Check your bow hold, exert more pressure on the bow and end your 1 2 3 intro at a different spot on the bow where the balance is better.

Let me put the link in. This is the tutorial I start started. I'm trying to do the pick up notes the two ways shown at this point in the video and my bow bounces like crazy when I try to play the first regular note.

https://youtu.be/wpd57E0dZyk?t=464
 

Preparation is key. Always be thinking ahead as you’re playing and mindful of things like changes in bowing articulation. This helps you to be ready in the moment and it gets your hand moving on time. Everything starts in the fingers and wrist, and it’s a bit like a baseball or golf swing: there’s a point of contact where you strike the target (the ball), but in order to make that contact, you have an address and a swing that precede the stroke. Think of the wrist and finger motion as the windup for the stroke (playing the note). In that sense, your hand motion precedes the actual impulse of the note slightly. One of the mistakes a lot of players make in playing articulations that go off the string is focusing only on the moment of the percussion, not what precedes or follows it.

Paying careful attention to the placement of that bow is very important as well. To play the dotted pickup, the bow starts on the string and then lifts off to get the detached sound rather than being dropped down to bounce. You can practice pickups by playing completely on the string first, then adjusting things to allow the bow to lift off. I think Auer wrote about this in his seminal book. Increasing speed and keeping pressure lighter and the bow stroke short naturally encourages the bow to lift off. If you’re throwing the bow into the string to get it to bounce, like playing a ricochet stroke, you’ll have a much harder time controlling it.

For those short pickups with a dotted rhythm, I tend to begin at or below the balance point, but when I reach the end of that articulation and land on a held note, I reset the bow below the balance point, closer to the frog, allowing the weight of the bow to keep the hair on the string. Also, doing the dotted rhythm, the strokes are shorter and more crisp, but reaching the first note of the beginning measure, the bow stroke becomes longer. Make sure there is a change in address when you hit that first note by planning ahead.

Hmm I took a look…

1) he slurs the pickup notes. Since this is just normal long bow strokes, shouldn’t cause any bounce, just leave your bow on the string and move fingers. LIke play 0-1-3 on upbow, 1 on the downbow? vaguely something like that…

2) he separates the pickup notes. he isn’t actually lifting or bouncing his bow much…you shouldn’t need to lift your bow off strings? BUt he is separating the notes and letting them have a bit of an attack on them, using a bow change between each note.

WHen things go fast, you should be using wrist/fingers, not arm. Maybe arm/elbow use on bow change is causing the bounce? Are you locking up your arm at any point?

Or it could be just the speed of the bow change that’s throwing you. If so, leave off the fingers for now and try that pattern (3 short fast, 1 long) on an open string. ONce you have that, add left hand fingers back. (basically, playing the Rhythm of it without bothering with the pitches, will allow you to concentrate on your bowing)

Well so much for my attempt at internet diagnosis. :-P

have fun, it’s a cool tune! :-)

Great tips and now I have more to work on.

Just leaving the bow on the string helps.

I'm actually finding the triplet/double DUD UU easier than the DDD but I'll practice both.

You can play pickups without leaving the string by just doing staccato. The separation between notes there comes from stopping the bow in between notes without lifting it off the string. There are several different bow strokes that produce a crisp impulse without leaving the string.

If you do want to play off the string, however, always keep in mind that the bow doesn’t need to leave by much at all to bounce. It’s easy to drop from too high, and that’s how you lose control quickly. A good bounce comes when you get the bow moving at the minimum height necessary and relying on the weight and elasticity of the stick itself to promote it.

THe tutor in the video is not using spiccato (bounce), so no need for “bow off string” techniques here, I think. He’s just separating the notes by stopping the bow, with a bit of accent/attack in the bow changes.

John, for me the DUD triplets are way harder than slurred triplets (3 in a bow), and I struggle with DUD at speed! It takes perfect coordination of left-hand fingers with the bow changes…fun, but hard…!

i've got over the problem of the unintentionally bouncing bow thing before, by playing the note that is bouncing unintentionally as quietly and sweetly as possible, and then gradually bringing it in until it is where i want it. just relax on that note instead of trying to beat it into submission.

sometimes it is better to think of the triplet as 4 notes?... The triplet plus the note you land on after the triplet...that may just be me though

edit again : If you need to steal a few milliseconds to make it happen , steal them from the preceeding note and hit the target note

I'm confused by this first comment as the first intro sure sounds/looks like Down Down Down lifting the bow and then a slur into the down-beat note.

quote:

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Originally posted by NCnotes

Hmm I took a look…

1) he slurs the pickup notes. Since this is just normal long bow strokes, shouldn’t cause any bounce, just leave your bow on the string and move fingers. LIke play 0-1-3 on upbow, 1 on the downbow? vaguely something like that…

2) he separates the pickup notes. he isn’t actually lifting or bouncing his bow much…you shouldn’t need to lift your bow off strings? BUt he is separating the notes and letting them have a bit of an attack on them, using a bow change between each note.

WHen things go fast, you should be using wrist/fingers, not arm. Maybe arm/elbow use on bow change is causing the bounce? Are you locking up your arm at any point?

Or it could be just the speed of the bow change that’s throwing you. If so, leave off the fingers for now and try that pattern (3 short fast, 1 long) on an open string. ONce you have that, add left hand fingers back. (basically, playing the Rhythm of it without bothering with the pitches, will allow you to concentrate on your bowing)

Well so much for my attempt at internet diagnosis. :-P

have fun, it’s a cool tune! :-)

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Whoops, I think I started the video from the beginning instead of from where you linked to! (EArlier, he is slurring the pickup notes into one bow)

HMmm …so playing along with him…

I think I would do U-D-U (open d) then play G on a downbow, A on upbow, B on upbow. And hit some doublestops in there for fun (open G, open D)

And he does other variations (at some point he says “two upbows”? maybe U-U (open D) then slur the open D and the G into the next downbow, A on upbow, B on downbow.

HOpe that is clear as mud! :-)

It sounds to me like --

First pick up example: Down Down Down on the D String notes D,E,G. Then Down slur into B on the A string.

Second pickup example: Down Up Down D string D note, then Up Up on the D string E G notes. Then Down slur into B on the A string.

I find that I still get bounce if I pick up the bow but I have to keep practicing. If I don't pick up and back up the bow I can kinda to it but I think it's more like hooked bowing than Down Down Down.

OH yea I agree now.

Example 1: D-D-D does make it harder, the need for the bow reset - and I see where that could make a bounce in bowing.

Example 2: I think your bowing analysis is accurate.

Hope the bounce is getting better!