How do I keep my pinky from flying off the bow?
Krista from Georgia asked, โI start out playing with proper hand placement on the bow but as I play (and especially if I play something fast), my pinky finger wants to fly out like Iโm drinking a cup of tea! Any advice?”
Thanks to all who attended this office hours session and asked questions ๐ย
Further learning and practice
- First off, this is not necessarily wrong.
- Old-time fiddlers donโt use the pinky.
- I teach a bow hold in which the pinky is on the bow. This gives you more control, especially when lifting the bow.
- So if you don’t want your pinky to fly off, simply practice lifting the bow off the strings. You need your pinky for this, so it will tend to stay on the bow if you practice this.ย Do this after throughout a practice session after you practice other things (interleaving).
- Use micro-practice techniques
- See if you can not lift the pinky when the bow is stationary.
- See if you can not lift it when bowing an open string.
- Then play an interval. Does the pinky fly off?
- Then see if you can keep it on as you play scales, phrases, and tunes…
- Work At Your Edge
This micro-lesson is an excerpt from an office hours webinar I gave on June 17, 2020. View the entire live-stream with indexed questions here.
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