Sometimes, reading tutorials is just not enough to learn or improve your violin bowing skills. With video tutorials, you comprehend the styles and actually immerse yourself in what the demo portrays.
Watching video tutorials can also help you in improving your skills in playing the violin. Some of the things you can learn from watching tutorials are how to properly hold your violin bow, the proper posture needed for a better sound, and different techniques to improve your bowing control.
Good thing, there are many resources available online to help you. Below are the 5 best violin bowing tutorials on Youtube that can help hone your skills.
1. Learn the VIOLIN | Lesson 1/20 | How to hold the violin bow by The Online Piano & Violin Tutor
Topping the list to have the most views on Youtube with over 5,000,000 views, The Online Piano and Violin Tutor offer lessons in video mode along with a course outline. In this video, she taught how to hold the violin and violin bow for starters. She also offers this 30 lesson course outline in a PDF file that you can download later on.
2. Bow SMOOTHLY Like A Professional – NOT Colle Bowing by The Online Piano & Violin Tutor
Garnering the second spot is the same as the first one! The Online Piano and Violin Tutor teach in this video how to get your fingers to become more flexible in order to bow smoothly. But take note that she claimed that this video is not a bowing technique but to demonstrate how to bend fingers to learn various bow techniques.
3. Eddy Reveals 9 Exercises that Immediately Improve Bow Control and Sound by Eddie Chen
Eddy Chen compiled 9 exercises that he recommends to improve bow control and tone production. These exercises are great for warm-ups prior to playing and are also good tools to check bowing form. If you want to get better in the long run, Chen suggests doing these exercises every day for a minimum of 2 months to see drastic changes. The 9 exercises inclusive in this video are open strings, minute bow, varying bow speeds, martele, ins and outs, finger lifting, 5 sound points, sound point snake, and bow tilting.
4. How to Really Hold A Violin Bow / Paganini’s Greatest Secret by Kevinleeluthier
Kevin Lee Luthier explains in this video the secret on how to really hold a violin bow as said by Paganini. The video contains the secret of Paganini, which is considered to be his greatest disclosure. Luthier also noted that violinists and musicians benefit from this video with a percentage of 80 for the first three days, the very reason why it is in fourth place as the best violin bowing tutorial.
5. Violin Bow Hold Lesson (Spanish / Portuguese Subtitles) by Violin Lab Channel
There are a lot of violin bowing lessons on Youtube. But lessons that are translated in Spanish or Portuguese languages? There are only a few. With language variations, this video from the Violin Lab Channel has over 200,000 views alone. The Violin Lab is home for learning to play the violin specifically for adults. In this video, a demonstration of how to hold the Franco-Belgian bow was done.
May it be through lectures or video demonstrations, each and every violinist has their own way of coping. If you are one of those musicians who can get along by watching videos, then this article is for you. We hope we helped you improve your violin bowing skills with the recommended videos we suggested.
By Erisse Veloso