Chinese Proverb

"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I'll understand." - Chinese Proverb.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

I've forgotten how to hold my bow...

I've managed to change my bow hold so I don't know how to hold my bow any more! Seriously...!

No exaggeration - I've even managed to drop my bow 4 times in the past week, which I've never done before! Luckily I didn't damage my cello or bow...although for a brief millisecond, I had the thought of snapping my bow into two or throwing it across the room in frustration...

I've been working on focusing on my thumb and ring finger on my downbows (while pronating) and creating a circle with my thumb and ring finger. For my upbows, I've been focusing on my thumb and pointer finger, and keeping the bow on a straighter path. It's a completely different feeling than my previous bow hold, but one that makes me feel that I have less control of my bow so far.

I've had to rely on the bow actually resting completely on the strings, hence the few times I've dropped my bow... I have quite the precarious balance between my bow and strings right now.

It's the strangest feeling to go from thinking that I know how to do something to not being able to do it AT ALL!!! Argh!!! I feel like I'm losing my mind...

I just don't get it.... I wish I could remember my old bow hold because my current bow hold feels really weird and I don't know whether what I've done is correct - but I can't seem to remember how to get my old bow hold back! Very discouraging...

Well, regardless if I get my bowing straightened out, I need to post my next video update since my last YouTube video was October 10th!! Wow, I can't believe it's taking me this long to learn how to bow on the darn G&C string.

Ok, so Long Long Ago...posting tomorrow...a day and a half to get my bowing in better shape... *sigh*
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3 comments:

  1. John GarrettApril 7, 2012 at 5:44 PM

    I've been having trouble with the bow hold. I started without a teacher due to none existing locally, that may be part of the problem. fortunately I just found a possible one locally.
    I recently purchased the Stringvision Bow Grip:
    http://bit.ly/Ipkm9D
    It has helped enormously, I have been following the Essential Elements 2000 and it start's you off Pizzicato. So I am just needing to start to use the bow, and hopefully will get comfortable with bowing soon.

    ~John

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gemini CelloApril 19, 2012 at 2:20 PM

    Hi John,

    How's the bow hold coming along? Did you take a cello lesson from a local teacher yet?

    ~g

    ReplyDelete
  3. John GarrettApril 20, 2012 at 8:07 AM

    Hi Gemma,

    Thanks for the reply.
    Actually it is going very well and I am getting pretty solid with my left hand in position one. I am getting quite fluent with Pizz. The Stringvision Bow helper is like magic and it is quite easy to get a correct comfortable position. Getting a consistent sound though is very elusive.

    I did find a local teacher who works in the local school system, but is too busy right now. Maybe her time will free up soon. Hopefully i won't have too many bad habits to correct. :0)

    Happy playing.
    ~John

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