How to Play with Straight Bows on the Violin
Do you suffer from crooked bow syndrome? Find that your bows are all over the place? In this post, I will give you exact tips and exercises helping you to have straight bows on the violin.
Know that you are not alone. Many violinists have crooked bow syndrome and don’t know what to do to get out of it. Let’s troubleshoot your crooked bows and get you to confidently play the violin with straight bows.
Visual: How to SEE Your Straight Bows on the Violin
Since every body is different anatomically, I’m going to give you three different ways that you can test that you are truly seeing when your bow is going straight.
- Look at your violin and bow as you pull long whole bows from extreme frog to extreme tip of the bow. Do the following checks on each open string with a down and an up bow.
- Look in the mirror to make sure what you think you are seeing, is really what is happening.
- Record yourself with your smartphone and watch the replay.
Compare bow hair to the bridge
As you pull the bow, compare your bow hair that it is going parallel to the bridge. Record yourself and playback to see if indeed you are truly pulling a straight bow.
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Compare bow stick to fingerboard
As you bow, watch that the stick of the bow is parallel with the end of the fingerboard. You may find visually that this perspective is difficult to see or you may prefer this straight bow perspective better than the previous.
Record yourself and playback or play in front of the mirror to check.
Violin Bow is Perpendicular to the Strings
Compare your bow with the angle of the strings. A straight violin bow will be running perpendicular (making a cross with the string.)
Record yourself and playback to check or play in front of the mirror.
You will find that at least one of these three perspectives to visually see that you are pulling a straight bow will work for you.
Be aware PHYSICALLY what is going on in your bow arm as you bow
Be aware of how your bow arm feels as you do this exercise. You may feel that you are fighting against yourself to pull that straight violin bow. If you feel a little funky in your shoulder, your elbow or your wrist in order to play that straight bow, that means your muscles have learned incorrectly on how to bow. This is a sign that we need to do some retraining and reprogramming of your bow arm because your muscle memory is not correct.
From this point on you are not allowed to bow on autopilot. When you play, you have to constantly be aware of your bow arm. Okay.
As you bow from frog to tip, physically feel. Be aware that your elbow elevator is in operation.
If it is an absolute impossibility for you to pull a straight bow, try playing up against a wall, or doorframe. Position yourself in such a way that the bicep of your bow arm is against the wall or door frame. This will not allow you to have your upper arm move incorrectly.
Do allow your arm to move up and down to control your string levels.
Study each string separately to develop straight bows on the violin
Another way to be sure your bow arm is working properly is to hold your violin only with the jaw and shoulder. Take your left hand under the violin to hold onto the bicep of the right arm. (Watch the video above if you find this written explanation confusing.)
Keep in mind if you have been playing a long time with crooked bows, it will not be possible to fix them overnight. In order to develop straight bow muscle memory, it is a process in which you need to be very mindful and aware visually and physically throughout your practice sessions.
Let us know in the comments below which perspective worked for you and your strategy to developing muscle memory to pull straight bows.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
[…] different bowings to your scales. Start with long straight whole bows, frog to tip. 2 and 4 note slurs. Slur the whole […]
[…] different bowings to your scales. Start with long straight whole bows, frog to tip. 2 and 4 note slurs. Slur the whole […]
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