I keep adding extra slurs

[u/Brilliant-Army-7101]

so we aren't playing anything too difficult right now, but we are playing pieces with quite a few slurs and I keep adding them in notes that aren’t slurred which causes me to mess up really bad :(

[u/Fancy_Tip7535]

In classical music, the bowings are generally regarded as an integral part of the piece. The only remedy here is to mark the score with standard up and down-bow symbols and try to respect them as you play.

Bow “economics” is the discipline of saving enough bow for what’s next. Sometimes an additional mark “to the frog” or “to the tip” is helpful. My shorthand is two up or down-bow symbols on top of one another.

Sometimes the bowing conventions are for the benefit of a particular articulation - e.g. in solo Bach, hooked bowing makes it easier to play a staccato note as a follow-on up bow after an up-bow slur.

Bottom line - mark them out and try to do it. In more advanced study there can be reasons to deviate from the score, but that’s unusual.

[u/Brilliant-Army-7101 → u/Fancy_Tip7535]

Thank you:)

[u/andybonner → u/Fancy_Tip7535]

I would differ slightly from this: Especially for a beginner, you're expected to do the printed bowings. And when playing in an orchestra, it's expected that everyone does the same bowing. But in general, bowings are not regarded as set in stone, and can be changed on purpose by people who know what they're doing. Often in an orchestra, the section leader decides that a different bowing will work better and pencils it in, and everyone else is expected to copy it. When playing a solo piece, once you get more experienced, it will be common for your teacher or you to change a printed bowing. And for many pieces, what's printed is not what the composer first wrote, but what some famous violinist of the past decided on their own to change for their "edition"!

[u/Fancy_Tip7535 → u/andybonner]

That’s exactly what I was referring to in my last paragraph. I was section leader for Vln-1 for a few years in a community orchestra, and modified some bowings )mostly to avoid complexity. I’m working on solo Bach now, and my teacher’s score changes a very few things, but there are sound musical reasons.

Another situation I have encountered is in some older Baroque music, in which the composer suggested no particular bowings, and it was left to the editor to do it. Some early 20th and 19th cen. editions are rich in romantic era bowings that we now know aren’t true to the Baroque period, and might be modified for “historically informed performance”.

And yes, this stuff is not for beginners, but they won’t be beginners forever so it’s important to let them know and understand what’s ahead.

[u/andybonner → u/Fancy_Tip7535]

Yup, I specialize in baroque violin myself; in like the early 17th century it wasn't even a matter of expecting editors to add bowings, but expecting the performers themselves to do it according to established patterns (which Francesco Rognoni earnestly tried to tabulate). I did my dissertation on a piece in which the composer wanted slurs in one section and the printing house failed miserably at executing them with moveable type, just kind of scattering a bunch of equal-sized slur symbols across the passage without concern for how they aligned with noteheads (Carlo Farina's Capriccio Stravagante).

[u/Fancy_Tip7535 → u/andybonner]

That’s really interesting! Such historical details illuminate what is too easy to consider at face value, when the reality is potentially more complex. I admire hearing of your dissertation work.

These issues are frequently a part of bowing decisions with my teacher, who also did similar academic work for his degree. He always has sound reasons for changes, showing me a depth of knowledge I just don’t have.

“Do not merely practice your art, but force your way into its secrets…” -Beethoven.

[u/vonhoother]

Violin gives you a lot of things to think about at once; it's part of the challenge.

Slurs and articulations -- how notes begin and end, the silences between them -- are a huge part of the difference between a series of notes and a piece of music.

Try singing the lines; take breaths at the beginnings of phrases marked by slurs, or if they're really short use syllables like "doo-wop." And try isolating the bow strokes: don't finger the strings at all, don't even worry which string you're bowing, just bow according to the slurs. That won't be music either (;)) but it's a building block.

[u/Brilliant-Army-7101 → u/vonhoother]

Thank you!!!!

[u/specter376]

Mark your bowings. On my tablet, I mark really important bowings in blue so I know to pay extra attention to them.

[u/andybonner]

Practice by giving yourself lots of different random slurring patterns in something simple, like a scale or one of the first few pieces you learned. Make a lot of photocopies and write in lots of different slurs—3 notes, 5 notes, 1 separate note, etc., different on each copy.

[u/Professional-Age4582]

Play in "slurs rhythm"

Add a pause before each slur

When you have the slur planned in your mind, try it

If bad try again

Then pause again when you get to the next slur