The one-minute bow: beautiful violin tone with Son Filé
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, I’m Nathan Cole of natesviolin.com and today we're going to improve your sound with son filé, or long tones: the infamous one-minute bow.
So before you get started, get into a meditative place, a relaxed frame of mind... trance-like if you will. I should add that if you've had coffee or a lot of sugar in the last few hours, you might want to hold off on trying this until that's gotten out of your system. Because the last thing you want here is extra shakes.
Now the one-minute bow, or variations on that, has been around for centuries. Even Mozart's father Leopold wrote about how important it was to practice this exercise. Carl Flesch, Gingold, they all taught some kind of variation on this one-minute bow.
So when you're practicing a bow that long, as you'll see in a minute, the quality of the sound is not super important. What you're after is the even speed of the bow.
Now I should explain: you might see on my bow here, I've got some pieces of blue tape. I've divided the bow into quarters with that blue tape. And the reason for that is that i can use those as checkpoints when i'm looking at my stopwatch. So let's get started!
Have you rosined your bow well? And recently? You want rosin all over the hair, and you'll see after you try this exercise that you may have to re-examine your rosining technique too!
It's OK if you're having trouble with a bow of only 10 seconds. We're going to build this up gradually.
For a twenty-second bow, now each quarter is going to last five seconds. I'll reset my stopwatch here. Each quarter is going to last five seconds and little cracks in the sound may start to appear.
So some of that sound was decidedly not what I'd want to have on the concert stage!
And now as we get to 40 seconds, I'm going to double it again. Now you've got to strategize some, because the start of the bow is going to be so important. If you can't get through 10 seconds here, by the time you get to your first mark, you're going to be in trouble because some of the easiest slow bow is actually going to be near the frog. And if you need help starting these bows or playing near the frog, watch a video of mine called Soft Starts and Smooth Bow Changes at the Frog. That will give you some tips on how to get started there really quietly right at the frog.
So now let me reset again and go for 40 seconds.
I almost overshot that one! I think I was planning for the minute bow later, so I had some extra left over at the end. That's not going to happen for the minute-long bow! And for that we're going to do a little close-up just so you can see what happens to the bow in the middle of all that. I think you'll find it interesting and it will show you just how alive a bow can be even when you're playing a very slow note.
Here we are set up for the close-up of the one minute bow. Take a look at just how much happens to the bow as it's traveling so slowly. And now each of my quarter markers, remember, has to last a full 15 seconds.
Well, I hope I don't have to sustain a bow for 60 seconds on stage any time soon! That's why I'm doing it in the practice
room, because this exercise is so wonderful for giving yourself confidence in those slow bows. And wasn't that interesting to see all the activity that happens in the bow when it's moving that slowly? That's not really shaking from the bow hand; it's the springiness of the bow interacting with the elasticity of the strings right where the hair and the string meet. There's so much electricity and energy, and that's what makes the violin such an amazing instrument.
And so after playing a one-minute bow, for example, the beginning of Mozart's 5th concerto... it seems like child's play! I can almost play it at half tempo, right?
And that just feels so wonderfully easy now after the son filé. So I'd love for you to try this yourself! Get your stopwatch ready, start with those shorter time divisions, and i would recommend putting the little quarter marks on the
bow. I just did it with some blue masking tape that you can find in any hardware store. It really helps you plan the bow, and then to know if you're getting a good start.
Remember to rosin properly! And once you've tried this and you've seen what it will do for your sound, leave some comments for me on this video.
And once you've done that, visit natesviolin.com. Make sure you get signed up for my emails, because I'll send you all my latest tips and tricks and videos. So happy practicing!
And remember to get in that meditative
mood before you try the son filé!
I started, as you recommended, with 10 seconds, then 20,40, and now I play the 60 second bow stroke at the beginning of each practice session. Thank you for a very easy to follow instruction on Son Fille.
Thank you very much
Just want to say that I really enjoy watching all of your videos! You have a way of delivering the message so the techniques can really be understood and practiced...and always demonstrate with great examples of your playing to back it up. Thank you so much for sharing your incredible talent!!
Much appreciated, thanks.
I've almost ALWAYS had coffee in the last few hours!
Shall I just add wine?
Okay. You've convinced me. I'll just drink wine too.
I like this. I'll be turning off the volume and practicing it myself at the same time as I see you doing it on the screen.
Great idea!
Thats how i sound when i play normal.
same
😂
You've got a really excellent teaching style. Hard not to smile at your remarks! Thanks for this video.
can we do this exercise with sounding point near to the fingerboard?
Do you have any videos on bow tilting? It seems like it would improve colle, especially if you apply pressure, I could be wrong
For the one-minute bow, do you recommend playing it with full hair contact from the bow? or tilted bow?
