Category: Cello Video Tutorials by Susan Moses

No. 4: Developing Bow Arm Flexibility

Developing Bow Arm Flexibility (with a very young student)
Ethan Murphy, 7
Sonata in E Minor, Romberg

Susan’s emphasis in this lesson is the continual search for a warm and expressive tone. The lesson begins with warm-up tone exercises and finding a balanced left hand placement on the fingerboard. Part of the lesson is devoted to searching for resonance between two notes. Susan reminds the student to keep the awareness of a soft right hand thumb. Flexibility in the bow arm can be developed by continually returning to simple exercises like Up Like a Rocket and Down Like the Rain, and keeping the awareness of pronation and supination.

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Susan Moses is Co-Director of the String Academy and has been leading the cello department of the Indiana University String Academy since 1996. Ms. Moses earned her degrees with the highest honors at Indiana and Yale Universities before completing her studies at the Jascha Heifetz-Gregor Piatigorsky Master Classes at the University of Southern California. She was awarded a Ford Foundation Prize and has performed throughout the world in recital, with orchestra and as the solo violoncellist of the celebrated I SOLISTI VENETI. She has taught for Boston University and the Conservatoires Regionales de France and founded the Chicago String Trio, which was awarded a special Prize by the University of Milan for outstanding contributions in chamber music. In addition, she has been on the Oberlin College faculty. She records for ERATO and CONCERTO and was nominated for a Grand Prix du Disque. Ms. Moses was recognized by the University of Padua for her outstanding research on the school of Giuseppe Tartini in the 1700s. She also created a special music program for Trinity College’s Italian Elderhostel, where she is principal lecturer and performer. Her students are performing and teaching throughout the world. In January 2015, Susan Moses was awarded the Outstanding String Teacher of the Year Award by the Indiana American String Teachers Association.

More information: http://www.stringpedagogy.com/