| Author |
Subject |
Bobbie
Registered
User
(3/14/01 3:29:07 pm)
Reply |
How to
start a child's bow hold
I have several cello students now
but one I got a few months after my own teacher started her out and
the other was an adult with a lot of musical experience. I'm going
to be teaching a 7 1/2 year old boy, starting soon. Since it seems
pretty natural for a child to pick up the bow "wrong", how do you
teach him to hold it correctly? Also, what would you expect from a
child this age in terms of practice?
|
Bob
Blais
Registered
User
(3/14/01 10:33:38 pm)
Reply |
bow
hold
I start people with the thumb and
2nd finger at the balance point of the bow, with the other fingers
holding the bow with the tips of their fingers. As they get used to
it I move the bow toward the frog week by week.
I don't think
it matters that they practice a lot, just daily. Perhaps even twice
a day for five minutes or so. This will increase gradually,
especially as you give them more to do.
Bob Blais
|
Lucy
Clifford
Registered User
(3/15/01 1:37:07 am)
Reply |
Re: How
to start a child's bow hold
Here is one area in which I feel
mildly qualified to post - my main teaching practice involves 4 - 8
year old children 
A
few things that I've worked out, and that you must feel free to take
and modify and customise (the most importace facet of teaching young
children is, IMHO, to adapt to their strengths and
non-strengths.
1)
Yes, they DO pick up the bow wrong. I
spend a lot of time on the bow, and often a lesson is spent ensuring
that it is impossible for them to pick it up *incorrectly*! 
I
don't know about your feelings regarding parents at lessons, but
often it is advisable to have a parent at the first bow holding
lessons.
2) I start off by asking them to hold the bow at
the balance point - just like Bob Blais has said. It is far easier
to hold it here, and prevents hand collapse in either
direction.
3)At each stage of bow hold stability I work back
towards the frog of the bow, but not until they can demonstrate 100
perfect bow pick-ups in a lesson (not all at once, about 10 at a
time).
4) I put the little finger on top of the bow, a la
violin. This balances the bow, with the thumb supporting from
beneath, and the little finger acting as a lever, so that the hand
doesn't collapse towards the screw, which is caused by the weight of
the frog. It also means that the hand is slanted the correct way,
with all the fingers curved softly and relaxed.
I use a corn
plaster (do they have theses in the States?), to rest the little
finger in, so that it stays curved and put.
Only when the
bow hold is relaxed and lovely to look at do I move the (now cut in
half plaster, like a horseshoe, with the open end uppermost) on the
side of the bow, near the pearl eye.
For a seven year old I
would recomend, in the beginning stages, 10 minutes practice once a
day, so that habits don't go bad, and torpor doesn't set
it.
It is better to do this (with a timer to go off after 10
minutes!) than to drag on forever, getting no where at all.
Using
the timer the child stops while ON TOP, and is hopefully positively
looking forward to the next practice.
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