Techniques

How to Produce a Good Sound Using Natural Body Weight

Make sure student is aware of all the weight in our bodies

• Posture – weight of head, shoulder weight, arm weight. Use stretches to highlight this
• Do some stretches with them to help them realize this. You can stretch the head, shoulders, wrists, and neck.

Difference between pressing and weight

• Play them example of a pressed sound vs. sound created with weight
• Have them hold your elbow as you play

Playing Loud vs. Soft (and everything in between)

• Ask the student which is harder to play: loud or soft?
• Simulate playing softly without a bow for 10 second
• ask them to play soft slow bow
• Analogy to a marionette doll – string attached to their elbow thats reserving some of their arm weight in order to play softly. As you gradually lower the imaginary string, ask them to apply more of their weight in order to play louder

How to Develop Different Colors of Sound

• Ask the student to play a sound, and then describe the sound they just made using a word. Have them avoid words like good, bad, happy, sad, but rather use descriptive words (spooky, warm, crying etc.)
• Ask them to play a different sound, and again ask them to describe the sound they made. Then ask them what they did differently to create the different sound (think of bow speed, weight, and placement on the string)
• Have them play around with using different bow speeds, weights, and placements to create many different sounds. You can also make a chart with all the different combinations of the three technical aspects and have them fill it in with all the different words they would use to describe them.