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262 April 2013 Forearm Rotation PDF

1) Forearm rotation is a natural movement when playing the violin that some players do unconsciously and others have to consciously develop. It involves turning the forearm to change the angle of the bow as it moves across and between strings. 2) Not using forearm rotation and instead relying solely on upper arm movement can make certain techniques like string crossings feel uncomfortable and inefficient. 3) Introducing or improving forearm rotation, even if just slightly, can bring a new feeling of freedom and ease to one's bow arm and bowing in general.

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Francisco Darling Lopes do Nascimento
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66 views2 pages

262 April 2013 Forearm Rotation PDF

1) Forearm rotation is a natural movement when playing the violin that some players do unconsciously and others have to consciously develop. It involves turning the forearm to change the angle of the bow as it moves across and between strings. 2) Not using forearm rotation and instead relying solely on upper arm movement can make certain techniques like string crossings feel uncomfortable and inefficient. 3) Introducing or improving forearm rotation, even if just slightly, can bring a new feeling of freedom and ease to one's bow arm and bowing in general.

Uploaded by

Francisco Darling Lopes do Nascimento
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BASICS

Forearm rotation
Forearm rotation (the forearm movement of turning a key) is something that many players do naturally,
without knowing or ever thinking about it. Others do not automatically have it as part of their bow arm, or
sometimes get into a habit of blocking it; but if so it is an easy and simple process to add forearm rotation
back in to the playing. If it is not part of your bow arm, and then you begin to allow it – or if you play
repetitive exercises to encourage it – an immense new feeling of freedom immediately comes into your
bow arm.
My first encounter with the idea of forearm rotation was in Carl Flesch’s Six Fundamental Bowing Types.
The following exercise is No. 4, and is shown in Figs. 1 and 2:
(1) Just before
playing the up-bow
open E string. Note
the angle of the
forearm.

Passages like the following are obviously easier if you do not use the upper arm on its own, but use a
degree of forearm rotation as well.

(2) Before playing


the down-bow
open G. Note how
the forearm has
turned.

This turning movement is used not only in string crossing. It is something that happens all the time, in a
Caption: Just multitude of different types of strokes, including simple strokes along the string. It had never been an issue
before playing for me, and so I did not identify the lack of it in my very earliest teaching – until the first time I worked with
the down-bow someone on the Chausson Poème and realised why the student, a very tall girl with long arms, looked
open G uncomfortable during the following string-crossing passage: she was crossing to each double stop (shown
as +) using her upper arm, with the arm all in one piece, instead of just (or mainly) turning the forearm:

Simplified and reduced to open strings, the string-crossing pattern is like this.  means to rotate the
forearm clockwise;  means anticlockwise:

Try doing it both ways – with the whole arm, or mainly with a neat rotation of the forearm while keeping
the bow arm basically on the same level – and feel the difference in ease and efficiency.
BASICS
You can see forearm rotation even in the simple operation of drawing the bow from the heel – where the
hand is more upright (supinated) – to the point, where the hand is more tilted (pronated). Place the bow
on the string at the heel and note the rotational angle of the right forearm to the floor. Then draw the bow
to the point and see what the angle is now. The forearm should have turned:

You can see this rotation in just about anything you play:

Obviously the amount of the movement may be so slight as to be imperceptible:

Lifted strokes
Forearm rotation is also a key part of lifted or springing strokes. The actual amount may be so little you
cannot see it. Exaggerate the movement once or twice, so that afterwards an imperceptible amount
happens naturally, on its own, without your being aware of it.
The spiccato movement into and out of the string is curved: follow that curve invisibly with forearm
rotation:

Attacks from the air and retakes


In the following typical example imagine that there is a ‘B string’ to the right of the E string. To retake the
bow for the second note, the clockwise forearm rotation that ends the first note can move the bow a little
more towards the imaginary B string, i.e. beyond the E string level.

Many students perform such strokes without any forearm rotation at all, doing it all with the whole arm,
and the effect is one of the bowing being cramped. Exaggerate the curves and not only a new freedom but
a new elegance enters all the playing.

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