A friend of mine has recently started having tennis lessons, and seen his game rapidly deteriorate as a result: his instructor has been trying to get him to hold his racket the right way, and he rarely manages to do that and hit the ball at the same time.

I’m in a similar predicament. As I mentioned before, I recently learnt that I’ve been holding my bow wrong for years. I’ve always held it in a vice-like grip, my thumb nestled in the crook (never reaching the pad where it’s meant to sit), and my little finger jutting straight out to the right like it’s in a splint. I’d also been using the bow a bit like a saw, pressing down against the strings rather than letting the weight of my arm and the bow do the work. So that’s all wrong, which, with the benefit of hindsight, seems glaringly obvious. This is how it should be done:

–      Your thumb sits on the pad and stays bent
–      All fingers should be arched into a (relaxed) flexed position, with the middle finger opposite the thumb
–      Your (relaxed) fingers should remained arched for a Down Bow and then naturally elongate for an Up Bow

This site explains it fairly clearly,  or, better still, watch this nice little 3-minute tutorial from Itzhak Perlman.

The trouble is, now I know how it should be done, my musicality, like my friend’s tennis game, has gone out of the window. Hopefully it’s just a matter of time before it becomes second nature.