Bowing tips for the baroque bow

Learn how to master the baroque bow. It's all in the fingers! See more at lamotteviolins.com

[@franciscosard]

I absolutely agree about holding the bow a bit away from the frog. Actually I believe the modern bow should be held with the thumb on the leather. The need for more weight made violinists to search a lower point so they could have a more massive sound as music volume increased with bigger orchestras. I tend to have a combination between a low elbow and a high wrist, which allows my wrist to be very active. I also use a trick with the inclination of the bow: in the lower strings the bow lies more flat than in the upper strings where it is more inclined forwards. This allows changing string without altering the height of the elbow, just with the wrist. Your video is a wonderful introduction to baroque bow. I would only add a reference to the four divisions of the bow, by Leopold Mozart, and the beginning of the sound, quoted by Tartini in his letter to Mme. Lombardini.

[@elizabethhsu1247]

No wonder I always ended up in the upper part of the bow! I need to practice my knuckle movement. Thank you!

[@murraykriner9425]

Its utterly fascinating just how different the piece of music has been made to suit the playing, and the use of the bow to create an entirely altered effect. Thank you.

[@Floydwellian]

Thank you for the video. Having picked up my first violin at age 60 I'm not good with legato, so I believe I'm a "rhythm" violin player with my baroque bow. I find it much easier to use than a modern style bow.

[@SF-ru3lp]

Beautiful playing. Thank you very much for the teaching

[@lamotteviolins1449]

Thank you! My pleasure.

[@howlingwolff1]

Very Helpful Adam. Thanks for doing these.

[@SF-ru3lp]

I do love your music room Mr La Motte

[@rl7651]

I think it's ok to let the upper arm assist by creating some momentum to allow the fingers to lift the bow off the string- it then isn't an isolated finger stroke separate from the rest of the arm. You actually demonstrated this at about 4:00 when you were air bowing to show the alternation between staccato notes and slurs- that looked very natural. Perhaps it's ok to isolate the fingers at first to be sure they can move easily but the upper arm assist for the momentum adds some depth and further freedom to the stroke and the sound.

[@violinsound]

Very helpful. Thank you so much!

[@btryba]

Could you do a comparison between this and a modern bow? I'm sure that it generates a different sound.

[@lamotteviolins1449]

I find that every bow, whether (baroque) snakewood or (modern) pernambuco, has a unique sound. Usually snakewood will bring out the lower frequencies, and pernambuco will "smooth" things out a bit.

[@bassplayer-one3658]

someone can collaborate for the subtitles. this would be very good material for Spanish speakers.

[@lamotteviolins1449]

Luis, that's a great idea.

[@matthewfletcher4265]

"use a lighter"... "it won't damage your bow" Well that depends on how much I use the lighter, right? Let's stick with the blow dryer ok?

[@tristanrodriguez5796]

Can I hold it like a normal bow

[@lachlanhenderson6591]

Watching him casually put his thumb on the bow hair at the start of the video is seriously hurting me

[@bbvv2967]

wait till u see viol players

[@peterlhawks]

To an extent, all violinists should have standards towards holding a violin bow, universally, regardless of the style and, or, genre of music. I've noticed how holding a modern bow with the thumb in the gap near the frog is beneficial for attempting staccato and spiccato, to be honest. For sure understand your situation with teaching a KZbin user about the bow braquroe violin bow, due to how it is one of the correct ways to perform baroque era pieces. Your statement on how there shouldn't be a universal violin bow hold is somewhat invalid, to an extent, but not completely incorrect.

[@denischang1104]

If you study the history of the violin, you ‘d find out that the author of this video is correct. Certain standards have been popularized today, but there exist many other bowholds that work just fine. For instance 95% of today’s violinists don’t use the bowhold that Heifetz, Kavakos, Milsten, Elman used, but that was quite popular 100 years ago, and it s a bowhold that came from some of the masters in the 19th century.

[@peterlhawks]

@@denischang1104 Of course, that's completely understandable, but when a violin teacher is lecturing a beginner violinist for the few years(i.e. 1-3 years), there needs to be a semi, correct universal bow hold they need to follow. When they are advancing towards mature violin literature, that is when they may start experimenting towards different types of bow holds that may be more comfy, along with beneficial towards technique. At the advanced to professional level, they are flexible and able to change technique, slightly. Also, if the violinist is advancing to a new private instructor, they may have a different perspective towards it. I'm going to be a senior in high school violinist for the 2019-2020 school year and what I'm noticing is that the music educators/directors within my school district's orchestral string ensembles are not properly teaching a correct way to hold the violin bow. With that said, I'm not surprised at all, due to how they expect the student during class to consider taking private violin lessons, if they know about it at all. I have the ability to elaborate towards this topic from the advanced student perspective, due to experiencing different type of violinist from all levels. Again, I'm not saying that your comment is comepeltly right and, or, wrong, but you do have to admit to an extent that there needs to be a standard for this fundamental factor, due to how the inccorrct way could/may result in minor-long term injuries, unsatisfied tone, etc.

[@peterlhawks]

Not just that, but also violin teachers and, or, masters need to figure out which violin techniques that are the most effective towards successfully recieving the most accurate, clean tone and style. Again, there needs to be a somewhat universal standard towards violin bow hold, depending on the genre and, or, style of music the orchestral musician wants to use. I'm not saying that violin history should be disregarded, but some techniques and holds should be either passed downed or stopped, due to major circumstances(ex. body injuries, insufficient projection of tone quality, etc.).

[@nocturnallsnake4228]

Shock absorberish. Dope.