Tone Production Exercise

When doing any tone production exercise, you can approach it from four different angles at the same time.

1. Listening Closely

• The first thing is to listen so closely that you hear every sound that comes out of the instrument.
• Dorothy Delay used to say, "You have to hang your ears on the sound."
• You must concentrate on the sound and expression so much that everything else recedes into the background.
• This is something that many players have to develop.
• It doesn't necessarily follow that if you're a good musician, you're good at listening to your own sound.
• These tone exercises are excellent in the way they increase your ability to focus on many distinct elements in the overall sound.

2. Sensitivity to Feelings

• The second thing is to be sensitive to:

  • The feeling of the hair in the string.
  • The fingers on the bow.

• Connect every sound with a physical sensation.

• Connect every physical sensation with a sound.

• The sensations of playing are what the sound feels like, and the sound is what the sensations sound like.

3. Observing the Vibrating String

• The third thing is to look at the vibrating string.
• See how wide you can get it at the point midway between the bridge and the finger.
• You want to see it as wide as possible right there.
• Of course, you don't look at the strings vibrating when you're in the middle of performing music, but you can look at them when you're doing tone production work on one note.

4. Understanding the Contact Point

• The final thing is to understand what is actually happening at the contact point of the hair with the string.

• This is simpler than it may appear, since there are only three things to think about:

  • Speed of bow
  • Pressure
  • Sound point

• You can describe everything that is happening in the bow and in the sound exactly and instantly, using very few words.

• All you need to think is:

  • Less pressure
  • More pressure
  • Nearer the bridge
  • Further from the bridge
  • Faster bow
  • Slower bow

• By trying more and less of each and noting the result, you can find the balances and proportions that make the string vibrate the widest.