The student should always strive to produce a beautiful pleasing tone from his instrument. Rapidity of execution can be acquired with downright hard work, but great skill, prompted and controlled by a fine sense of tone quality is necessary to obtain a full tone, without it partaking of a hard, forced quality, or accompanied by scraping so pronounced as to be most unpleasant except perhaps to people at a great distance from the player. To acquire this skill, and also in some measure to educate the ear to the various tone-colour effects which are possible on the violoncello, much thoughtful practice is necessary. The student must not only know the correct movements which the hand and arm are to make in performing any particular style of bowing, but with much practice, he must so develop the muscles of his bow-arm, that they respond instantly to effect the slightest change in the amount of pressure required for the different degrees of sound-volume, or for the various parts of the bow used.
Eventually it will be found that it is possible to produce a complete change in tone-colour, which will prove a great relief to a continued tone of one character. Thus by using a whole length bow, without any pressure for a note of a certain description, the quality of tone produced will be far different to that obtained by using half the length of bow, with pressure applied to make up the sound volume. This and other changes in tone-colour will gradually unfold themselves to the student, if after thoroughly mastering the correct way of holding the bow, he practises the following bowings according to the directions given.
Various Bowings Applied to Scale Practice.
It is a mistake for a young player to imagine that after he has once "been through" the scales with his teacher, he need never bother himself about them again. When the major and minor scales in three octaves can be played from memory, it will be found to be of great assistance in keeping the intonation correct in all the keys, to adopt a system of daily scale practice. The number of scales taken each day must depend upon the amount of time which each student has at command; it is advisable, however, to be content with one kind of bowing each week, and even longer may be devoted to bowings which are difficult to master, or in which the student happens to be backward. The advantage of studying the various bowings after this method, is that the attention of the student, not being occupied with reading the music, can be fully directed to the management of the bow.
Smooth Bowings.
The scales in semibreves, must be played with whole bowings. The student should endeavour to produce a clear, round tone, which must be of even volume throughout the whole bow-stroke. To accomplish this, a correct motion of the arm and wrist is necessary, the first finger must gradually increase the pressure on the bow as the head is reached, being again relaxed as the bow is pushed to the heel; to apply the necessary pressure without causing any inequality in the tone, is the secret of fine legato playing. To change the stroke of the bow requires the assistance of the wrist and fingers, thus, in the down stroke when the bow is within a couple of inches from the head, the movement of the arm ceases, the hand moved at the wrist continues the stroke, and also reverses the bow for the up-stroke. In the up-bow the rounded position of the wrist when the heel is approached, will not allow of an exactly similar movement; to accomplish a neat change of bow-stroke at the heel, it is necessary to let the fingers give slightly, which allows the bow to be carried forward about an inch, and the stroke reversed after the arm movement ceases. These slight wrist actions are required to prevent a peculiar kind of scrape being heard, this sound, although permissible, and even necessary in certain kinds of bowing, is most objectionable in smooth legato playing. To prevent any harshness in the tone, the pressure on the bow must be nicely regulated at the change of stroke.
To be able to produce a fine crescendo is a grand accomplishment. The bow must be lightly placed on the strings at some distance from the bridge; as the stroke proceeds, more pressure with the first finger is gradually applied, the bow is caused to approach the bridge and at the same time is drawn more rapidly. In performing a crescendo passage with the down bow, the strongest possible pressure must be applied as the bow is drawn to the point. The gradual swelling from piano to forte, must be accomplished without any break in the tone being perceptible; a great amount of practice is necessary to give the ability to produce a full round tone at the forte, without a disagreeable hardness in tone-quality.
