Notches

Expression with the bow

Today’s exercise/game, which I call “Notches,” expands on Long Bows and the Triangle. It’s a fun way to explore the expressive ability of the bow, just by isolating and experimenting with the forefinger. The video at the bottom of this post will take you through what we’re about to discuss.

As with Long Bows, place your bow near the frog to play a long downbow of four counts before returning with an upbow. About one second per count (metronome = 60) is a good tempo to go, and four bows on each open string is helpful, and will only take a minute.

What’s new here is that the first finger bears down at the beginning of each beat. If you press too hard for the speed of your bow, you’ll get a scratch, so adjust for that.

If you map out the pattern drawn by your first finger as you bow all four beats, it would look like this:

The forefinger (first finger? index finger? pointer?) and the wrist have separate jobs here. The wrist draws the bow at a steady speed, while the first finger makes the notches as you go. The wrist doesn’t know a thing about the notches, it just draws the bow normally. As far as the first finger goes, this game is a lot like the Triangle exercise except that the bow is moving, and the first finger is keeping time, marking four beats in each bow.

Doing this exercise gives you practice in getting a steady sound with your bow, while articulating beats by using only pressure from your forefinger. It will prove very useful for your music.

The illustration above shows the pattern the first finger draws while making “notches” as it presses into the bow with each bow. It’s as if you took a time-lapse photo of the finger moving along the length of a bow.

Here are a few other patterns the forefinger can draw. Each results in a very different sound:

The Sine Wave pattern varies the sound smoothly, pressing down and letting up evenly through the beats. The Scallops pattern starts each beat with pressure; if you press enough, it will even stop the bow and create a bite at the start of each beat.

Scallops can be reversed so that you start each beat with little or no pressure and add the most pressure in the middle of the beat. That would look like this:

Each of these patterns (and you can find more) will create its own unique sound. As your finger and your ears get to know these sounds, you’ll find you can use them when you want a stronger or weaker sound, or a bite to attack the beginning of a note.

As with all games/exercises, they’re for playing with frequently. The more you do them, the more ideas, sounds, sensations you’ll discover for yourself.

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About the video below

This and 11 other helpful technique videos are available in Technique Video Group 2 on my fiddle-online.com site. Out of respect for those who pay a small fee to access the videos on that site, and out of appreciation for those who are paid subscribers here, this video is only available to paid subscribers.