u/jaqueslouisbyrne

As a beginner, this is something I desperately want to get right because about a week ago, I repeatedly tried to correct my bow hold (I had previously been resting the heel of my right hand, below my 4th finger, on the frog) and ended up injuring the muscle near the webbing between my thumb and 1st finger. Now I've been trying not to play cello until my hand gets back to 100%, but this strain has been frighteningly stubborn. Still, it definitely is making slow progress towards healing.

Anyways, I want to clarify what the range of proper thumb positions are. I know that the thumb should make contact with the crook between the frog and the stick, but what part of the thumb? A video I saw said that the corner of one's nail, like the area where you get hangnails, should be making contact. But then when I look at images, I see some people making contact there with the pad of their thumb, or rather like the area between the pad and tip of their thumb. In some images the thumb's nail is practically parallel with the stick and in others it is perpendicular, and everything in between.

Logically, it seems true that everyone's hands are different, so shouldn't there be a range of acceptable finger/hand placements? I'm only wondering what that range is.

I took my first lesson a few days ago and my teacher said my bow hold looks fine, but when I'm practicing by myself I really start questioning whether I'm doing it right. And, like I said, I'm especially wary because this injury has been so disruptive.

The average percentage of how many readers preferred the human-written excerpts for each of the comparisons: 50%, 51%, 35%, 56%, 52%.

Someone give me a cookie, I deserve it. But yeah no, I’m aware this wasn’t a gargantuan achievement in my part. Although it is validating.