Chords for How To Get A Good Sound With The Violin Bow - Fiddle Lesson

_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] Hey there, welcome to Fiddlehead Fiddle Lessons.
Are you struggling to get a nice sound when
you play the violin?
If so, here are three bowing techniques to help you get a better
sound.
First is to [D] play at different volume. _ _ _ _
Second is throwaway bow.
_ And the third is
to play [B] in different parts of [D] the bow. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Abm] Let's dive deeper into why these are good practices
and how to do them.
So the first [Bm] way to improve your sound with the bow on the violin is to
play at different volumes.
You can start in the middle of the bow with short basic strokes.
_ _ _ This is a [Eb] medium conversational [D] volume. _ _ _ _
Just little bows.
These are eighth notes.
One and
two and you can also do quarter notes.
_ Two, three, four.
[G] _ And then simply play with the
volume level.
So I [E] would recommend starting by next step doing it much more quietly like
a whisper.
[Bm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] And then so when you do the whisper bow you use barely any bow.
Like a millimeter
of bow.
Very little pressure.
Then work your way back towards medium [Bb] and then get loud
with [B] more bow and more [D] pressure. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ And return to a conversational tone _ _ _ _ [Bb] and see if it feels
[N] different after taking that journey.
A lot of the way I like to teach is practice journeys.
You start in one place.
You kind of meander along and then you return to where you began.
But you're transformed because _ you've learned something along the way.
And so we continue
to [G] take these journeys and return and say like oh what feels [D] different now.
So hopefully
by playing with [F] the different volume levels you learn to map out how it should feel.
How
the movements should go.
What it should sound like.
And all these different things are interacting
[D] with you as you play. _ _
_ _ [B] One last practice I'll give you [F] is a game called soft loud soft.
Basically
[D] start a soft volume.
_ Doing eighth notes.
Gradually get louder. _ _ _
So it's a deafening roar.
And then
get really quiet.
_ And then repeat again.
_ [G] _ _
And so with this game [Ab] and the other practices [G] I gave
there's a lot of very simple variations that even an absolute beginner could do.
One is to simply
do all the practices on all the strings.
On G string. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] Another variation is to take any rhythms
you learn and do that with the practice.
So say you're doing learning tucca on A [A] string. _ _ _ _
Slowly get louder. _ _ _
And so on.
_ I think [Abm] that's it for the volume practice.
Play with that.
See how
it goes.
The next bowing technique for getting a good sound is something I call throw away bow.
[D] _ _ _ _ [Abm] This really helps you just _ sink in to a good sound.
So _ here's how you do it.
Place the bow
around the lower third of the bow.
You could really place it anywhere but I recommend starting
here.
And then almost as if your right hand is dropping.
Just bow [D] down bow.
_ _ [Gm] It's almost like
weight just drops.
_ Feel gravity pull your arm.
_ [G] _ Like this bow is made of iron. _ _ _ _
And do [Abm] that a bunch
of times.
It's [D] like you release a lot of energy [Dm] when you do it.
_ _ [Bm] It's almost like you've played
the [G] last note of a concert. _ _
Thank you.
Good night.
Think of that every time you [Abm] do this.
So you can
also do it up bow.
Start more towards the upper [D] third.
_ _ _ _ _ Be really dramatic with this exercise.
_ And
so what this does is it really helps you [E] explore the proper volume level.
So after you've done a
down bow and up bow you can alternate down then up [Ab] and continue [Bm] to do that a few times.
Do this
very slowly and then [B] you can try to just bow with the bow on the strings but maintain that big sound
you got with the throw a [D] bow. _ _ _ _
_ _ It's a big bold [E] sound.
Don't worry if it is kind of scratchy at
first.
You're just trying to be more fearless with your bowing with this exercise.
Plus it's
fun and you can do this for your entire fiddle journey because [Abm] as you learn tunes you can apply
it to different parts of tunes or classical [Gm] pieces even.
So let's say you're learning a Bach piece
and _ [G] _
_ [Eb] you want to learn and you want to [Gb] improve the sound on that you could take each note [G] and
_ then use throw a bow _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ and you keep building out [F] each little part so that every note sounds good.
So the last [N] idea for getting a good sound with the bow on the violin is to divide the bow into
thirds.
I put pieces of tape roughly like this.
I didn't measure it anything.
I just eyeballed [Abm] it.
I don't think it's necessary but I think some people want to obsess over that [G] and feel free
to do that.
And anyhow the idea is that the bow is going to feel different in [Abm] each part of the
bow.
It will be easiest most likely for you to play in [Dm] the middle.
So I recommend [B] starting [D] there
and just as a rule of thumb with [F] bowing to bow in the middle with short strokes.
If you ever find
you're struggling with something return [D] to short strokes. _ _ _
_ _ _ And so do everything [Abm] we've done already
in the middle of the bow.
You can do your [D] patterns, _ _ different volumes, _ _ throw a bow, everything else in
the middle of the bow [G] and then try to do everything all those same things in the upper third of the
bow.
_ _ Notice how it feels different.
[B] I'm not going to say anything yet.
I [Ab] want you to practice it on
your own.
At the end I will say what people commonly find with this.
Then try everything
in the lower third.
Maybe you can try different [D] rhythms like hoedown. _
_ _ _ _ _ See how [Ab] it feels different
there.
And as you move between the thirds you'll get better at each third [B] and it paves the way for
you to [D] play a whole _ bow.
_ _ This is actually [Bm] playing with long bows [Ab] is actually a pretty advanced thing
to get [G] right but playing in the different parts of the bow prepares you for that.
[Abm] Now a note for
people doing fiddle [Abm] music.
Most [G] fiddle music happens in the middle of the bow.
_ _ _ _ [C] Very little
bow.
But I like to teach in a way that opens you up to playing any style of music.
I like to teach
violinists, fiddlers, whatever style you want to learn because music is infinite and there's really
no boundaries other than the ones [G] we create to talk about it.
But the music itself is unbounded.
Sorry [Eb] for that fiddlosophy aside.
_ _ _ So you can practice in each third of the bow.
Do everything
you know.
[Abm] The last thing I'll say just as a general bowing note is to do lots of bowing
practice on open strings for the first year perhaps that you play.
Don't take it for granted
your sound.
Your sound is [A] something you will continuously need to develop.
Go back to the
beginner hold.
Place your left hand on the fiddle.
Right [D] hand _ bow.
Open strings and just [D] play with
the bow.
Do [E] patterns.
Do string crossing.
Do whatever you need to do and then move into your
other practice.
If you're an absolute beginner [Ab] I recommend bowing on open strings for a little
while before even beginning left hand [Abm] fingering.
If it were up to me it would be like a month but
it's [Gb] more realistic for people to do it [G] for a week because they might get people tend to get
bored [N] and they want to see a result more quickly.
So you may want to limit [F] the time you just bow on
open strings but in each practice session I recommend you do that.
Great practice.
Alright
well thanks for watching.
I hope this was helpful.
I remake these basic fundamental videos from time
to time because new questions arise.
So if you still have any questions on how to get a [Gb] sound
please let me know.
_ Go to fiddlehead.com for a progressive step-by-step course outline, color
coded tabs, play along tracks, sheet music and much [G] more. _ _ _ _ _ _
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[N] And _ don't forget to subscribe. _
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