tag:shammasabir.ca,2005:/blogs/the-fiddler-in-the-cornerThe Fiddler In The Corner2022-08-19T04:36:22-07:00Shamma Sabirfalsetag:shammasabir.ca,2005:Post/62730112020-04-05T21:05:15-07:002022-07-28T06:14:22-07:00What You Need To Know About The Bow Hold - Part 2<p>Hi there! In my last blog post, I wanted to tackle the question, “Why is the way you hold the bow important?” I’m going to continue with more on this, as this is a question that so many students of the fiddle ask, and the answer is so fundamentally important. In my last post I addressed some good places to start: observation and reflection. Beginning with observation and reflection gives you a good idea of the variety of ways to hold the bow and allows you to consider a few important factors that can have a big impact on how you decide to hold your bow, including the style of music that you would like to play and your hand physiology. </p>
<p>The next step as you move through this process is that of <em>fine-tuning your bow hold</em>. </p>
<p>Playing without a great bow hold generally leads to four issues that I have seen over and over again in my travels: </p>
<ul> <li>Difficulty producing great tone; </li> <li>Difficulty playing quickly; </li> <li>Difficulty playing smoothly; </li> <li>Pain in the bow hand and arm. </li>
</ul>
<p>Does this sound familiar to you? If so, my friend, read on, because this is a totally fixable kind of issue. It just takes some insight and dedicated practice. </p>
<p>I’m sure by now you’ve read about the important aspects of the bow hold, and I addressed some of them in my last post. They are: </p>
<ul> <li>Rounded fingers and thumb without points of tension or locked joints; </li> <li>Flexibility in the wrist and finger joints of the bow arm; </li> <li>The top of the right hand is oriented into the bow, so that the weight of your hand is transmitted by your index finger to the stick of the bow. </li>
</ul>
<p>Each of these points of technique plays a key role in determining how your arm, hand and bow work together to create and reduce tension on the string, for the creation of beautiful, nuanced tone. </p>
<p>I’m going to share an often-overlooked key to bow hold success with you right now as well. Ready? </p>
<p><em>When you are holding the bow to the string, hold the bow as gently as if it were a living thing. </em></p>
<p>In fact, Yehudi Menuhin was said to say that “…It is absolutely vital to hold [the bow] as lightly as possible - rather as one might pick up a newborn bird…” </p>
<p>Each of the four issues that I discussed above can be traced back to a bow hold that is too firm and joints that are locked and tight. I tell my students not to “choke the bow.” It should be treated as a living, breathing thing. Once you are able to hold the bow in this way, your tone will improve significantly, you will be able to play your tunes quickly and with greater ease, your notes will be lilting and connected, and you will not experience pain in your bow arm. Doesn’t this sound like something you want to invest in with some practice time? Absolutely! </p>
<p>In my next post, I will talk about some key ways for you to begin reinforcing this new way of holding the bow, so that it becomes the way that you most naturally pick up and hold the bow as you play. </p>
<p>Yours in music, </p>
<p>Shamma</p>Shamma Sabirtag:shammasabir.ca,2005:Post/61996432020-02-02T20:13:45-08:002022-02-12T09:42:12-08:00What You Need To Know About the Bow Hold<p>Why is the way you hold the bow important?</p>
<p>In this post, I'd like to tackle a point of technique that can stymie the most well intentioned student: the bow hold. In this case, stymie - <em>to prevent or hinder the progress of </em>- is exactly the right word, as there is nothing like a bow hold that is not quite there yet to, well, to prevent or hinder the progress of a fiddler. There are so many ways that the bow hold demonstrates an effect on the sound one produces, and all are important. Tone, fluidity, or the connectedness of notes, the tempo or speed we are able to achieve without sounding effortful, and your body's experiencing of creating music (are your muscles fatigued, tense and sore after practicing?), are all connected to how you hold the bow. In other words, some of the most expressive and gratifying elements of musical expression are tied to...you guessed it...the bow hold. Because of this, finessing your bow hold, regardless of your playing level, is worth a good chunk of your practice time.</p>
<p>But, I've already developed some habits around the way I hold the bow. It's too late to change my bow grip. Right?</p>
<p>Pardon me? Yes I hear you - the person in the corner drinking your third coffee of the day and juggling a busy life while waiting for that bright spot in your day or week to present itself - fiddle time. You are asking how in the world you are going to change your bow hold, since you've been holding it <em>your </em>way since you began playing. Don't worry, I've got you, and I've got some concrete steps that you can take to find the bow hold that works for you. The steps are:</p>
<ul> <li>Observation;</li> <li>Reflection;</li> <li>Fine-tuning; </li> <li>Developing automaticity through the use of simple exercises. </li>
</ul>
<p>Observation.</p>
<p>It takes a new student very little time to look around at all of the different ways and styles of playing before concluding that there are many different ways to hold the bow. Take, for example, any fiddler you admire. There are so many to choose from. As a matter of fact, when I was in high school and university, I had pictures of my favourite fiddlers in my locker and in my room, including <a contents="Natalie MacMaster" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.natalieanddonnell.com/">Natalie MacMaster</a>, <a contents="Liz Carroll" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.lizcarroll.com/">Liz Carroll</a>, <a contents="Andy Leftwich," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://andyleftwich.com/about/">Andy Leftwich,</a> <a contents="Mairi Rankin" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://celtic-colours.com/artists/mairi-rankin/">Mairi Rankin</a>, <a contents="Graham Townsend" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ottawacountrymusichof.org/inductees/grahamtownsend.htm">Graham Townsend</a>, and the list goes on. Is that weird? It seemed totally normal to me at the time. Now that I'm talking about my life out loud, perhaps its a touch strange. Or not. My point is that by looking at pictures of these and many other great fiddlers doing their thing, I could see how they stood, held their fiddle, held their bow, and even, how they were feeling their music in that moment. That was waaaay back before the internet. Today all you have to do is search for your favourite fiddlers online to see how they play. Observe how they make music. For now, look at how they hold the bow. That's the first half of <em>observation</em>.</p>
