YOU MIGHT FIND COMING BACK to your stringed instrument to be demoralizing after you’ve been truant from the music stand. It can be frustrating because it takes a while to sound as good as you did before. But don’t lose heart. Instead, enjoy this reacquainting period with some simple exercises that strengthen your tone and tonality, and finally get you up to speed.

When you’ve taken a long break from playing, don’t expect to be back to your full capacity for several days, weeks, or even more, especially if you had been reading difficult music before your layoff. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you’ve got to go slowly—rushing the reentry process can cause physical damage that will be at least frustrating and at worst will force you to take more time off to heal the damage. It’s best to slowly remind your body how to do the basics correctly to minimize the time it takes to get you back in shape.

TIPS ON TONE

Tone is the first thing that fades when you’ve been on hiatus. The subtle connection the bow makes with the string requires a lot of flexibility and constant minute adjustment, and those details are easily lost when not used regularly. The cure is long tones. Long tones can seem boring and tedious, but they are one of the most constructive exercises you can do. You can make a great deal of progress in a very short amount of time if this is done properly.

There are a lot of mechanics you should be monitoring when practicing long tones, like keeping your bow hand relaxed. Every knuckle on your hand should be flexible and responsive to the motion of the bow. Bend your right thumb and let it curl up as you take an up-bow, and stretch it out as you take a down-bow. Keep that right shoulder down. Make sure your elbow is high enough to support your wrist. (The list goes on and on.)

Once you’ve gotten your right arm and hand relaxed, shift your attention to where the bow touches the string. Play from the frog to the tip and back. Try pulling a rich and full sound out of the instrument without making it louder. Take your time and enjoy the process—it’s time well spent, and it increases your bow control.

RECLAIM YOUR INTONATION

When you return to your cozy practice space, you might find that the time away not only cost you tone, but intonation as well. Start reclaiming your intonation by grabbing a chromatic tuner and playing your scales one note at a time. Only move on to the next note when your tuner shows you successfully hit the previous note. You can do this and work on your long tones at the same time.

Some people object to using a tuner because it doesn’t allow for the subtle emphasis that string players put on phrases by pulling leading tones up and minor thirds down. But this exercise is solely for the purpose of getting command of your basic intonation. You can sweeten your subtleties later—first you have to be able to consciously match a pitch.

TIME FOR TEMPO

Once you’ve nailed down your tone and intonation, it’s time to get those fast passages up to speed. To do this, play the passage with your metronome set at an extremely slow tempo. The tempo should be so slow that the passage is easily playable and you can even consider things like tone and intonation between notes. When you’re through the passage, turn your metronome up one click and play it again.

Continue playing the passage and speeding up the metronome until you get to a tempo that is causing you to make mistakes. Stop there and make a note on your sheet music of what the metronome shows. The next time you play, start several clicks below that marking. You’ll be surprised how quickly you progress and how easily you conquer that once insurmountably fast passage.

After practicing these exercises, you might just start feeling like your old self again—or your new, better self.