How do you bow a long, slow motion on violin?

Question

Is there a special technique?

Answer 1

Yup yup.  It really depends on which kind of bow you have and what your bow hold is like.  There's a lot of wrist involved and elbow weight.  To get the correct sound, your bow hold needs to be really relaxed, especially your thumb.  If your bow hold is too tense, it makes the sound less sweet.  The hold should be as such, pinky curved from the back knuckle, thumb bent and relaxed, middle two fingers over the stick a little (almost to the first knuckle), pointer finger not spread out too much. The fingers on the top of the stick should slant towards the tip.  

The change at the frog is the biggest part.  Your fingers should be almost liquid and should move as one.  The wrist is the chief until it can't go any farther.  Coming back up, the wrist shoudl lead and all fingers need to curve from the wrist.  At the tip, the fingers scrunch up a little (sorry, didn't know what other word to use) but have to stay fluid.  It takes some practice.  Try doing long bows on each string 50 or 60 times as a warm up.  As soon as you figure it out, it's really easy.  

It's hard to stay off the fingerboard when doing long bows, so use a mirror to help your hand learn the right motion.  

The hardest thing with slow bows is a detached or scratchy sound.  If you let up on the pressure from your fingers and wrist and only use your elbow weight, it's so much more beautiful.  

I have my students do a motion called Jellyfish to prepare for this.  Simply hold a pencil with your bow hold and flex your fingers, like a jellyfish.  =)  After a while, it seems pretty dumb, but your fingers learn and it helps to be able to practice whenever you have a pencil or pen available.  I do it all the time in church or at school. =)

Good luck!  Email me with any other questions.

Answer 2

There are many techniques you have to learn before you can do that well. If I tried to explain this in words, it would probably be 1000000 words long. A picture says a thousand words, so an action must say a whole heap. The best thing to do is to consult a violin teacher. He/she will teach you the many techniques needed to learn to perfect what you want to do.