Bach Suite 1 Prelude. From note 1, this piece is a series of string crossings and well, when it comes to bowing technique I’m no Yo Yo Ma, or Inbal Segev.
I’m in month 6 six of my comeback and the little things, like string crossings, that make music beautiful are slow to comeback. My teacher gave me a string crossing tip – lean the bow towards the fingerboard so you play more on the side of the bow hairs. Because of the lean, the bow hairs seem to wrap around the string more so when you do cross strings, the bow hairs are closer to the string you will be crossing to. It is such a small difference but it makes a world of difference in smooth string crossings.
My normal, wrist down position.
My string crossing position – bow leaning / wrist straighter but still slightly bent down.
One thing to keep in mind – when crossing to G and especially the C string, you have to weight the bow a little more to get the thicker strings to vibrate (actually, this applies to the A and D strings, but not as much) . The lean means that less bow hairs are in contact which means you need to compensate.
As you know this Bach Suite 1 is all about string crossings. It is such a simple tip that makes this piece sound more connected. So many things to learn and re-learn. All part of the beauty of the cello.
The Cello Journey 