Working on open strings

TECHNIQUE

DENIS SEVERIN

Cello professor at the Geneva–Neuchâtel University of Music, Bern University of the Arts, and Zakhar Bron School of Music in Zurich, Switzerland

DENIS SEVERIN PHOTO ARTAN HÜRSEVER. BOW-HOLD PHOTOS RAZVAN S UMA

BORN Kharkiv, Ukraine

STUDIED WITH Dmitry Miller, Daniel Grossgurin, Thomas Demenga, Christophe Coin, Gary Hoffman

TEACHES Private and conservatoire students aged 11–28

Open-string exercises help us to build a stable, quick and efficient right hand that remains effective even when we later introduce complicated material in the left hand. When we practise these exercises, we should always listen carefully to the quality of our tone and play with a beautiful, meaningful sound. By doing this, we are acting in a similar way to a quality control team in any production process. To produce shoes, for example, we have to know which fabric to use; to make chocolate, we must mix the right ingredients. We then have to test the fabric, or taste the chocolate, before it goes on sale. If the end product is no good, we have to throw away what we have produced and start again. Similarly, when we produce sound we have to use the right ingredients, including good posture, effective bow distribution and controlled bow changes, to play consistently beautifully. If the sound quality is not good enough, we have to start again.

EXERCISES

The contact point for the following exercises should be midway between the fingerboard and the bridge, where you can produce a warm, full sound. Search for a beautiful tone at every moment and experiment to find what works best for you.

RELAXING INTO THE STRING

Relax your arms over the fingerboard, then gently rock from side to side (1A)

EXERCISE 1 Practise this exercise to release tension in your shoulders, arms and hands, to improve overall flexibility and resonance

Place the bow on the string, at the frog. Rest the right wrist on the stick and support the bow with the left hand (1B)

Use the left hand to begin a down bow. You should hear a crunch!

Move the right hand into playing position, still with the left hand on the stick. Flex both thumbs to make sure they are relaxed and free (1C)

Return the right hand to normal playing position, but leave the left hand resting on the stick (1D). With that same sense of freedom and weight, play some open-string double-stops with a full, beautiful sound, in the lower half of the bow.

Exercise 1 will help to ensure that your shoulders and arms are relaxed, so that you can play with complete freedom and flexibility.

A

B

C

D

BUILDING FLEXIBILITY AND CONTROL AT THE FROG AND THE TIP

When you play, try to think of the bow in two parts: the lower half and the upper half. In the lower half, you need to use weight to play, but in the upper half you need to push, with elasticity. In the following exercise, practise moving between the two:

• Use the weight of your arm to play eight beautiful, full double-stopped crotchets (q) at the heel of the bow. Use a consistent bow speed and distribution for every note, and play with strict rhythm

• Repeat the same pattern at the tip, again very rhythmically. This time push the bow, with elasticity and suppleness in your arm, to create maximum contact with the string and produce the best possible sound

• Continue to switch between the heel and the tip, until you can play in both halves of the bow with a strong, beautiful sound

• Repeat the exercise, but this time hold each note for two beats, then three beats and so on, up to eight, with metronomic rhythm. Work out how to do this while maintaining an excellent tone

PRACTISING CONTROLLED CHANGES ANYWHERE IN THE BOW

Next, this ‘walking bow’ exercise will improve your changes at every point in the bow. On any open string of your choice:

• Play in rhythmic crotchets, starting with a down bow of around 10cm from the frog. Follow it with an up bow of around 9cm, a down bow of 10cm, and so on. Repeat until you reach the tip

• Do the exercise again in reverse, so that each up bow is slightly longer than the down bow, until you are back at the heel again

ADJUSTING BOW ANGLE FOR SMOOTH STRING-CROSSINGS

To finish, practise adjusting the level of the bow to move between different open strings smoothly and seamlessly, without interrupting the sound. Begin by working on string-crossings between adjacent strings, in ascending and descending order(exercise 2a). Once you can do this well, mix all the strings together to practise moving between them with a consistently beautiful and even tone (exercise 2b)

MY CHECKLIST

When my students are working on these exercises, I give them a checklist to follow at all times. I advise them to keep this on the music stand when they play, so that they never forget:

• Check that the back and shoulders are relaxed

• Feel the weight of the bow at the frog, and push the bow with elasticity at the tip

• Adjust the bow angle to align with each string

• Monitor the position of the hand

• Play with seamless, inaudible bow changes

• Cross the strings with care and control

• These points are like a chain: if one link is missing, the whole system will break. If the back and shoulders are tense, it will be impossible to use arm weight and gravity to play well at the frog or to be flexible at the tip. Nor will you be able to angle the bow correctly to play on each different string. If the hand cannot move well, good bow changes and string-crossings will be very difficult. By practising open-string exercises daily with these points in mind, you can train yourself to produce a fluid and beautiful sound.

REPERTOIRE

If you practise these open-string exercises every day, you will find it progressively easier to produce a strong, good-quality sound even when you introduce complicated material in the left hand. As you work on each exercise, think about where it will be useful in your repertoire. For instance, practising how to produce the perfect sound between the fingerboard and the bridge, how to make controlled bow changes in all parts of the bow, and how to angle the bow in order to create an uninterrupted sound for string-crossings are all useful preparation for playing examples 1–3 (page 85).

IN YOUR PRACTICE

I expect my students to practise scales, arpeggios, double-stops and other technical exercises for a minimum of one hour each day. Of that, 15 minutes should be spent on open strings. The exercises in this article are very easy, but if you work on them every day, over the years you will build up a much better technique.

For every exercise, practise with a beautiful sound and keep specific places in your repertoire in mind, to help you work with a sense of purpose. Sometimes students want to jump into studies, pieces and concertos straight away and cannot comprehend why I’m progressing so slowly, but once you understand why you are doing these exercises, you won’t need to be convinced to practise them!

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

We should always help students to find the approach that is the most natural for them, and working through these open-string exercises with them can be an effective way to do that. Some students will be happy to practise only these exercises until they have achieved what is necessary; others will need different impetus and guidance, depending on their level and character.

Either way, it is important to find the best method for each individual student, and to give them a good technique early on, so that by the time they are 18 they have a good sound and level of skill. It is still possible to correct problems when students are adults, but it is both unnecessary and more difficult.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING

FURTHER MATERIALS

I have uploaded a series of instruction videos on these open-string exercises and how to practise them on my YouTube channel at bit.ly/3u1PtIg

On YouTube, explore how great cellists Feuermann, Fournier, Maréchal, Navarra, Tortelier, Gendron, Isserlis, Coin and Hoffman use the bow with remarkably different sounds, styles and techniques.

NEXT MONTH Jazz violinist Casey Driessen on how to alternate chops with melody notes