How would you describe great fiddle bowing? To me, a good fiddler looks comfortable and produces a consistent, resonant tone from the instrument.
Here’s an overview of my most basic, “go-to” bow warmup to build my feel and condition me for the rest of my practice session. This helps me get comfortable, to create fluid drive in my playing, and to release tone.
How do I build my bow style?
By my observation, there are two methods to achieve fiddle bow control.
The first method, which is used by fiddlers throughout the world, is by trial-and-error. Without a good model to follow, it can take decades to find “your way” of playing. The shortcomings of the trial-and-error method are unique to each individual; “your way” may have certain limitations of technique and may have a “ceiling” where no matter what you try, the style will not work. Indeed, even at professional levels, truth be told many fiddlers have some deficiency in their tone, i.e. “it could sound even better.”
In classical pedagogy, the trial-and-error method of teaching is still rampant; it’s just wearing fancy dress. Theories are more robust in this field due to the academic nature of classical music and the written history of the music via sheet music, but most teachers still take a “top-down” approach; trying to tell a student how to make it work. This often fails, and results in pain, stress and frustration. Read the Scratch to Gigs intro for my own tale of finding freedom from pain in my playing.
Reverse engineer to stop screeching
My a-ha moment came when I was studying solo violin concertos; in order to project the solo part over the accompanying pianist or orchestra, the question formed… “How do I allow the most bold and beautiful tone my instrument can produce, without introducing noise in the signal?” That immediately led to the conclusion that I would need to ‘pare away excess’ in my playing, rather than ‘add’ any conceptual understanding. I stopped focusing on technique, and like a painter or sculptor, just started to practice an abstract feeling of getting into the zone.
To rephrase, ask: “How do I allow the bow to do what it wants?”
This same question that led to my a-ha moment might also surface as, “How do I stop screeching?” Ay, there’s the rub. By asking it that way, referring to screeching you imply that in order to stop doing something bad, you must start doing something better … but that is a pitfall back into the trial-and-error method of learning. Even if you find “one way,” to stop screeching, it might fail you under certain conditions and screeching might suddenly come back, sending you back to find “a better way…” and so on.
Breaking the cycle of trial-and-error; how to find the tone zone
Allow the sound to spring out of the instrument. By avoiding technical thoughts and only concentrating on the quality of the sound and your comfort level while playing, your body will naturally form good habits by subliminally responding to what sounds good and bad. There is no “mental middle management” required, simply believe that by getting in the zone, however that may feel, your body will handle everything in its capacity to make it sound good. Over time, useful tools to evaluate your performance are simple; (a) watch yourself in a mirror, (b) make recordings of your playing. Naturally by remaining in the zone, your confidence, posture and sound will improve “on their own,” and all together. Skeptical?
Stop all this foo-foo… What do I physically play to make it sound good?
While warming up or working on practice passages, it is most incumbent to play long bow, open strings, with slow bow control. (Or, as it was known in the Italian renaissance, slobocontro 😉
That is how I formed my “go-to” warmup exercise that I call the “A1 Bowstroke.” I use long bow, open strings as a baseline to get into the zone for practice sessions. The idea behind “A1 Bowstroke” is simply comfort & calibration; over time it acts as training to build good habits toward strength and consistency. I repeat: play long bow, open strings, preferably along to a metronome. Introduce simple rhythmic patterns such as the Long, Short-Short pattern I notated. Any bowing pattern, regardless of difficulty can be applied; what is crucial is to maintain a feeling of fluid connectedness “in the string.”
The “space in-between” (back to foo-foo)
Once you’ve become aware of how it feels to be in the zone, your playing might suddenly start jumping up a notch. Good! There is a deeper level of attention to be paid, which can come into play right from the get-go.
A lot of people sound good, “during a note.” Note! This is already a big step in the right direction; listen to the quality of sound during the most comfortable area of the bow, and try to deepen and expand that comfort. But; what about getting your playing up to speed, and actually playing passages with good timing? Here is where the fine-grained level of awareness kicks in.
What is the quality of sound at the exact moment you change bows? (From down bow to up bow or vice versa.) THIS is the crux of most difficulties. Bow changes contain all the transfers of energy to reverse the course of the bow, and this is where tension, stress, the same old unresolved frustrations pop right back up into your playing. So, to go to the heart of bow changes, evaluate your comfort and tone quality by listening for clean starts and stops of each bow stroke.
Remove your stress, remove your ceiling
By playing slooowly, the following becomes possible; “package” each bow change event with the next action included as a chain in your mental picture. Again, I will attempt to describe the feeling I have while playing in words. e.g. For a half-note down bow, [clean start – Down for 2 – quiet stop] all appears to me exactly timed up to the click of the metronome. The bow is already moving and I got a clean start before I consciously realize it. Then, at extremely slow tempos, during each bow stroke, I have “all the time in the world” to visualize the next event, which would appear in my mind as [clean start – Up for 2 – quiet stop]. This is easily repeatable, and recursive with simple bow patterns. By recursive, I mean that in theory I can imagine the series of more than one event taking place. That pays off as a means to staying in the zone.
By being deliberate this way, practicing slow bow open strings, and packaging the feel of getting a clean start and quiet stop throughout each bow stroke, your playing will be transformed with a cleaner, connected more fluid feel that comes from the “space in between.”
Secret tip – hit the “pause” button
At the very beginning of a practice, I set the bow in the string and just hold a comfortable posture near the balance point of the bow. It still counts as practice to just set the bow in the strings and hold it, even before starting my warm up with slow bow, open strings.
This is the concept of “deliberate pause,” where I take a mental moment to check in with what I’m seeking; a feeling of comfort and a bold, beautiful tone as my main focus areas. In reality, I’ve trained my mind to concentrate on a singular, easily-embodied feeling of [comfort-tone], if I were to put it into words. During warmup, I do not bother with the fine technical aspects of the stroke. I simply focus on the feeling of comfort and the tone quality. If it wanders, I take a deliberate pause and gently bring that focus back to just a good feeling of being “in the zone.” If it wanders again (which, it will), I repeat my healthy habit of pausing and just bringing the focus back again. Over time, this perception of focus mapping and pausing at the right time to reset will become seamless, and really help structure your practice and stay “in the zone.”
TL;DR move the bow slowly
Over time, by placing my focus on these “external areas” and I developed the notion that the bow creates clean standing waves in the string most of all by moving sloooowly. Excess speed, which I call “skating” or “speeding the bow,” will introduce noise that will acoustically cancel out the resonance within the string. So, before contemplating the nuances of technical aspects like bowgrip, arm angle, contact point, weight in the string, or anything else, just move the bow slowly, allow yourself to get comfortable, and listen for those bold resonant tones coming from the instrument. This way, you’ll get more of the good stuff, right now.
Get in touch
Did this piece strike a chord? Or is it a clam? Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts, because I geek out over this stuff (if you couldn’t tell). It’s my mission to lay plain “the way to play,” right away.
Send me an email at: max@scratchtogigs.com
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