Right Hand and Tone Color
The right arm, hand, and bow are responsible for tone quality, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, and certain (but not all) changes in timbre. The bow is held in the right hand with the thumb bent underneath the frog to support it and the other fingers loosely touching the wood. The middle and ring fingers are usually wrapped around the frog, although in some cases (such as in baroque performance practice) the whole hand holds the stick above the frog. Holding the little finger curved and resting on the near facet of the octagonal shape of the stick, next to the facet on top of the stick, allows that finger to "unweight" the bow, using the thumb as a fulcrum. The most important thing in bowing is that bowing action should be initiated and solely dependent upon movement of right hand, not by forearm, upper arm, and shoulder. Flexion and extension of these parts should be passive led by right hand action. Otherwise, subtle and delicate bowing control is impossible, leading to excessive tension in right arm, making bow control hard.
Read more about this topic: Playing The Violin
Famous quotes containing the words hand, tone and/or color:
“We came into the world like brother and brother;
And now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“...I ... believe that words can help us move or keep us paralyzed, and that our choices of language and verbal tone have something—a great deal—to do with how we live our lives and whom we end up speaking with and hearing; and that we can deflect words, by trivialization, of course, but also by ritualized respect, or we can let them enter our souls and mix with the juices of our minds.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their color is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.”
—Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784)