He's playing with full contact
I really really enjoy your videos! as a violist currently in conservatory, I personally have never really had the technical foundation to keep up with colleagues that may have started on the violin with a decent pedigree in technique. I have trouble keeping up with them but your videos are really helping me with crucial technique that I may have missed out on. thank you!
you can do this exercise with the other strings, correct?
Thanks, and absolutely you can get great results with all strings, different positions, etc!
Thanks for this. What’s the difference doing this exercise with vibrato and without?
With my students I used to call it "The Longest Bow in the World." And yes, then their whole notes were beautiful.
Why are you playing in a sauna?
Thank you for the lesson Mr Cole. I’ve been practising a slow bow for some time now, but not quite like this and certainly not for a minute. Be warned: slow bowing is super boring.... HOWEVER, I have found this kind of exercise made a massive difference to my playing. If you don’t have a stopwatch, just use your metronome set at 60bpm. Great lesson... I think I’ll just send an email to Sir Simon Rattle and tell him I’m just about ready to play Mozart’s 5th with the Berlin Philharminiker.... I’m sure he’ll find a slot for me in his programme... :)
Knock and the door shall open!
Actually it's a great Video ! Last year I found that I have problem with long bow and I asked a lot of teachers and no one could help me . It's just amazing to have a method to practice long bow !! And for me it's surprising that there are a people of history ho have this idea . Thanks for sharing Substantial and inspiring ideas .
Wow. I've never known of this technique or exercise. Can't wait to start practicing it! Thanks!
What are the measurements for the quarter marks?--the space between. Thanks. ALso, were you filming in a sauna? (Just curious)
Google "wikipedia", then search for "ruler" and "pocket calculator". Hope that helps.
Mr. Cole It looks like you are in a Sauna!?
I have never thought to do this on any note other than open strings
The Quality of the sound is super important!
😊
26.11.22 wrk on slow bow - 40s challenge
Do you recommend starting at the tip for this exercise?
thats not enough it should be 1 hour bow..even that is not enough haha
I like how you’re in a sauna.
Ha, I read about this but never managed to get anywhere close to 1 minute because I assumed more sound was expected.
I feel the same, it's actually kind of funny to see how the sound is quite meh hahah
I really appreciate the way you explain everything. Clear, precise and specific.
These videos are necessary. Thank you. k.anton, argentina.
Love thissss - it's a great challenge and has helped me in so many ways, namely with keeping a straight bow and opening up my sound
I see what you did therrrrrrre.
Thank you so much. Your lessons are really really helpful.
same here
This would be further interesting doing string changes on one bow back and forth for as long as possible, perhaps. Also I'm wondering if you are in a sauna?
I certainly felt like it! :) Pasadena was hot that day!
Hi Nathan, your 20s hold was great, but the 40s hold was not good. Too much broken sound, and that is not Son Filé. Try the open D string, and if you get more than 24s of unbroken sound, you did better than me.
bought Basics by Simon Fischer bc of your recommendation. this book is amazing! thx
Great decision, glad you like it!
Very interesting! As beginner with violin since 3 months I want to try it. With first try made it in 32 seconds.
Tgis is a very heavy neuro muscular training exercise. Some say to do with pressure which trains different things. Another modality
Cello movement from the "Quartet for the End of Time."
Absolutely! Those are some of the slowest bows I've played or seen!
1/16 = mm44!
thank you very much. I injoy learning from you
Thank you. I am learning this now. But, is there a way to do this with the “stuttering” sound but for as long?
If you'll change notes while bowing, will it gets shorter?
That's great! As usual!!!
Thanks! I can now put a long slur from the start to the end of the pieces I want to play.
in the Mozart 5th intro there are bows with zillion notes for the second violins.
Nocturnal Snake Right you are! They practically need a one minute bow for themselves!
Nathan Cole lol indeed
as a great violinist, what is your opinion about breaking those slurs in smaller ones? say two or maybe four on a performance.
Nocturnal Snake Yes, they are almost always broken up so that the sound is more free.
Nathan Cole makes sense! thanks a lot ))
hey mr.cole.thank you, this video was very helpful. i was wondering if you could do a video on the mahler symphony no.1 mvmt 2 excerpt. i am having allot of trouble with it. i would really appreciate it. thanks again for this video, this 1 minute bow exercise has helped me tremendously in my tone and bow control.
Hi Daniel! At my ArtistWorks school people can post specific videos to me for my feedback. That would be the best place to look at this excerpt with me. Glad this exercise helped!
Ok thank you!😁
What is that black thing you are using on your shoulder called??
play chopins minute waltz on the one minute bow (i know its called mynute)
Thank you very much but why sauna?
