Bowing Balderdash, Why You Shouldn’t…

I saw something on the web today that really jerked my string – no, not my G string.

I was cruising a few websites to see what was up with instructional DVDs for violin, and I happened on to a little ‘demo’ of detaché bowing at the frog.

Now, to begin with, the quality of the player wasn’t anything to write home about. But that was not what made me screech like a bow running on the wrong side of a bridge. It was how the guy was making a huge point of flexing his fingers and flipping his wrist with each up to down bow change.

I kinda thought maybe he learned to play the violin from a fly fisherman.

When I was a lad I played for Joe Silverstein at a masterclass he gave at the Univ. of Maryland. During the Q and A period someone asked what he thought about before a bow change. He thought for about 2 secs and said, “I play up bow until I play down bow” – end of story.

Ten years later I was attending Nathan Milstein’s masterclass in Zurich, Switzerland and the same question came up. I happened to have just finished playing and he said – in his heavy Russian accent, “vatch how Clayton changes his bow. He doesn’t need his fingers because he plays from the shoulder.”

That was news to me! And I don’t think any of us really had a clue what that meant at the time. It wasn’t until 6 months later that I came to feel the significance of the statement – but I’ll leave that for another time.

The point of these is simple, however. In all but a few special circumstances, and I mean few, your fingers and wrist should react to a bow change like shock absorbers on a car. And the less motion there is the more efficient your bow change is.

Remember this, you finger-flexing wrist-waving addicts. Your bow gives not a hoot whether your fingers, wrist, forearm, or upper arm changes its direction. It only matters that the bow speed and vertical load remain constant.

Over the years I have seen how this kind of violinistic balderdash hampers performance. How can you respond creatively and instantly to unanticipated changes in the flow of music if you are hobbled by inefficient physical rituals? Well, you can’t and you won’t.

That’s enough said for now, boys and girls, so get off your buns, uncase your violin, and stop spreddun’ the mustard when you git thee from an up bow to a down bow. Order the Kreutzer for Violin Mastery course now.

All the best,
Clayton Haslop