Hooked Bowing, Portato or Broken Slurs on the Violin

In this video I explain the one bowing technique known as hooked bowing, portato or slurs and how to do it in a smooth and easy way:

Hooked Bowing, Portato or Broken Slurs …

You've probably heard it referred to all three ways in various books or by violin teachers but it is actually all the same bowing technique!

Listen to my example from Music of the Night in this video

and watch the full tutorial on Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera right here.

In portato it's important you make it VERY simple. So no accents or fancy stuff. Just keep your bow still for a moment. I don't do anything special with my hand.

You also want to make sure your bow speed is the same, so you get an equal sound.

So why would I do this?

Portato can be super handy to slur notes without sounding slurred. You might want to end down bow somewhere, but you keep ending up up bow. With portato you can solve this.

It's also important to note a portato is a slur with two lines above or below the notes. A slur with two dots above the notes is most of the times flying staccato (however it can differ per piece of sheet music and musical context).

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I hope you found this explanation helpful!

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Hooked Bowing, Portato or Broken Slurs on the Violin

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In this video I explain the one bowing technique known as hooked bowing, portato or slurs and how to do it in a smooth and easy way: