Cello Bowing Techniques

Part of the Video Series How to Play the Cello

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Watch an expert musician demonstrate proper bowing position on the cello and learn about bowing techniques in this free music lesson video.

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Tags: cello, music, music lessons, musical instruments
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Member Comments

Posted by juliek on Wednesday, 02 January, 2008 at 4:26 PM

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This is a great video, but it's a little off center; I'm more interest in what your bowing arm is doing than the mandolin (?) sitting on your left!

Video Transcript

Cello Bowing Techniques
FRANCIS JOSEPH SANTORI: Some basic bowing technique which I kind of touched on in the holding of the bow. Lay your bow on the strings, make sure your wrist is completely relaxed, and you'll pull allowing the weight of your hand and the weight of the bow itself to do all the work. Now your relaxation in here is going to determine a lot of your sound. A very stiff hand...the bow will bounce and skitter, a relaxed hand will allow the bow to do all the work. So the goal with bowing eventually is to be able to make one continuous sound even when the direction changes. This is only achieved with proper relaxation. A way for practicing your bow is just do it with open strings.

About the Expert

Expert: As an Austin multi-instrumentalist musician, Francis Joseph Santori was one of the featured artists in the 2007 Jazz on the Boulevard festival in Dallas. Read More