
The fingers of your left hand cannot see.
You must give them eyes with your ears.
Play any passage, concentrating on how your fingers depend on your ears for guidance.
The fingers of your left hand cannot see.
You must give them eyes with your ears.
Play any passage, concentrating on how your fingers depend on your ears for guidance.
As you play, your left and right hand are brought together not only by the bow and the string.
Your arms, the bow, and the string make a complete circuit with a Pac-Man shape.
Energy can flow freely in this circuit.
Every time you use your left hand to choose a pitch, you must be confident in its tuning.
It is as though you are playing the timpani: once you tune it, you can concentrate much more clearly on how it is struck, and how it makes sound.
And know, when you start playing, that what’s done is done.
Play a slow scale, watching the small part of the string between the bridge and the bow hair.
Each time you draw the bow, you will see the string push to the left (for up bow) or the right (for down bow).
Do your best to maintain this angle in the string as you play, like an archer in perpetual preparation to shoot an arrow. The string will take care of the rest.
The string is the bow; the sound is the arrow.
It may be that you have never seen a string move. It doesn’t do what you think. This video will begin to change the way you think about sound production. Many thanks to whoever made it. And here is another nice explanation.
Play long slow notes with a gradual decrescendo.
The first impulse from the bow starts its energy.
The the motion of the bow afterward defines how its resonance continues.
Skate with the bow: glide powerfully from the strength of the first impulse.