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LESSON 2: It’s all about the BOW!

DATE

Location:

LESSON DESCRIPTION:

Thursday, Sept. 29

GYM

“Dowel sticks and bow holds”

RIGHT HAND WORK!

It is very important that families learn to follow careful guidelines from the start; the bow hold

is often tricky to master! First of all your bow is NOT a SWORD. (sorry Peter Pan!)

THINGS TO KNOW:

1. Tense and relaxed hand: Gain a little control of how to tense and relax your bow hand.

Have your child make his hand “ hard like a rock” or “soft like a marshmallow”.

2. Bow hand identification: Your Right hand is bow hand! Often I draw with erasable felt

pens, a small line (representing their bow) on their bow hand, for the first little while.

Game: Hide both hands behind your back. Call out Show me your bow hand.

3. 1

steps to developing your bow hold: Show how to make a soft, round “rabbit” with their

bow hand.

keep the middle fingers down over the nail of the bent thumb while relaxing the

“ears” (outer fingers). Another idea: Sometimes I put a little dot on the outer Right

side of their RH thumb tip and another dot on the inner RH middle finger tip. I ask

them to join the dots in order to better achieve the bent thumb concept!

Game: Have the “rabbits” hop around, eat lettuce, get on airplanes and fly, etc.

The “rabbits” turn into “butterflies” as the students shake out their bow hands.

Challenge: them to go back and forth quickly from “rabbits” to “butterflies”.

Finally the “butterflies” rest on a parent’s or partner’s outstretched index finger or

bottom end of a dowel stick.

4. Concept of hanging fingers: Turn the “butterflies” into “monkey tails”; the students feel a

hanging feeling in their bow hands as they hang from the outstretched index finger or

dowel stick.

5. Bent thumb: Set the thumbs in the proper early bow hold (bottom of stick across from

middle finger).

6. Pinky position is key: Push the fourth finger (or pinky) up until it is perched on tope, and

tilt the bow tip to point up. If necessary, insert a small foam ball in the palm of the bow

hand to encourage a round, relaxed feeling.

Lesson Notes Violin