough. So maybe just a fraction more than that for you but no more weight."

"Weight than that, see? And can you go faster? That's excellent. What's happening here?"

Maintaining Consistency

"So without stopping now, move in a bit a little slower and a little heavier. Heavier and heavier. Bravo. Move in a little slower now. Heavier."

"Double the weight. Make the strokes even. Down and up. Little more bow. There you go. Now moving further. Heavier and slower."

Final Adjustments

"And little. Little bit in and see how far you can go. Go as slow as you need to. A little nearer the bridge. Slower, heavier. Go in. Go in there in. Heavier."

"Go further in. You don't think you can? I think you can. You need more weight, less bow. Okay, it's good. I did it wrong, didn't I?"

Conclusions and Recommendations

"Well, you could stay on each one for a little longer. Stay on maybe like 1, 2, 3, 4. But Oliver. Then after this, you need slower, slower, slower and heavier."

"Because you seem to carry on the same. So good. Make it legato as much as you can. Right at the heel is more difficult, but you must slow down as you come into the bridge."

Final Thoughts

"So by here you can be like this, and then here you can be like this because you don't want to be trying to do that there. But now slow down. Put the brakes on."

"Slow down half that speed. Try this. That's where you want to end up."

"Yes. You know, playing with a give in your fingers is very good because you don't want to play like... like that."

"But, you know, you actually look like... I wonder if that doesn't make things more difficult for you than if you had a little less. Minimize that movement."

"Ah, minimize this. You go faster. And try lighter. Lighter."

"I know I'm sitting here helping you by giving directions, but at the same time, you need to be just constantly experimenting."

"If you get it going and just go, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. It's no good. You need to, with each stroke, try a little heavier, a little lighter. Just experiment. Okay?"

"And as part of your experimenting, you need to be prepared to go too far because you can't know how far you can go until you know what the limits are. And one simple way to find out what the limits are is to go beyond them and let the sound break both ways."

"Both too much weight, so that it's obviously too much and you need too little weight, so it's obviously too little. And find the place."

"There you are, you see. A little faster and without stopping, move into sound point four. Heavier now and a little slower. A little only deeper."

"Get the instrument sounding good. Move in three. Slower, heavier. That's good. Little heavier and nearer the bridge. You've got to slow down more bow."

"That's right. Make it even. Make the down, the up the same. That's right. A little nearer and slower. Much slower. Heavier and slower."

"Yes. If you can't make it heavy enough, you need to make it slower because the faster you go, the more weight you need. So instead of thinking, can't do it, change the other factors."

"But we're not changing the sound point because that's what we're wanting to learn is the feel of the string at that place. So go back to around here and go slower with the bow and as heavy as you can."

"There you go. Make them all the same. Make the down bow there. Bravo."