If bowing is like painting, do you bow like a toddler paints?

If you are playing the violin, I think it matters more how you play than what you play. If you play something very difficult but completely out of tune then I would prefer playing something that is very easy but that you play it musically with beautiful tone and in tune. So how do you do that? How do you  not just focus on the fingering, not focus on playing note by note by note but really coloring the sound like you would make a painting. A lot of beginning violinist have a rigid bow hold that looks like this: with the pinky not nice and round like this but all bend like this. With a thumb like this all tensed. This reminds me of how a toddler paints: all tensed. If you see a painter paint it looks more like this [fluent motion]. If you see a toddler paint, he grabs the pencil like this.

What would make a more beautiful painting?

What bowing would make a more beautiful sound? Would it be all tensed like this, going all over the string which makes very ugly sounds? Or would you do like a painter would do and if your bow would be a pencil that can draw beautiful sounds? So you might take this into consideration and work on a very relaxed bow hold and also make sure that you are bowing straight and that your hand moves with the bows. That you just experiment with coloring sounds like you would experiment if you are making a drawing. You might have some little papers that you might experiment on and then you might shift to the real painting to work out your best idea. With violin you can do that too. Just experiment with your tone, bowing, with how your bow moves, your bow hand should not be rigid. So maybe you can pick one tone  and really focus on the bowing. Just paint beautiful sound colors with your bow.

Is this video useful to you? Please let me know in the comments!

Love,

Zlata

PS: Do you want to see YOUR question answered in a Violin Lounge TV episode? Post a comment below!