From Zero to Mozart
Stage 1First position & the staffLesson 11 of 43 · Left hand

Crossing between strings

Tunes don't stay on one string. Moving the bow from one string to the next — a string crossing — is a whole-arm move, and it should barely disturb the sound.

It's the arm, not the wrist

To reach a different string, the whole arm changes level — the elbow leads, hinging from the shoulder, like Stage 0's "stopping a lift on a different floor." The left-hand frame keeps its shape; the left elbow just swings a little further under for the lower strings.

Arm and bow stay in one flat plane — imagine a pane of glass under your whole arm, tilting as a unit. The arm is high for the G string, dropping for D, then A, then E.

48 bpm
Open A, open D, back and forth — no left hand at all, so all you're training is the arm. Whole slow bows. The arm tips to a new level; the bow speed doesn't change.
50 bpm
Now with the 1st finger down on both strings — the same finger, the arm changes level under it. Listen for a clean change with no scrape where both strings sound at once.

A line that crosses twice

52 bpm
Six notes crossing A↔D twice. Say 'arm down… arm up' under your breath at each crossing. Prepare the F♯ finger while the bow is still on the A string.

Find the level first

The trick that makes it clean: before you cross, know where the new level is.

  • Play the two strings together, as a double stop — feel the elbow settle at the balanced height between them.
  • Now play the crossing — one string, then the other — without changing that elbow height and without changing the bow speed. The bow just tips across.
  • Where you can, put the next finger down early, while the bow is still on the old string.

The usual mistake

Twisting the wrist or reshaping the hand to reach a string, instead of moving the arm. And catching both strings at the crossing — a scrape — because the arm over- or under-shoots the new level.

Try

Open A and open D together — hold it, feel the elbow height. Then cross: A, D, A, D, slowly, arm-led, keeping that same height. Then do it with the 1st fingers (B and E) from the example.