<p>The second half of <em>observation</em> is, you guessed it, to observe yourself. This is particularly important because we often have very little awareness about what our body is doing while we are playing. We are concentrating so hard on playing the notes - either reading them or remembering them - that there is no cognitive space left over for anything else. This is why having a good teacher is a wonderful boon - a second set of eyes as you play to point out where challenges are happening and also to make note of what you are doing well. A mirror is also a very helpful observational tool because it allows you to have good line of sight on your bow hold and other points of technique. One reason this is helpful is because the bow hold is not actually observable as we play, without a mirror. Another reason is because most of the time, you will likely ensure that your bow hold is perfect before you begin playing, but as soon as your focus has shifted to the notes, the bow hold changes, and we spend the rest of our practice session practicing a bow hold that is not ideal. </p>
<p>Reflection. </p>
<p>Here is an important part of the process that sometimes gets lost in pedagogy. That is, it can be very helpful to think about what a good bow hold is for <em>you, </em>the style of music you play, and the size of your hand and length of your fingers. Yes, there is an ideal way to hold the bow, which I cover in depth in <em>Fiddle Fundamentals </em>with pictures, but there are many <em>slight </em>variants on that hold, because we don't all have the same size hand, or length of finger. Thusly, a traditional Suzuki bow hold may require a little more thoughtful refinement on your part in order to make sure that your hand fits with the bow appropriately. For example, my pinky finger is really, really short. This affects many things about how I play the violin and also the job that my pinky has on the bow - that is, how my pinky supports the weight of the bow when I am playing at the point-of-balance or frog. It took me years to understand that because my hand size/shape is not ideal for a traditional bow hold, I might change how I use the bow to compensate for this. AND it took me years to understand that there is nothing wrong with this.</p>
<p>This said, there are some key aspects of the bow hold that, when employed properly, will support you to play fluidly and with less effort than otherwise. These are:</p>
<ul> <li>rounded fingers and thumb without points of tension or locked joints;</li> <li>flexibility in the wrist and finger joints of the bow arm (which is why I never call it a bow <em>grip</em>)</li>
</ul>
<p>Points of variability include:</p>
<ul> <li>where specifically your hand sits over the frog; </li> <li>where the index finger makes contact with the stick (first joint, second joint, between joints and so on); </li>
</ul>
<p>In another post I will cover what you will want to consider as you fine-tune your bow hold, and some exercises that can support the development of your bow hold so that you can begin to develop automaticity in this area. This frees up your brain to consider other aspects of technique as you play.</p>
<p>Yours in music,</p>
<p>Shamma</p>Shamma Sabirtag:shammasabir.ca,2005:Post/61989402020-01-31T14:46:04-08:002022-08-19T04:36:22-07:00Finding Time to Practice<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/399135/85ecb149aa14b3b5a0676b697b5f4ba9361279a0/original/img-2076.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Here is a very <em>real</em> post about being mama and a fiddler. At. The. Same. Time. Which begs the question: "People, can we have it all?" I know that we are taught from a young age that we CAN INDEED have it all, but I have found that this is only true if we can find some effective strategies to support our goals. My children are soon to be 3 and 5 years old, and I am only just now finding my way through the morass of <em>my time </em>versus <em>their time</em>, <em>their time </em>versus <em>our time</em>, plus work, meals and meal planning, and the myriad of other things that are important, but that are still not PRACTICE TIME. </p>
<p>How do we get any better without some dedicated time each week to lovingly cradle our fiddles and slay some scales? The short answer is, we don't. In fact, it's possible to regress to the point that the super easy one octave A Major Scale that you were playing a few months ago now sounds a bit pitchy. When you get to this point, it's hard to work through the pain of regression and press on to the land of clean tone and brilliant intonation. In fact, it's much easier to place your instrument back in its case (now streaked with tears, if you're me - too much information?), place it in the back of your closet, and forget about it for another few weeks (or months). But friends, please don't do this. You can do this! Here are some tips to get you through the busy times, whether your busy comes from kids, work, the holidays, and the millions of other reasons we put our instruments down and don't pick them up again. </p>
<p>Tip #1: Some things can be practiced anywhere. Take the bow hold for example. You can practice this on the steering wheel on your way to work, on a pencil or pen while you are writing your grocery list, even on the lip of the kitchen counter! If you are just starting your journey with the violin or fiddle, this tip is golden. </p>
<p>Tip # 2: Listening is almost as good as practicing. What are you learning or refining? Make sure you have it accessible in your car or on your workout mix, or wherever you listen to music. If you can spend some time actively engaged with the music you are working on, you are absorbing the rhythms, tempo, nuances and facilitating the remembering of the melody. Not only will this will serve you well when you have a few moments to practice, but it will likely inspire you to make time for practicing at the first opportunity. A double win.</p>
<p>Tip # 3: Leave your instrument out where you will see it. The old adage is SO true: a fiddle that is out of sight is also likely out of mind. If you are able to hang your fiddle on the wall, place it on the piano, or keep it up on a high shelf, you are more likely to take it down and play it for 5 or 10 minutes here or there, several times per week. In fact, if you are a TV watcher, you can keep your bow on the coffee table and practice your bow hold exercises during commercials. A bit here and a bit there adds up - trust me. Remember to always loosen your bow when you are finished though, as leaving it tight can cause the stick to warp over time. </p>
<p>What are your tips for finding some time to practice? I'd love to hear from you!</p>
<p>Yours in music,</p>
<p>Shamma</p>Shamma Sabir