Lifting The Bow
I know, you’re thinking, “I don’t have a problem lifting the bow, it’s not that heavy!!!”
OK now that I got that Dad joke out of my system, I’ll show you how to do a circular motion when lifting the bow. We’ll practice doing multiple down bows in a row, and then multiple up bows.
This will help you to make your sound more clean and precise. If you ever get interested in classical music it will also help with that.
Downbow lifting
As a first step, practice circular bowing as taught in this lesson: Circular bowing. I also demonstrate it a bit in the video above.
We’ll use a similar motion to practice lifting the bow.
Bow down on A0 then up on D0 and notice that your hand traces a circle in a counterclockwise path.
Next, play a throwaway downbow on open D. Lift the bow, travel in a little counterclockwise circle back to the string. Place the bow before you start, and then repeat. Be sure to let the bow come to a rest before you start again.
Upbow lifting
Circular bowing, down on D0 then up on A0, (clockwise) prepares you for lifting on the upbow. Then follow the same steps outlined above but with up bows.
Practice with
- single notes, intervals, scales, phrases
- example: swallowtail
- Create a Practice loop, alternating between not lifting and lifting.
Continue on to Slur Two-Separate Two Exercises >>
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Good lesson. This should help eliminate some of the scratchys when starting a bow stroke.
Thank you
Love this! Thank you so much for this!