I think you can work a lot on bow ‘hold’, movement and relaxation… the souplesse of your bowing. This is something every beginners needs to work on. Certainly adults want to do too much, with too much tension and with a fixated hold. The bowing is stiff. This can be heard in your sound, but can also cause injury.

The bow hold that is optimal for your sound and playing technique, is a very strange hold. If you do this in a tensed way, your muscles can’t do it very long. Every beginner, certainly if you have arthritis or fibromyalgia, should work on the movement in the bow hold instead of focussing on keeping a strained hold.

In the video I demonstrate the effortless movement of using your wrist and fingers as a spring system. Violin playing shouldn’t cost a lot of effort in a short time. It should be refined, fluent and relaxed. In the end of the video I show you a jellyfish exercise.

What I notice is that Taran pivots the bow with the hair in the direction of the scroll (see video). If you pivot the bow, the hair should face the bridge and not the scroll. Otherwise you will unnecessarily strain your wrist.

I hope these tips will help all beginners, but specially those who have something like arthritis.

I think playing the violin is possible in a lot of cases, even if it’s just 10 minutes in a row.

Is this video helpful to you? Please let me know in the comments below! If you like it, share it with your friends!

Love,

Zlata

PS: Do you have questions or struggles on violin or viola playing? Post a comment below or send an e-mail to info@violinlounge.com and I might dedicate a Violin & Viola TV episode to answering your question!