In this lesson, Astrid Schween demonstrates the fundamental separate cello bow strokes-- martelé, détaché, collé, sautillé, spiccato, louré, and ricochet. She speaks about how we can develop the tools needed to refine each stroke, and also how we know when to use each stroke. As Schween eloquently explains, "With all these bow strokes, once you learn the mechanism to control them, the idea is to stay out of their way and nourish them and nurture the ongoing, continuous movement." She then teaches us how to use the legendary Ottakar Ševčík bow exercises to practice various strokes. Schween recommends we practice Ševčík for five minutes at the top of every hour, as it really helps to secure our bow knowledge.

In this lesson, we learn about producing a big, soaring rich tone without the use of consonants. As Schween explains, legato playing requires a careful concoction of vertical playing with horizontal motion. She advises us to sink into the flexible part of the string with arm weight, and not to lock our right hand fingers.

In this lesson, we learn about sound production and its relationship to bow speed and bow placement. As Schween explains, it's important to always know where the sound is produced. Near the bridge? Near the fingerboard? Schween describes the sounding point as taking place in three "tracks," and encourages us to explore this. Schween reminds us that music is made of gestures, and we need to practice more than we need to get extra comfortable.