Reminiscings...

Tonight my quartet went out with Tim (our coach) and Carl and Rune (cellist and violist of the Danish quartet). It was fantastic! Oh man, these guys are so cool. They're so down to earth and just really nice people. Every single one of them. It's really sad that we all have to part ways after tomorrow. I wish we just had some more time to chat and connect. It's so interesting meeting other people from all over the world. Talking to them not just about music, but about culture and lots of things. It really makes one feel more rounded. Just learning about people, about humanity. It's a beautiful thing and I'll be sad to let it go. But now I know that I definitely have to visit Mexico and Denmark to visit Arturo and Andres and take the "Young Danes" on their offer for dinner one night. Man, I've made some good friends these past two weeks.

Oh and just a note for me about bow holds from a conversation that Andres and I had:
The bow hand should be a natural feel. Nothing should be strained to move out of place, because it's a personal kind of thing. As long as you have a secure bow hold, then it will fall into place, as long as you use this principle when you make your bow stroke. When you're at the point, you need to use elbow/forearm action, and when you're at the frog, you have to use lots of shoulder motion, not wrist action. It's also important to remember that when you use more pressure, you need more speed to project the sound. That's how you get a pure sound on the violin.

Also, it's of note that the Franco-Belgian, German, and Russian bow grips aren't really different. It's just that the people of those countries are similar in body type, so they most naturally go to that pattern, and it's pretty uniform across those countries. But, the US, being a bunch of mutts, we all have an individual bow grip that works the best for each one of us, so we just have to find it, and it's there. The arm movement is really the important thing to remember.