Relax and loosen your wrist!

So I've been pretty busy this week and have not gotten nearly as much as I wanted done but that's life. I have been listening to my songs non-stop hoping that my brain will somewhat memorize them and help me when I do play. Unfortunately I still only have my duet piece. I received an e-mail this weekend from the website I ordered the music from (JWPepper, yes I should have known by the name)that the sheet music I ordered was foreign and would have to travel through a foreign import. It goes on to say that it could take up to a month just for the company to receive the music and then about five days for me to get it! When I went to check on my musics shipping status today the JWPepper website kept messing up and just mad me more frustrated. I ordered the music on June 18 so I at least have only about two more weeks to wait but it means I won't get that music until The summer project is half way over. Let's just say I'm definitely not all smiles.

Any orch dork knows just how important it is to have a loose wrist. It makes bowing much easier, bow styles easier, and makes your sound all together better. Again any orch dork knows that trying to get the perfect loose wrist is not that easy. I have a loose wrist most of the time (and no it is not perfect). In the duet there are many staccato bows (and from the sound of it so does Hungarian). These bowings mainly take place on eighteenth notes when it is already very important to have a loose wrist but with the staccato it is extremely important. I have been working at this since I started this song and can say that I can play it like a newbie. I don't think some people (I'm not saying all) that don't play a string instrument pays attention to the importance of the bow. Instead they observe more of fingers flying and how far done someone can go down the finger board. Sure they notice when the bow is sawing away, but do they really notice what the musician must do with the bow. First there is the bow hold. If I were to hand my bow to a non-bow observer and told them to hold it they would most likely wrap their fingers around the frog (rrrrrrrrbit!) which is not how it must be held. I've been helping my best friend's little sister with violin and then was compared to a russian school teacher by my other best friend but anyways.... She has difficulty with placing her fingers correctly on the bow; therefore, when she plays her bow hand is unbalanced and her bow goes all over the strings. For anyone who cares she is working hard at it. once you accomplish the bow hold you must know where to play on the bow, how much hair to use, how much pressure you need, etc. So as you can see the bow is not as easy as it looks. The loose bow hold is what I'm looking to accomplish as soon as I can and is probably what I will have to work on the most. I might need a hand massage by the end of the summer!