Bow hold exercises. Role of each finger.

We will continue with a few exercises to get really the most comfortable bow hold. The first one: press each finger against the thumb, one after another. Press lightly with the little finger, see if you need to adjust the angle of any other fingers. Press with the ring finger, find a position that feels stable but is relaxed. Press with the middle finger, see how this changes the position of the other fingers. Press with the index finger, see if you need to adjust the position of the thumb. Everything should be as natural as possible, as close to the way we use our hand every day, as possible. Now let’s do the same thing in reverse order. Start with the index finge,r press lightly against the thumb, find a comfortable position. Same with the middle finger, now ring finger, and little finger. Now, press all the fingers against the thumb, and release. Do it a few times. Press… release. Find a relaxed position that feels very stable. Press… release. Also, pay attention that each finger is pressing equally. If all the fingers are supporting the bow evenly and with the correct angle, then you would only need a very little effort to hold the bow. Remember, the bow weights only about 60 grams and our fingers are so strong that people can hold their whole body weight on their fingertips. Here is one of my most favorite pictures! As we repeat the previous exercise, let’s talk briefly about the role of each finger. So, relax your right arm, bring it up, turn it a few times, bend the thumb and position the pencil on its tip. Obviously, the thumb is supporting the bow from underneath and the middle finger is keeping the bow on top of the thumb. The index finger presses on the bow when we need more pressure, that is mostly when we play closer to the tip or in louder dynamic, and these two fingers are pressing on the bow when we need to make the bow lighter, usually as we are going closer to the frog. It’s very important to remember from the very beginning, that the biggest part of the pressure in the index finger, or in the little and ring fingers, happens here - in the rotation of the forearm, not in the fingers themselves. As we said earlier, fingers should always stay very relaxed, so they can execute the most delicate adjustments, the fine-tuning of this motion