Classic Gray Things 4 Strings CelloPhant Cello / (French-style bow) Bass Bow Hold Teaching Aid Accessory

During Covid I am teaching cello lessons via zoom meeting. For beginner students it is really hard to fix bow hold and posture. I bought one for myself to put on a second bow for demo purposes and have had several students purchase them.Wow! What a difference. Students have a really nice bow hold in 1-2 lessons so we can move on to other things. This is something that can take months without the cellophant. You do still have to work with them and show them some details like having a bent thumb, having the middle finger touch the elephant’s toes, and having a relaxed hand. But it is soooo much faster (and cuter) with the cellophant.

We got this because it was recommended by the school Orchestra teacher to have. My daughter loves it. Not only is it adorable, but it is comfortable for big and little hands. It's easy for my daughter to get into a good hand position routine just by doing her practice. It's easy to put on the cello bow and even came with picture instructions to show how it should be installed and hand placement once installed.

My 1st choice is for students to build the muscle to hold their bows without a prop. However, I run a 'premie' class for very tiny ones. And though they begin the class without this, I think it's a fine teaching aid for the super young. Their dexterity is still developing. And the grip helps with placement and relaxation. Give them a perfect bow hold.I like it for my highly collapsable fingers! I'm double jointed and the either collapse with tension or lock. So this relaxes the finger that likes to lock. And keeps my thumb joint from inverting when gripping. Though I can manage without it, I am so much more relaxed with it. Cello is not my primary instrument, so I have not built the muscles around the bow hold from very young. But I am a music educator who can play the cello. ;)

I am a 21 year old music education student. I've been playing cello since fourth grade. I recently had the opportunity to begin teaching cello lessons to a beginner student. Like many students, mine wanted to hold the bow incorrectly. Anyways, I thought this cellophant might be a good purchase as I had read some positive reviews about it. I received my cellophant in the mail today and promptly put it on my bow to try it out. I must say I was very disappointed. Perhaps it's because I have rather large hands and the cellophant is designed for smaller hands. Applying the cellophant and holding it the way it's designed creates what appears to be a good bow grip. However, it does not allow me to apply much weight to the string. It also allows less flexibility of the wrist and adds excess weight to the frog. What good is a correct bow hold if the wrong wrist motion is reinforced?Perhaps the problems I have with it are because it's not designed for my size of hand, but I still can't put my endorsement on it. As much as I wanted to use it in my lesson with my student I don't think I will because it doesn't feel right to me.Edit: I tried the cellophant with my student and she still found a way to hold it wrong. Like with a regular bow hold I could set her hand so that she was holding it right but over time she still reverted to incorrect bow hold. I've had much more success reading material for cello instructors and finding ways of just repeating the process of forming a good bow hold in our lessons.

As an adult student, this crazy pink elephant has been very helpful. It took the cramp out of my hand and thumb that I was experiencing in trying to hold the bow correctly. It also adds weight to the bow, so it makes it easier to get a richer sound out of my cello. It is bigger than I expected, and, at least on my bow (which is a cheap one) it makes tightening and loosening the bow more difficult as the rubberiness of the elephant keeps the frog from moving as easily as it did without the elephant on it. Overall, I am glad I bought it. Not sure how long I will need it or use it, but for where I am right now in my cello lessons it is helpful.

I am teaching both of my daughters to play the cello. It's frustrating for me and for them to constantly be correcting their fingers when holding the bow so I bought this. I've tried the cellophant on all three of our bows (full size, 1/4, 1/8) and it fits securely to all three (does not move around). However, I had to remove the screw from the bow, place the cellophant, and then reattach the screw when applying to the bow. So I would recommend having a cellophant for each bow as switching back and forth would be irritating. It is good quality, comfortable, and cute. I wish the price was better, but it is a specialty item (very small market). I would recommend.

I love this product! I've never been very talented in the musical department but took up cello as a hobby as an adult. I had a friend teach me over a summer of lessons. I always had trouble with my bow hold and ended up getting to busy to continue. I decided to give my cello another go and bought this to help me out. Just like the product says, INSTANT BOW HOLD!!! It makes the position of the bow in your hand feel much more natural and gives a good weight to it, but not one that makes it hard to get the right sound out of your instrument.

I love the cellophant, however this must be a new design, because the old cellophant was just a solid mold on the walls of the inside, but this one has a cut out indentation (for lack of a better word) on the inside. (See photo, grey cellophant is old model). I assume they made this change to better accommodate the frog. The problem is that the indentation is too deep, so it ends up making the device loose. When you go to bow, the back of the cellophant pops up a little, which throws off your bow grip. It's counter productive to its purpose, which is to improve bow holding technique. I hope someone still sells the old model. It was a little harder to put on, but it was totally secure once you had it on.

46 years old and bored of the pandemic and all the restrictions so I decided to learn the cello. Due to weak hands and arthritis I have really struggled with my bow hold, which resulted in scratchy screeches.The first time I used this there was a notable improvement in my bowing technique. No more scratching and speaks so I am able to focus on my arm movements and my hold.

This is BRILLIANT. It really helps my arthritic fingers to hold the bow, I now have a blue one and a black one for different bows, and I love elephants!

My 5-yo son just switched from the violin to the cello. This little gadget allowed him to successfully play with the bow at his first cello practice. I play the violin, viola, and cello, and I know how hard it can be to master a proper bow hold. It's worth every penny!

It initially helped with getting the correct posture for the hand. However with my larger (adult) hands it was tricky to use. Also, once I removed the cellophant, my cello began to produce a much deeper and nicer sound. So I would recommend it if you have the money to spare, but it is not necessarily worth how much it costs, as you will get about a months use out of it.

I bought this bow holder for my 5-year-old daughter as a beginner's bow training tool. The elephant is a little big for her to hold on, but the teacher said it's ok as her finger position has been corrected.