hello this is Julia Bushkova and today I am going to speak about thee role of
each finger on the bow. As we all know by now the finger that holds the weight of
the bow is only one and it is the pinky so when I play on the violin and I go to
the Frog and I don't want to have a sound like this then I
will use the pinky a little bit just for the moment when I will be changing.
Right there so about that much of the hair I am using at that point when I am
actually slightly slightly pressing the pinky down thus taking the bow weight a
little bit off the string and you hear a much nicer change of the bow.
On the other side of the spectrum is our index finger or sometimes I call the finger
by numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 just like al of them on the left hand and
the thumb so that is my terminology so the index or the first finger works
as an opposite force to the pinky and it is supplying the depth and loudness
richness of the tone towards the tip especially as you keep going to the
tip from the Frog for instance here as you can hear the sound does not get
weaker and sometimes I can make a crescendo a real crescendo to the tip as
well using the technique of course of pronation
pronating my hand inside somewhat or rotating the arm, forearm and of course
engaging my first finger to the point that the bow gets closer to the hair the
stick is closer to the hair and you probably can see it right there.
That what happens when I go to the tip and if I go from the tip also the same sound
so that's primarily the function of the index finger. However second finger that
primarily has a function of the co fulcrum with a thumb. Thumb is a real
fulcrum really so here we go and then we when we make bow changes or any nice
movements that we have to make to make the sound rounder.
So, against the thumb is the 2nd finger however the 2nd finger still is
capable of producing some of the tone not as much as the 1st of course it's
not in the right place for that, but some so it does help the 1st finger in some
ways also to produce the tone and also it helps a lot in making the hand more
balanced on the way up the bow.
So it is the 1st finger but it is also
somewhat of the second that keeps helping the first with the same goal
however the finger that really helps us to regain the correct frog position
comfortable frog position in other words not to get stuck in the pronation that
we achieved while doing things at the tip here at the tip
and you see this is what basically happens I don't try to reach with my
4th I could but I don't I let it hang so it's off some a violinist you could
see have extreme pronation and therefore even the 3rd finger may be off the
stick or barely touching the stick so it depends but in any case our position of
the hand is very different at the tip than it is at the Frog so how do we get
from the tip to back to the Frog into this comfortable position when the one
thing that is the role of the 3rd finger, in my opinion, and that is to make
sure that it returns to its place which is lower back to
lower on the bow so this is if I'm there at the tip then I'm here at the Frog and
the 3rd finger literally moved back down to its Frog position. You may do
this thinking of your 3rd finger returning but not pressing it should
never press so right there so I just make sure that I let it slide back into
my frog position or you can also think that you are going to make this rotation
with your thumb which actually will need exactly - the same thing for the 3rd
finger to do so this is a pronation and then slight rotation of the thumb will
get your 3rd finger into this nice align position but nevertheless your
3rd finger has to be one - relaxed, two - never press, and three - never do anything
else for the good sound really. One and the same thing don't engage it in any
other way then let it slide from one place to another. To recap one more time
what I have been talking today about belongs to the basic bowings and basic
bowing is the détaché and any type of legato that we use: whole bow and some parts
of the bow. We are not talking right now about some exceptions to the rule
because yes of course there are exceptions since there are rules and in
some situations yes the fingers will have somewhat different roles but we are
not talking about that today. I hope this video has been helpful. Happy practicing
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