The Role of Thumb in the Violin Bow Hold for Best Results
Don’t Want to Read? Watch the Video!
A little confused about the role of the thumb in your violin bow hold? In this post, you will discover the role of the thumb in the violin bow hold for best results.
We’ll start off with an exercise right off the bat that I’d like you to give it a go. It’s a bit challenging. Set the bow on the D string and lift all the fingers off of the bow. So you’re just holding up the bow with your thumb.
Bow Wrist Movement, Mid-bow
Now if your thumb is not in the proper position it’s going to be extremely challenging. If you don’t understand how the stick is balanced upon the thumb, it’s also going to be difficult.
Our Thumb in the bow hold has a very significant role actually and if it’s tense it’s going to make many, many bow Strokes extremely difficult. A tense thumb also creates choppy bow changes.
Proper position of the thumb in the violin bow hold
The first place to start is to check out my post “Balanced bow hold and why is it important.” In this post, we will strictly discuss the thumb. The thumb lives, I like to call half stick, half frog. We want to be able to feel a little bit of the Frog and at the same time a little bit of the stick.
How bent is a bent thumb
One of the biggest misconceptions I see is what exactly is a functional bent thumb in the bow hold. We need this thumb to be “bent” in a natural position. Forcing the thumb to bend is unnatural. When the thumb is forcibly bent in an unnatural position it causes tension in the muscles at the base of the thumb in the hand.
If you’re experiencing tightness in the base of the thumb or joint pain in the thumb, it is most likely because your thumb is not relaxed and/or not in its proper home.
The thumb is angled in and naturally bent sitting half stick half frog.
Thumb flexibility
We need to have flexibility in this joint in the thumb. If this joint is not flexible, it’s going to make a lot of advanced bow Strokes practically impossible to be clean. Spiccato is one of them, sautille is another. This is really important to be super relaxed and flexible so if we think about a bent thumb the immediate reaction is bent thumb but
Positioning the bent thumb
- Hold the bow in the left hand
- Shake out the right hand.
- With your left hand bring the stick to the right hand.
- Gently slide the stick on the thumb inside the corner to that exact position of half-stick half-frog.
A bent Thumb in the violin world is a thumb that is bent more because of how the how thumb is positioned within the stick and the bend is a reaction from that position.
Feeling the thumb as a relaxed thumb
- Shake out your right hand so it is relaxed.
- Position your arm parallel to the wall (assuming you are parallel to the wall.)
- As your hand is positioned relaxed upon your wrist, check out the shape of your thumb. Does it have a slight bend? (My natural Thumb in a relaxed state has a natural Bend to it as I believe yours will as well.
- Take your left hand, touch the tip of your right thumb, and gently move the thumb feeling the flexibility of the relaxed thumb joint.
This is the idea of a bent thumb. It’s just one that it’s a nice natural relaxed thumb responding to what we need in the stick because it’s flexible.
Bringing the stick to the relaxed thumb
With your left hand bring the stick to the right hand for a natural bow hold. Do not be tempted to “grab” the stick with the right hand.
Feel your thumb as the fulcrum. Just like a teeter-totter has a triangle (fulcrum) underneath the teeter-totter, that’s how our thumb behaves with the stick.
This is why the thumb sits inside corner positioning it as a fulcrum.
Keep in mind the thumbnail needs to be short! A longer thumbnail impedes the positioning of the thumb as the fulcrum.
It is imperative to feel that exact spot on the inside corner of how the stick responds. This is so important in string Crossings and chords. When we’re playing quadruple stops, when we’re moving from the G string to the E string rather quickly, we feel this pivot. The bow pivots on top of that inside corner as a fulcrum. Always be aware of that with a relaxed thumb.
Thumb is most bent at the frog
As we play, the thumb doesn’t live in one place at all times. It is not stagnant. It does adjust its placement to the stick.
At the frog, the thumb is the most bent. The Bow is slightly tilted away and more on the side hair. In general, when we’re starting a bow stroke, we start with tilted hair at the Frog.
Now the other thing, is while we’re at the Frog it’s totally okay for the silver and the hair to touch the thumb. In some bow Strokes, this feeling allows you to respond to the stick.
We respond to what the stick needs
One thing to always keep in mind, we respond to what the stick needs. When the stick pulls a straight bow, we respond naturally to that. When we play a whole bow, we’re responding naturally to the stick. We’re not forcefully making changes or disruptions with our fingers or our thumb as we play. They’re just responding naturally to the alignment of the stick.
The thumb’s ever evolving home
The thumb evolves as we pull a long whole bow. At the frog the thumb is most bent and straightens out as we travel to the tip of the bow.
At the tip, the thumb is still angled in it’s home but it is straighter. Yet, You still have a slight Bend in your thumb at the tip.
This process happens naturally. It’s not that we’re thinking okay bent so I’m going to a straight thumb and forcing it to happen. It’s just a matter of what happens naturally when we move the stick and when we respond to the alignment of what the stick needs.
Practice this with long whole bows five minutes a day on open strings and be aware of how your thumb feels. Allow it to be flexible and not frozen. It needs to respond to the stick. Watch that you are playing with straight bows because that will also affect what is going on with the thumb and where it’s being placed
Bow changes at the Frog
Now the thumb is not the only character that is in control of smooth bow changes. The fingers have to respond as well in a natural way not to cause the bow to get out of alignment. That straight trajectory that we need.
Bow changes at the frog:
- Start up bow at the lower third.
- During the bow change really feel how your thumb is behaving.
- Practice 20X a day
Bow changes at the tip:
- Start down bow at the upper third.
- During the bow change really feel how your thumb is behaving.
- Practice 20X a day
These exercises will help you be aware of the role of the thumb, how it feels at the Frog, how it feels at the tip, and how it needs to evolve from frog to tip back to frog.
Confused on the role of the fingers?
If you find you do not understand what your fingers need to be doing during these bow changes, feel that they are getting in your way, or that you don’t have enough information on the role of each finger in the bow hold and what needs to be done, I would highly suggest booking in at least six private sessions so we can reset your bow hold and give you the information that you need to understand the role of each individual finger.
Happy practicing. Ciao.
Happy Magical Practices,
Heather is a classically trained concert violinist residing in Bulgaria. She received her BM violin performance degree from CU-Boulder, studied with top teachers including Rachel Barton Pine. Heather has held leadership positions with multiple orchestras in the Greater Chicago-Milwaukee area. She has instructed millions of violinists globally via Youtube videos, online academies, group coaching and one on one sessions. Heather’s students have won multiple awards, concerto competitions, held concertmaster positions in orchestras and even performed in Carnegie Hall. Heather is an advocate of a holistic violin lifestyle – putting one’s mind, body and spirit as a violin journey priority.
Please share in the comments which above tips you will be implementing into your daily practices sessions.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!