The 5 Fundamental Rules of Violin Bowing Technique

An excellent analogy my violin teacher gave me: The bow arm is like an electrical cable, if you’re cutting it any way with corners/angles you will lose sensitivity and power. So if you try to keep the line as relaxed and continuous as possible; your bowing will benefit with fluidity and control.

Excellent instruction. Thanks Tobia!

The ending part of the piece you play at the end sounds like vocalise by rachmaninoff 😉

You’re a gifted teacher. I enjoy watching your instructional videos. Keep up the great work and best wishes to you!

Funny thing. When I was wachting you playing the kreutzer exersice, I had my right wrist a little bit tensed. I was noticing it, when you finished as my wrist relaxed again. 😂😂😂

Moving the bow from the elbow, that’s the hardest one for me. 😅I’ve noticed that most of the time I move the bow from the hand and the wrist. I don’t know when or how it became a habit, but I’m having a difficult time breaking the habit now. The problem I have is that my bow hold is too loose, so when I play martele or staccato, It sounds very sluggish and generally it doesn’t very good, especially in the upper half of the bow. I think maybe that could be the reason for it but idk...

I was sure I had the, "From the elbow" bit down but after this video, I reviewed one of my practice session clips and realized I do more of it then I probably should around about mid bow on the G and D string. That rotation at the frog is the most tricky because if I'm not paying attention, the muscles will remain activated. I do a body check every 30 to 60 seconds and I often find myself dropping that shoulder several bars after the rotation was required.

Are we coming up on another stream?

What is the make of your chinrest?

Thank you 🙏

Breaking the habit of raising the shoulder is quite a challenge because it is such a subconscious action and one I find extremely problematic.

Could you possibly make a video on Bow Tilting. I've been playing viola two years and when I watch pro violinists and violists they're bowing never seems completely flat all the time. Thanks for the videos.

Another thing to catch is forarm length. One of the most significant cons of learing too early due to changes in body shape. Some students with longer forarms occasionally seem to find significant tonal enhancement if they learn to play and or change to a more flat and upright violin position on the collar bone. Of course, this is assuming the child or adult is not using a shoulder rest. Just a though from seeing our adult University students come and go.

From your descriptions here: I assume you don't personally use/teach the 'figure 8' idea for bow movement? (Described by Yizhak Schotten in his "Art of the Bow Arm" video)

Thank you for this great, in depth video!

I notice you use the Belgian bow grip. This was the grip I used for a long time & struggled constantly with a smooth legato ( frog to tip) bouncing bow ,all rules you mentioned I broke. I never could relax when playing & tried so hard to let the bow do the work, but it never happened; until I discovered the Russian bow hold.Suddenly,I was able to drop that left shoulder more & use my wrist at the frog .It completely changed my playing style & now I can more or less stick with not breaking the 5 rules.I know this grip is not taught by many teachers,but if you could,please tell me what you think. Thank you for you wise insight.

Really helpfull thanks!!!

Gosh... You are one of the most knowledgeable violinist I've ever seen. Amazing!!! And you also sound quite good. Congrats!! Who did you study with and who have been your refferences?

Best videos for violin out there. I've wanted to learn violin for many years, and finally I'm attempting it. Thanks to you, I have a chance at making decent sounds come from my instrument. BTW, violin practice is incredibly relaxing.

Thank you very much

I have this issue!! No one every corrected me when I was young ! Definitely have to work on this, it drives me nuts!! Also curious if you have a video on now holds?? I never found one comfortable and I need to experiment

I studied classical guitar at Sydney Conservatorium, getting a degree in performance and from a young age my teacher ( I can never thank him enough for this) gave more, if anything, importance to the right hand than the left though both were extensively covered. "A C major scale can be beautiful but only if one's sound/tone is up to it" was his overriding mantra and picking up the violin in my teens as a second instrument I adopted a similar stance if only because the scratchy, squeaky, horrid productions of my initial efforts just had to be improved or I would surely die. The sound is everything and only once a beautiful tone is produced can one carry on to attempt to communicate and make beautiful music. Thank you for your videos.

Thanks for this detailed summary ❤

I don't know of any other instructor who is talking in such detail about the basics. Murphy's instruction is invaluable to anyone who wants to understand the mechanics behind sound production.

i literally got better by the end of the video omg

I am an adult beginner, six months into my journey. I will say, you offer excellent instruction, clearly and concisely. Thank you very much! Please keep up your work!

This video just significantly increased my bowing and subsequently my sound. Thank you so much. I realized I was tensing up that trapezius muscle. Once I relaxed it and dropped my shoulder it sounds so much better. Thank you!

Thank you again for helping rescue me from mediocrity

Super 🎉❤👍

Wow. Perhaps the best video on early bowing technique. I learned so much, especially the fact that I need to keep shoulder relaxed and allow elbow to do most of movement. Game-changer! Thanks! You’re an amazing teacher!

Thanks!

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I broke my broke playing

Do you feel your arm motion from your pectoralis major muscle? When I focus on my chest area it seems to help bowing quite a bit.

This really helped me❤

This is the kind of detail that I needed. Really struggling with my bowing 🙇‍♀️

Thank you so much. I truly appreciate the detail and the separation of use of the bow arm parts.

A quick clarifier about Rule 4: Of course, there are going to be parts of the bow stroke where your elbow is technically above your wrist by necessity, like the upper half of the bow. What I'm referring to is, if your bow arm were placed such that the opening of the bow arm was truly horizontal (which likely will only happen to some people while playing on the G-String) then the elbow should be placed in such a manner as to not rise above the wrist. Assuming you are not playing in such a reclined position, the place where you'd need to check on this is in the lower half of the bow, and then, following Rule 3, you should open the arm two dimensionally from whatever elbow position you are starting in. I realized this might confuse some people after I had made the video, but then it was too late, so I decided to clarify with a comment here. Thanks for watching and happy practicing!