Haha! It was a Zen-like, meditative setting. Or something like that!
WOW. This will help audition jitters especially before playing a slow piece.
Yes I think it does wonders for that!
Finally got it.thanks for this does wine help?
Thanks! Nice exercise! I that constructing in your mind an "image" of "all what is going on" as you do the exercise is the key!
Shouldn't this video only take a minute?
I don't think the bow or violin would last one minute in the sauna :-)
I started doing this many years ago when I discovered brass players practice 'long tones'
The books always put semi breve as if you are stupid I just used to count more quickly!! Little did I know.😁
Hi Nathan! :)
Would you happen to know why would I tend to lose the sound as I go upbow near the frog?
I posted a video on my channel, labelled 22/7 at 1:09:00 - 1:14:20. I would certainly love you lots if you could provide some suggestions to create a nice even sound near the frog. Thank you!
Great Videos Mr. Cole But it looks like you are in a Sauna!!:)
Your videos are great and it will definitely help me. I just bought my violin 5 days ago.
I have question though. If I'm playing open string im not hitting other strings but when i started to shift note I can produce a sound like my dog is scratching my glass door. Do you have any advice or practice method to avoid this? Thanks in advance!
Usually this is due too much bow pressure. With time and constant practice you'll start to lessen the right arm pressure on strings.
I really enjoy ur tutorial. U r one of my 2 online tutorial that I really really watch and following. Thanks for the channel 🙏🙏🙏
Nice tip and nice Job! I am definitely going to try this out! Thanks!
Thanks Nathan :) I'm glad I'm not expected to sustain the note perfectly!
What do you have to say Nate,about quality of bow hair? Frequency of rehairing? Hair tension? Bow cambering?
Well, they're all important! Unless you live in an area where you have a lot of choice, you may just have to get lucky as far as quality of hair. Usually I just rehair when enough of mine break, but it's also possible to have the hair get too "smooth" or worn, although that really takes a while. As far as tension, a good starting point is for the middle (lowest point) of the hair to be about one pencil-width away from the stick. The camber is important, and once it's set it should hopefully look after itself as long as you are loosening the hair after each playing session and not over-tightening in general. The person doing your rehair can also help by using shorter hairs on the proper side of the bow, thus keeping more tension there.
THANKYOU so it’s flat bow all the way?
hello, Im just here for the samples
Hi Nathan! Wich kind of tape did you use?
Thanks for your time!!
Very interesting video, recommended by my teacher. Wonder if you could clear up how this technique actually develops that beautiful sound? I'm not sure you justify the technique's use with the outcome in the video.
You're right that I don't get into the process much in this video, so hopefully I can add a bit here. That seems to be the history of this technique too: a lot of "because I said so"!
For me, it's a combination of direct and indirect processes. Practicing the slow bows gives me control over all the speeds in between. It builds awareness of the physical feelings involved in slow, controlled playing. It also has a meditative quality that relaxes my arm, hand, and breathing. The more I practice the technique, the easier (and faster) it is for me to reach that calm space. That way, it's there for me when I need it in a pressure situation.
Thank you for your prompt reply. For
me, it is an interesting response that raises more questions than it answers. As a new player...been playing three months and currently at grade 3/4 level...tone production is almost a preoccupation to prevent that pleasing(!) hyena claws on a blackboard vibe. How does a player develop tone using this technique? What pointers to tone production am I taking from the video? Is it just a physical exercise in arm/bow control? Is it a case of it's been done for centuries for a reason and I should do it "coz I've been told to"? I'm going to discuss this with my teacher...it will be interesting to contrast your responses. Thank you for your time reading this waffle, by the way. It may sound like I'm being a bit mean, but I do genuinely appreciate your patience and obvious expertise. You are a beautiful player and your playing is aspirational for me.
Thanks for the kind words, and I appreciate the questions as well. Just to put things in perspective, I didn't do this exercise until I'd been playing 10 years or so. It's not that you couldn't benefit earlier on, but it might be too much to take on. The best way to find out is just to try it! From your comments I wasn't sure if you had or not. You could always come back to it later on if it doesn't provide benefit now.
But to get more specific about the mechanism, it's partly a mental focus/relaxation exercise and partly physical control exercise as you mentioned. The three main variables for sound production are bow speed, bow pressure and contact point (distance from bridge). So the ability to hold a bow for a minute requires precise control of all three of those variables.
Therefore as you work your way toward longer and longer bows, you develop that control. There are many tiny details of the fingers, hand and arm that tend to resolve themselves in the course of this exercise. As an example, bow hold/grip is usually improved as it tends to become more "neutral" in order to perform this exercise. Anything extreme will prevent the bow from keeping its steady course.
