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Technique: Violin bow landings with Gina McCormack

2023-08-22T08:31:00

Tchaik with Haffner Orch, Lancaster, 11 Nov 2017

Violinist Gina McCormack on teaching bow landings in reference to Mozart

Instead of thinking about the angle and position of the bowing arm on landing, violinists tend to focus on what happens when the bowing-arm fingers meet the string. This is apt to cause problems, especially in concert situations when the upper arm can become tense, causing the fingers to stiffen.

All too often students land on a note on the G string and wonder why it crunches, then land the same way on a note on the E string and look mystified that it works brilliantly. They haven’t fully explored what they need to do on each string to make the sound they want in a reliable way…

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