Video transcript
@The Arts Unit Art Bites – Cello bowing exercises

[music playing]

JACK WARD: Hi. My name is Jack. I'm a cellist based in Sydney. I perform in various ensembles throughout Australia. And I take the cello tutorials at The Arts Unit. This video consists of a number of bowing exercises that were taught to me by some legendary cellists from around the world and which I use in my practise and teaching.

Alban Gerhardt, a brilliant German cellist, said to me in a lesson that all problems in the left hand originate in the right hand. As a student, I had difficulty believing this. But the more I perform and the more I teach, the more obvious and true this has become.

My aim with the bow personally is for it to feel like an extension of my body balanced and resonant as much as possible, without blockages in the joints or for it to feel cumbersome and awkward. The first exercise I will share is super basic, as most good exercises are.

So we place the bow at the tip, at about 90 degrees the bow here and the string at about 90 degrees. So you hold it there yourself or get someone to hold it for you if you're a bit smaller. And we place our bow hold here, right at the tip. And we slide it along the bow.

You go back and forth. And observe how your arm behaves. Forearm opens up. Upper arm raises a bit. This is the feeling of drawing a straight bow. This is the angle our arm moves along, the imaginary line that our bow moves along when we're drawing a bow.

The next exercise is also really basic. It doesn't require us play. It's simply holding the bow however you like-- monkey grip, with your bow hold. There's a million ways to hold the bow. And we do big circles in the air, just using the whole arm, maybe five circles. Might click a little bit.

The point of this exercise is to get used to the weight of the bow. The bow should feel light and agile when we're playing. It shouldn't feel cumbersome and awkward, as I was saying before.

So now we're going to combine both of these exercises. We're going to do a circle, land on the string, and then practise the arm opening up as we did before. The big circle, land on the string, catching the string so we get a clear start--

[playing notes]

and then opening out our arm like this.

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Let's do it a few times. Don't worry too much.

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If you're struggling to get a straight bow in this, here's a few exercises I use to remind myself how it works. And a great guide when we're playing is the middle of the bow. Some teachers describe it as the upper arm in the lower half and the lower arm, the forearm, in the upper half.

So I'll show you. So I'll do a circle, land. It's always good to do a circle. Feel free when you're bowing. Land on the string. Now use the upper arm, the whole arm as a unit, to halfway, stop, and then the forearm opens up.

[playing note]

And back.

[playing notes]

So let's do it now with a clear sound, so

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Don't want to hear that bite, so the landing. Release the arm into the string.

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You can practise your scales like that. So divide the bow in half, C major, three octaves.

[playing scale]

Etcetera. I'd just like to demonstrate why it's important that our forearm opens out when we draw a bow. And what happens when we don't do it? Let's just have a look.

So if I put my bow at the frog, like we were doing before, and I'll keep my forearm more or less at this position as I go towards the tip. Let's just see what happens.

[playing notes]

So I don't allow it to open up. We're changing contact point, which causes a disturbance in the sound when we're changing contact point. That's why a straight bow is critical. Let's see what happens when we open up too early.

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We get this bow angle here, which, again, changes our contact point and creates disturbances in the sound, just to explain why it's important. The angle of the stick and hair is another important aspect to develop a sensitivity for. We don't need to maintain a flat bow hair throughout the whole bow.

I personally almost never have flat bow hair right at the frog. I tilt it a little bit towards myself. But it's personal, and it depends on what the music's asking of us.

But a good exercise, just to develop a sensitivity for this, is, again, simple. Let's do the G string this time. What we're going to do is start whichever way, with bow held either flat or slightly tilted towards yourself. I'm going to bother going over that point over flat towards the bridge. We're just going to go flat and towards ourselves. So let's start the bow

[playing notes]

flat towards me, with the fingers at rest. It's a great exercise also to develop freedom in the hand, which is something I'll talk about.

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So different bow strokes and different sounds that we try to create on the instrument require different amounts of hair. Also, different parts of the bow, different amounts of hair are more suitable.