Many players make a beautiful sound when the bow moves fast, but cannot seem to slow the bow down, which is essential for many phrases.
Essentially you're asking yourself to do something more challenging in the practice room than what you'll be required to do in performance. So the performance feels easier because it is easier!
somehow vibrato makes the bow travels way faster than w/o vib, anyway to help, tricks?
Yes, for maximum time you're better off practicing this without vibrato, just as I do for the longer bows. Luckily you'll never need to sustain a bow in "real life" for 60 seconds!
lo voy a probar maestro, gracias por el ejercicio :D
You're welcome, give it a try!
Great video!Thank you!
Thanks Nathan! You are very helpful!
You put tape on your Tourte ?
Very interesting and one minute it's soon long! somehow the stripes are so bad for a good bow and I'm thinking for that exercise is good to try with the "personal bow" ... Some tips?
Sure, pick a different bow to practice with! But any residue from tape can be cleaned off at your next rehair.
+Nathan Cole Really, I have olny one and it is that "good"...anyway now he hás the stripes! Training and almost cames to 1 minutes, finally I became a fan of this tip. Just a curiosity, s it important to rosin the bow far from this exercise or doesn't matter?
You can rosin whenever! In fact, it may be easier to do it just before.
learn alot as always from your video!please if you could give some tips on double stop in the next video~thank you
Thank you! That would be a great topic for a video. Is there any particular kind of double-stop work that you'd like help with? Or just in general?
I am practising "Wieniawski - Legende ",which has a double stop section in the middle,see if you can focus on this piece to analyze or any other piece you think is good,want to know your method to to play the double stop more accurate,Thank you!
I will take a look and think about how to make a double-stop video that will help you!
Thank you very much,looking forward to watch your video!
always out of the box
Chukran profesor...
Why do you have a sauna as your background?
Acoustics, my friend. Not an extraneous sound to interfere with the instructions. Brilliant technique. Thank you Nate. So many other videos online have very poor quality audio. Nate knows this and preempt all those wannabes it would seem.
Can't wait to try it.
Just made it.
Good job
Very good!
Genial!!
Gracias1000
thanks alot bro Nathan for such wonderfully explained lesson
Glad this was a timely video for you!
bro do you take skype sessions? i think students like me will get very confident when their mentors will see their progress live..
I do! You can contact me easily through my website natesviolin.com.
Nathan Cole bro.. still waiting for your reply about online class.. whenever u get free .. kindly give me a msg
Thanks 💙
hi! which rosin do you use?
Right now, the Pirastro Evah (or Olive) rosin.
3:00
Hi Nathan, to mark the bow I use small dots of Blu Tack (in the US I think a similar products are Power Tack, Tack-It and Plasti-Tac). It doesn't leave residue on the bow. Also, do you think there's any advantage to practising Son File on a stopped note? I usually practise and teach this on open strings.
I think practicing it on any and all types of notes would be great! And good idea with the non-residue material.
Do we only practice down bow? Do you recommend we attempt up bow once we get a hang of it? In the video you only did the down bow.
Yes you can definitely practice this the other direction too! I should've mentioned that in the video.
Just another question, how long, minutes, do you recommend we practice this for at a time? Or just 1 minute? Repeat it again?
I've heard stories of people doing this over and over for 30 minutes or more! I've personally never gone anywhere near that long. I think that once you can get to the one-minute bow, you've already made a lot of progress. If you do two or three of those bows as part of a warm-up routine, it will serve you well for the long term.
This is an important theme, with some reasons to think about. In the Barock, you could become member of a professional orchestra only with one good son filé. Rodolphe Kreuzer wrote his 42 Etudes, 1800. Many of them will be partly his violin concertos. He wrote two Etudes for son filé. You gave a demonstration how it works, the beginning of Mozart's Adagio.
After 1800 the ability of son filé was looked upon as important for the violinist for quite a time, we don't know how long. I describe here the half of the music of our everyday repertoire.
Are we sure to be right in neglecting son filé?
Nowadays the meaning has changed. A friend of mine is Violinnist. Sallary is low. He didn't have a filet for a long time. He calls the periode "sans filet". ;-)
I believe, it was around 1880, when bowing technik changed. Sevcik published his new look on what bowing technik is and was accepted. So we have do deal with the son filé music, before 1880, and the music thereafter.
"So when you're practicing a bow that long, as you'll see in a minute, the quality of the sound is not super important. What you're after is the even speed of the bow."
That goes for beginners. Kreutzers Etudes son filés have been played in concertos, with these Bowings. The sound was concerto sound. There was a difference to your violin, he played gut.
Can you show us one of these etudes with a concerto sound? Is gut helpful?