Testing Your Bow Grip Heres a quick test to find and release tension in your bow grip: 1.

Rest the bow gently on the string. Lift your index finger off the stick and tap it three times on the stick (Figure 9). Set it back down. 2. Lift the middle and ring fingers and tap them three times on the stick (Figure 10). Set them back down. 3. Last, lift your pinky lightly and tap it three times on the stick (Figure 11). Set it back down. Take time to practice playing on both the upper and lower halves of the bow, isolating the part of the arm that should be used, even exaggerating at first. It can be helpful to have someone stabilize your upper arm while you're working on using the forearm and elbow exclusively. It can be very tempting to shrug the shoulder up towards your ear as you move to the A, so take a little bit of time to develop an awareness of what a neutral shoulder feels like. Exercise: Open Strings You'll notice that every measure is composed of four down bows and four up bows. This breaks the motion of the bow stroke into manageable segments, and is best executed with exaggerated martel bows: heavy, even, not necessarily beautiful strokes that have a definite stop to them. Make sure the weight comes from your arm resting, not pushing on the frog. Another thing to keep in mind is the shape of the arm: for this and other similar exercises, try to preserve the L shape that the arm makes during the first two down bows, then open the elbow for the last two. On the up bows, really focus on closing the elbow to an acute angle on the first two, and then come to the frog using the entire arm, allowing the elbow to relax and lower on the last two. aaaa - dddd - aaaa - gggg - aaaa -cccc gg - dd - aaaa - caca - gada - cgda - adgc Next, try to find the open strings with your eyes closed, moving as little as possible to get to the next string. Make your motion deliberate. Choose when you are going to move, and move then.

Exercise: First Finger Finder This exercise is best done with a metronome, 4 beats to a note, set no faster than 60. Start bringing the left hand up on the second click to give yourself time to make the motion smooth. 1. Dont watch your hand as it comes up. We cant look at our hands when were busy reading a page full of notes, so dont get fixated on it now! 2. Move your hand fluidly and truly relax it when you drop it. Relaxed practice makes for relaxed, injury-free playing. 3. In your mind, think of the fingers of the left hand pulling back on or even through the fingerboard rather than forming a pinch with the thumb. CD - GA - DE - AB