The next thing I'd like to talk about is the wrists and fingers. There are places where tension and blockages can build up easily. It's also a place that should be practised in isolation to develop freedom, and in the end, become an instinctual movement.

There's a great caprice by a great Italian cellist named Piatti. When it's performed, typically, it's typically very quick, virtuosic, something like this at the tip.

[playing tune]

And so on. It goes something like that. But we're going to break it down now and discover how to unlock some of the joints here. So see if you can find Patti I. It's on IMSLP. It's easily found. And just practise the first few bars of the first line. It doesn't need to be much. It does not need to be and we'll show you how slow we're going to practise it.

So we're going to do it right at the frog on the G string. It starts on the G string. And we're just going to use the fingers and wrist. They're going to be in a circle. I'll show you. So

[playing tune]

So that bite is really important. And also notice that I'm not bowing with a flat bow here. I'm slightly angling it towards myself. That feels easier for me for my wrist to move.

We can also practise in the middle of the bow. And aim for the same sound that you got at the from. So you can stay on the string. At the frog, my bow comes in the air.

[playing notes]

But in the middle, I leave my bow on the string. So let's try this.

[playing tune]

And at the tip, which is the hardest place to get the good sound--

[playing tune]

I made a mistake. I'll try it again.

[playing tune]

It's a great way to practise this caprice when you ultimately do play it quickly.

Now I'd like to demonstrate a few bow strokes that we use in the cello repertoire. And one of them is détaché in the middle of the bow. It's a really useful bow stroke that we use in flying passages in all sorts of music.

A great study for this is Popper number 6 from the high school Popper studies. It's a difficult study, like Piatti I, when played at full speed in its entirety. But it's really useful, even if you're just starting out, to practise the first couple lines.

The study is just semiquavers. So it helps us to really isolate a particular technique that we use. So a great way to practise it is to use the middle of the bow. So one quarter-- let's say one quarter to three quarters-- middle half, approximately, and starting out martelé, so with a bite at the start of every single note. So something like this

[playing tune]

Once you've practised a few bars, a few lines, or even the whole study like that, you can then try using less bow and smoother bow changes. So now, a more flexible feeling in the fingers, and hand, and wrist, so something like this. Still under tempo, nice and slow and relaxed.

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Goes on and on and on like that. In the end, we want to use even less bow. And this helps us get our speed ensuring, though, that we use the same amount of bow back and. Forth that's really critical in these flying passages, is that we use the same amount of bow on the down bow and the up bow. So in the end, something like this

[playing tune]

Goes on and on and on like that. The last exercise and bow stroke I'd like to talk about is the staccato bow stroke, again using the Popper studies this time, number 1. It's also challenging. So we're just using the first few bars or lines depending on where you're at in your playing.

If you're more advanced, move on. It goes up into thumb position. It's great to stay disciplined with the bow while you're doing tricky things in the left hand.

For this bow stroke, we'll stay more in the lower half. And we have a really clear bite to the string. And the bow leaves the string. So just the first few note of the study.

[playing tune]

So I'm biting the string, catching the string. There's clarity at the start.

[playing notes]

My bow leaves the string and then lands and catches it again for the following bow stroke, for the up bow or the down bow.

[playing notes]

Now, this study also includes a lot of string crossings. String crossings, again freedom in the wrist and fingers absolutely critical and in the upper arm and forearm, as we spoke earlier. So combining all these elements--

[playing tune]

So on and on like that. And the speed increases. I'd really encourage you to practise the first few lines, really discipline, making sure every note starts with the same articulation no matter where you are in the up bow or the down bow. So thank you for joining me. I hope you got some ideas for the right arm. It's an endless search, the bow arm, the cello bow arm.

So continue to persevere, to feel as though it's a part of your body and something that you can use to express your ideas freely and without inhibition. Enjoy practicing. And I hope to see some of you soon.