Continuing on a break from all of the rhythm practice, I decided to spend some time smoothing out my bowing. One thing that has bothered me ever since I started playing is the gap in sound that I hear when I switch strings and bow direction.
I went back to an exercise that I had worked on previously. There were quite a few weeks worth of lessons where we'd attach a laser pointer to my bow. The laser pointer was perpendicular to the bow so that I could track my bow motion by looking at the laser light. What a revelation! For one, just playing on an open string, I could see how uneven my bowing was - I could see the laser light bouncing along, instead of being a straight line.
The real test was a simple string crossing pattern -- alternating between 2 strings, for instance the D and G string, playing (D G) (D G) (D G) etc with the (D G) on one bow stroke. When done well the pattern looks like a figure eight. Not mine. It looked like a fish. This week I went back to thinking and practicing figure eights, not fish.
Fish is one of my favorite foods. In fact it's a family joke about ordering a fish (whole fish, steamed! Yum!) every time we go out for Chinese food. I had one waiter trained at one of my favorite restaurants to go find the nicest fish for me as soon as we showed up.
Too bad that fish don't have any place in cello playing!
4 comments:
That's a nifty idea, but I'm still shy on the details. Was the laser pointer an ordinary pen-shaped variety? (Must have an always-on button, obviously.) Did you attach it at the frog, or elsewhere? Picture , please! <g>
Great idea, but I was wondering about this too. Wouldn't attaching a laser pointer affect the weight of the bow?
I've wondered about strapping a small laser pointer to the top of my lowest joint on my forefinger.
It sure would be nice to have a lightweight laser light to slip over the tip of the bow. hmm... any "inventors" out there?
We attached the laser pointer at the frog - rubber bands are great things for keeping the 'on' button pushed down. We put it at the end of the bow close to the nut. We used different laser pointers - the hardest part was attaching it. It does affect the weight of the bow so I never had it on for very long. With the laser attached it doesn't take long to figure out what part of your motion needs to change. Guanaco has a good idea about attaching the pointer to your hand - that might work even better!
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