I was asked the other day “how and when do you start developing flexibility in the fingers on the bow?”
From lesson 1 – we need to be setting this up from the start. We also need to ensure that we aren’t separating the visual from the tactile. The way something looks should not take priority over how it feels. We should also be careful not to neglect the bow ARM. We get sooo hung up on the bow hold that we often completely forget that the shoulder, upper arm and forearm are the biggest influencers on the bow hold. So for flexibility in the fingers and wrist we need to be setting up SOFT shoulders and elbows from the first lesson. if we don’t do this I feel strongly that we disable the students ability for flexibility in the wrist and fingers and then we start asking them to compromise in the body in order to get something that pretends to be flexibility.
*disclaimer – just my opinion. Would love to hear your thoughts.