How can I loosen up my right wrist?

I'm playing lots of things with the bottom half (heel) of the bow (which I'm a bit afraid of) and my teacher says my wrist is stiff and means I'm pulling the bow out of position a little. I have been working on this and the bow stays quite straight now but how can I get flexibility in my wrist? When I'm tense I have even been known to bow from the shoulder *hangs head in shame*

Should I walk around the house pretending to bow and flap my wrist ?

Off topic entirely - but I read that as Treachery Folk ...

W

Imagine your arm is a crane ( the variety found on a building site, not the feathered bird).

Do the following exercise without the bow and violin. Instead, hold a pencil in your right hand as though it was a bow.

Hold your arm in a position that resembles playing on the A or D string. (Make sure your elbow is at the correct height for this).

Put your left hand on the top of your right shoulder joint - where the upper arm and shoulder join.

Now, keeping your upper arm and elbow perfectly still, move the lower arm as if you were bowing.

In order to keep the hand in a position that resembles bowing, you will have to flex the wrist. Keep that pencil straight. Your left hand will tell you if your right shoulder or upper arm is moving, don't let it move at all.

It is important that your fingers also flex with the wrist, so as the keep the bow level as well.

Use a mirror to watch this process and CHECK: are your pushing the pencil back over your left shoulder in an up bow?, is your right shoulder moving backwards when you perform a down bow?

If your upper arm remains still from the shoulder, then your lower arm, wrist and fingers will have to be flexing fluidly, almost as though they were a well articulated crane moving a delicate sculpture into place.

Once you've got the hang of this motion at all four string heights, pick up your violin and bow and repeat on all four open strings. Practice this for a few moments at the beginning and end of each practice session. (I'm surprised your teacher hasn't been showing you these sorts of exercises anyway).

A relaxed wrist and hand is essential for the more advanced bowing techniques and it will also improve your tone. Relaxing the arm, wrist and hand will soften and warm the tone.

Wow, thanks Amanda - that feels really effective! I can see my wrist moving in the correct way. I can certainly do that several times a day with a pencil (paintbrush!) as I'm an artist

But seriously, I'll get my wrist flexing before I try the open strings.

My teacher doesn't give me bowing exercises which is why I've been trying to find a book to help. She occasionally corrects my position but I don't really 'get it' when she moves the bow. I've been going by sound quality myself - trying to produce the best 'tone' and that seems to work quite well.

Should my wrist be 'over' the bow or should my hand-to-arm be 'flat' when I'm doing this? Now that I think.. the hand has to be flat at the downbow to reach with the tip on the strings but should it be 'over' when playing at the heel?

I must find Simon Fischer's Basics book for pictures?

Also, should the bow hair be flat on the string or tipped slightly towards the scroll? All pictures etc show the bow being tipped but my teacher tells me to play with the hair 'flat'?

(Sorry to pick your brains )

I would ask your teacher for help. My teacher spends what seems forever telling me to relax my arm.

Try long, slow bows on each open string. make sure the bow hold is correc, stop and correct yourself if need be. Just make sure you do not grip the bow firmly, be as light as possible and then the wrist should feel a lot better.

At the heel the hair should be tipped slightly towards the scroll and flat at the point. This has an added benefit of making the sound even. Don't make the common mistake of playing right to the tip of the bow if this means your arm has to move from the shoulder. Play until the down bow stoke reaches a point where your elbow is just still slightly bent, then start the up bow. If you bow right to the point of the bow - and your arm isn't really long enough to do so - you'll be bowing around corners, making you resemble someone sawing a piece of wood.

It's a bit late in the evening to go into full details, but I'll explain another exercise tomorrow which can help prevent those apparent 'stops' or break in bowing when changing direction from up bow to down and vice versa.

Parking the bow, a term used to slow the bow down before stopping it and bowing in the opposite direction.

A lot of people have real problems in bow changes involved with long slow(ish) bowing, the change in direction sounding abrupt and rather ungainly.

To teach this I use an analogy called, parking the bow - similar to the way you'd park a car or bring a car to a stop. Unless you are performing an emergency stop, you don't drive foot flat to the floor and then stand on the brake pedal (at least, I hope that's not how you drive). When coming to a halt you gauge the approach by slowing the car down, bring it to a reasonably gentle stop. Similarly a scorching up or down bow at speed with a change of direction in the end needs to be approached in the same way. A sudden stop and change of direction makes for a messy sound.

On the approach to a change of bow direction, slow the bow down. (The dynamic and tonal quality can be kept by increasing the pressure accordingly).

When the bow is slowed in this way, the gentle stop and change of direction will be imperceptible to the listener - even if you are still aware of it right under your left ear.


Another technique worth mentioning is 'sound points'. Simon Fischer goes into great detail about these in his book 'Basics', but to give you a potted version it's about where the bow is on the string. The normal position is parallel to the brdige midway between the bridge and the fingerboard. For a fluffier muted sound, the bow can be used slightly over the fingerboard. When playing in high positions the bow should move towards the bridge to optimise the vibrations. There are then a midway position between each making a total of five sound points.

Thanks again Amanda - that's ALL really interesting and I'll give it all a try. I was watching a video of Nicola Benedetti and noticed that when she changed bow direction at the heel she stopped her arm and hand and just used her fingers to push and then pull the last inch or so; it looked almost like a gentle 'flick'.

When listening to my tone I'd noticed the difference between playing nearer the bridge/fingerboard etc although I'm not dextrous enough to use the technique properly yet I think (although I can when playing slowly). I also notice my harmonics are clearer with the bow nearer the bridge.

I find this all fascinating.. and also frustrating that my brain goes faster than my skills!

Well I've been working on my bowing and in the mirror it looks far more straight and not going in a big curve any more... but my sound's gone to pot My brain won't multi-task! But it will all come together with time I'm sure.

Thanks for the advice