SLURS - the buoyant elbow!  - two sheets

Paul Rolland died in 1978, his book written (with Martha Mutscher) in 1974, The Teaching of Action in String Playing, making a profound impression not just on me but upon a whole generation of string teachers.

The main emphasis of his research programme was its offer of a shift in emphasis from 'the teaching of notes and tunes' to the teaching of basic concepts and ideas.   One of these concepts was the 'buoyant elbow' and there are three exercises here, with accompanying melody lines, to focus on this arm action.  Not that these studies alone will convey anything of his message; they are helpful supplementary practice material to be used over a period of a year or more.

The first piece needs to be well prepared, starting with plenty of open string practice, then just picking out individual sections to work on.  When the second piece is first introduced,  have the children play each bar two or three times, perhaps for several weeks.  The third piece is even more demanding, and the sound is likely to be more jerky because of course the bow actually does 'jump' at the string crossings, rather than 're-cycling' itself as in the clockwise action.

It may not be worth pointing out to the children, but in a slurred arpeggio across the four strings the bow length is physically some six centimetres more when played down bow, rather than up.  No wonder pupils tend to run out of bow when starting scales with an up stroke!

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