How to Hold a Cello Bow

Video Transcript

"FRANCIS JOSEPH SANTORI: How to hold the bow. Well, this is very important. This is your frog, this is the bow. I take my thumb and place it in the frog here, then let my hand relax. I'll just let it drape over. As it drapes over, it's going to fall naturally across the top here, like so. It's nice and balanced. And now, we can practice. You take the bow and you lay it on the strings. Let's start again. Thumb, your hands are going to just relax over the top of it, like, set together. You will have, you'll be able to create leverage with this finger and with these fingers back here to like pull and move the bow. You will want to ensure that this here in your wrist is completely relaxed, as relaxed as you can have it, to where you're just basically laying the bow on the strings. So when you pull, notice how it pulls my hand and then, after it gets to the end, I'll let it roll."