Listen to the legato and to Jiri Barta's beautiful interpretation!
You could think of legato as the bow pouring forth a continuous flow of sound.
Working on legato involves listening for a continuous, smooth sound.
Moving the body from side to side so that the pelvis is not locked can help you change from down bow to up bow smoothly. Learn more about your pelvis here.
Try only full bows on open strings at first. Legato within one bow direction, such as a slow full downbow, has more to do with adjusting the arm weight so that the string is able to vibrate freely throughout the bow. The weight gets transferred to the index finger side of the bow hand as you move toward the upper half of the bow.
The next thing to notice is when you are about to change from a down bow to an upbow and vice versa. This is where suppleness in your fingers will help to control the bow change.
Open the file below and play the scale pattern with a side to side movement of the body (shifting weight from one sitz bone to the other). Notice the feel when you are changing bow direction and if it sounds legato.
Scales One Octave in 3 4 time.pdf Size : 275.709 Kb Type : pdf |
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Listen to your sound as you change from a down bow to an up bow (and vice versa). Lots of subtle changes in your arm, hand and finger muscles contribute to producing a legato at the bow change. Try focusing on the "feeling awareness" of your bow fingers.
If you are slurring notes, notice the lifting and dropping of your left hand fingers. Drop fingers to the string quickly and lift them off quickly. If your fingers are sluggish, that will interfere with the legato. It's the acceleration of the finger to the string that will make a clean sound. Of course you have to get your timing right to express the rhythm correctly.
Legato within one bow direction, such as a slow full downbow, has more to do with adjusting the arm weight so that the string is able to vibrate freely throughout the bow. The weight gets transferred to the index finger side of the bow hand as you move toward the upper half of the bow.