Stuck in a scale rut? Join me for a whole month’s worth of 31 different ways to approach scales. New posts go up every day in January 2023. Start from Day 1 here.

Today turned out to be a big surprise for me. It was supposed to be a very simple look at using just the frog. I thought I’d go through my scales, being careful to stay at the frog (or at least in the lowest 1/4 of the bow), finish, and move on. But it had a surprise in store for me!

It’s been years decades since I’ve thought of myself as frog-phobic when it comes to using the bow. But today was a great reminder that there ARE extra challenges when playing by the frog. There are several things to avoid hitting (the corner of the violin, the bridge, your nose), and the angles in your bow arm are more extreme than usual. Plus, being limited to just a few inches of bow exaggerated all of these issues.

The Violin Psychology Part

While I was practicing this way, I found myself getting more and more tight because of the awkward challenges. And getting more and more tight made the challenges even more awkward. Which led to me tightening up even more. Which led to even greater awkwardness. And the spiral continued downward ... until I remembered something I’ve learned both from Alexander Technique and from Buddhist meditation: the best way to overcome difficulties is first to just accept them. Accepting the fact that I was tightening up and that things were awkward for me immediately led to less tightness, which in turn made it less awkward, which made it easier to relax more, which made it even less awkward ... and so on. By rejecting the situation – thinking, “this should be easier” – I was only distancing myself more and more from any possible solution. By accepting the situation – recognizing that playing by the frog IS a little awkward – I could actually relax and not worry (that is, tighten up) so much.

Why do this one?

Well, in spite of the surprise difficulty mentioned above, this one is definitely worth doing.

All good violinists need to be able to make use of every part of the bow.
It’s a chance to examine the role of your upper arm and of your fingers in moving the bow.
There are some strokes and articulations you can only do effectively at the frog.
If you do find yourself in the downward spiral of frustration, you’ll know how to break free!

The Details

The basic idea is pretty simple: play through your scales, arpeggios, and/or double stops using only the lowest part of the bow. Maybe for you that’s 3-4" starting under the winding, or maybe it’s the lowest 1/4 of the bow. Make it challenging for yourself, but not too challenging.

In the notation below, I’ve given two examples of how you might put it into practice. The first is pretty much normal playing – except by the frog. Play in a moderate tempo, making sure each down-bow starts right at the frog, and each up-bow returns to the frog. Listen to make sure your up-bows and down-bows are equal in volume and articulation.

The second example is designed to provide an extra challenge: do all of the above, but use only your fingers to move the bow.

If you’ve tried today’s scales, I’d love to know what your experience was like! Just post a comment below.

Do this in any key, and keep your usual fingerings, etc.

PDF version