JAVS Fall 1997

38

of bow speed, arm weight, and sounding point. The following principles assume that a player is trying to maintain a certain dynamic level-let's say a mezzo forte. Clearly, the color of the sound will change, even as one is trying to maintain the same loudness. • Playing close to the bridge requires more arm weight and less bow speed than playing farther away. If you use a lot of bow and don't use more arm weight, you'll be close to ponti cello. • Playing away from the bridge requires less arm weight and more bow speed to pro duce the same volume of sound. To demon strate and reinforce this point with an ex treme example, I often play, with a slow bow speed and a lot of weight, the passage from George Crumb's string quartet "Black Angels," in which the viola part is the dies irae theme over the fingerboard on the C string: the notes sound an octave lower than normal. • If a bowing requires a player to suddenly move the bow more quickly on a single note

or slur, the player should reduce arm weight and let the resistance of the string move the bow slightly away from the bridge to keep the note from standing out. (Of course, some instances actually require emphasis, especially on a strong beat.) • If a bowing requires one to suddenly play with slower bow speed, using more arm weight and bowing closer to the bridge will maintain the same dynamic level. For many of us, these principles have be come second nature; for many students how ever, they are not. Some students, although able to recite these principles, have difficulty putting them into practice. To help them learn how to deal with these problems, I usually start by having them practice scales with uneven bowings: three slurred notes fol lowed by one separate note, starting both down-bow and then up-bow-first in one third bow, then one-half bow, then with a whole bow. I ask them to produce the same

Angle of the strings

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