back to school: draw a cursive e !

Good morning!

I'm all revved up about teaching now that the fall semester is in full swing.  I want to share with you what my studio (all of 'em, old/young/new/seasoned) will be doing this fall, and you are welcome to play along with us.

This summer at the ISB Convention I had the opportunity to attend Caroline Emery's class where she shared with us what new ideas she's using with her very young students in England.  This class really opened my eyes to how differently I could be teaching and how differently we could all think about the very very basic elements of playing.  In the end, we're always returning to basics, right?  Well, this is the most basic of basic - playing from one string to another.  She described the shape the bow travels during a change to a new string, and mapped out the possibilities for combinations with just two strings.

I thought about this a lot this summer.  Spent every practice warming up with a two string crossing, on open strings, and found that not only did my legato (detache) stroke improve, but also my overall sense of ease and relaxation was greatly improved.  And I held that sense of openness and ease well into my practicing of harder material.

So, with all credit to Caroline Emery, here is my take on what she said, as laid out in 4 worksheets.  I've drawn the shape that I think works for the string crossings, and it's slightly different from what she drew at her workshop, but this is my version here.  I think the important thing to realize is that the shapes are rounded or curvy.  If you focus on the "loop" that you draw at each bow change, you can keep the energy and momentum in the tip (or frog) without needing to "muscle" your way through the change.  I found I could play quite loudly without using muscle effort, just using the leverage of the bow angle.

So, for the month of September and some of October, we'll all be warming up with stroke #1 - a cursive "e".  The sheet has a full explanation of how it feels and looks to draw this shape as you play from D to A strings.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen