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Comment |
Sasha
A M
Registered User
Posts: 34
(5/15/01 5:55:12 am)
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high or low
elbow in bowing arm?
hello!
in some post someone mentioned "nice L-shaped bow
arm" when playing at the tip. first i didnt get it, but then i
noticed - he/she must mean playing with high elbow, forearm hanging
down.
i would like to know how you would describe your bowing
arm, and what are the reasons for the way you work. some of my
teachers have insisted using high elbow and "hanging forearm", and
my wifes former teacher, recognized finnish cellist, wanted the
elbow to be as low as comfortable, but never hanging from
above.
in suzuki violin teaching shinichi suzuki taught
little children low elbow, though in europe people pereferred "high
and hanging" -approach. i think it has to do with japanese culture
also, with traditional martial arts searching absolute relaxedness,
and high elbow in violin bowing definitely does not look
relaxed.
interesting to read your comments,
sasha
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Paul
Tseng ICS Staff 
Administrator
Posts: 1271
(5/15/01 1:12:23 pm)
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Re: high or low
elbow in bowing arm?
Hi Sascha,
I believe it was me. I always use the term
L-shaped bow arm. Especially at the tip. BUT...I absolutely disagree
with the high elbow and forearm hanging down.
The L-bow arm
is on a different vector altoghether and doesn't in any way imply
that you need to suspend the elbow.
I think what you need is
a relaxed yet firm grip of the bow in your hand. It must be balanced
(somewhat pronated) but the elbow should be as low as possible. Not
ridiculously low, but my guideline is that your elbow should never
be higher than your wrist on the horizontal axis. I think the
highest the elbow should be is parallel to the wrist.
Once
you begin lifting that elbow in the air higher than your wrist, your
right shoulder begins to tense and shrug. That's a definite no-no in
my book.
Remember, you are transferring the weight of your
entire arm and shoulder into the string. It makes no sense to
suspend any part of your arm (up) while trying to transfer weight in
the opposite direction (down into the string). You will end up
forcing and pressing down from the shoulder; the sound and feel will
be most tense and uncomfortable.
The idea of the L-bow arm at
the tip is that when it is not hyperextened, you will never feel
like you are running oout of bow. People feel tense at the tip
because their arms are so stretched out that they can barely hang
onto the bow much lest play with power at the tip. That's another
reason I don't believe in the elbow acting like a door hinge in the
upper half of the bow where the forearm swings open and closed. This
basicaly chops your bow arm in half and you end up with half the
weight and half the strength.
Well, I did it again... but
hopefully OI clarified my position on this. 
Paul Tseng
My Website
Alexander's website
Free Cello
Music!
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dennisw
Registered
User
Posts: 177
(5/15/01 2:08:29
pm)
Reply
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Re: high or low
elbow in bowing arm?
I agree with Paul. I think he is right on the money wrt/the bow
arm.
The raised L-shaped elbow is the school of pressing
& super-pronation to make a sound. I don't do that.
I
tend to come from the Leonard Rose "figure-8" school. The elbow
raises and lowers with the up & down stroke and the string
played upon, but the elbow does not go above the wrist.
I
also use more wrist as I approach the tip. The upper half is good
for fast passage-work and a quick subtle wrist motion usually does
the trick. In this case, the elbow moves very little, if at
all.
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