“It’s a chain reaction!”

Last night a wonderfully astute young student described her bow hand this way. And then she explained that if she starts with a bent bow hand thumb it is more likely that all the other fingers will fall into place. She is exactly right!

Similarly with the left hand -the violin hand. If the wrist is straight and the thumb is soft, the fingers will probably also be tall and in ready, relaxed, hovering position.

Another example: great posture starts from the ground up. If the feet are strong and balanced, the rest of the posture will most likely be tall, strong, and grounded.

This is yet another reason to collaborate with in-school strings teachers –it turns out that this student’s violin teacher at school was using the “chain reaction” language to describe changes we are hoping to see in her bow hand.

It is helpful when teachers can share vocabulary and describe things similarly for their students. See my blog post titled _Collaboration!_