Right Hand Focus

| posted in: practice 


With a local cello camp coming up in just three weeks, I’ve started to prepare the études on the syllabus, Lee numbers 20-30. Last night while working on these pieces I tried to focus on my right hand. My bow grip suffers from a couple of issues.

I tend to lift the little finger off the frog when playing and I tend to lock my thumb rather than keeping it flexible.

For the little finger I’ve found the rolling the bow stick slight more towards me when I play somehow makes it easier to keep all my fingers in contact with the bow. Having the bow rolled more toward me also helps with overall tone production. It’s easier to get more or less bow on the string for more or less sound.

Making sure that I keep the proper part of my right thumb in contact with the bow helps to keep it properly shaped and flexed. Making sure that my little finger is covering the pearl, and the rest of my fingers are naturally spaced out along the bow stick also helps to get my thumb into the right position and shape.

I’ve also been using scales to practice my bowing, at least those scales that I’m better at. F# still requires focus on fingering and left hand movement so bowing takes a backseat there.

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Mark H. Nichols

I am a husband, cellist, code prole, nerd, technologist, and all around good guy living and working in fly-over country. You should follow me on Mastodon.