Placing the Bow on the String and Guiding the Bow

The part of the string above the body of the instrument (i.e., between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard) is intended for bowing. Depending on where you bow—closer to the fingerboard or closer to the bridge—you can achieve a swelling in the tone, a decreasing of the tone, and the different shadings in the tone that are necessary for expressive playing.

The beginner will not be able to use these means of expression for the time being, and should endeavor only to produce a tone that is consistently even in strength. He achieves this by keeping the bow consistently on only one contact point. This contact point is about four centimeters from the bridge. The player tries to keep the bow parallel to the bridge on the contact point. This is the most difficult thing about bowing because it requires the combined movements of the upper arm and forearm, but mainly wrist movements.

If you take the bow in your hand according to the previous instructions, place the bow-hair on the string at the frog, and move it from the frog to the tip (a “down-bow,” notated as ˄ above the note) with immobile forearm joints, the bow’s trajectory would be curved. The closer you go towards the tip, the more the bow moves with its tip downwards, i.e. towards the bridge. Conversely, if you pull the bow from the tip to the frog (an “up-bow,” notated as ˅ above the note), the tip of the bow travels towards the fingerboard. Therefore, the bow continually shifts its contact point with the string and doesn’t go parallel to the bridge. This would not meet the conditions required for uniform tone production.

The movement of the bow is regulated by the wrist; namely, if one bends the hand to the left, the tip of the bow goes upwards towards the fingerboard. This movement of the hand is therefore used to raise the tip.

Conversely, by bending the hand to the right, the upwards stroke is directed downwards again. Therefore, when bowing at the frog, the hand position must be bent more to the right¹ in order to be able to bend to the left while pulling the bow on a down-bow stroke. Conversely, when the bow is at the tip, the position of the hand is bent to the left² in order to be able to move to the right during the up-bow stroke.

The upper arm, which must not be held too high, does not move until the bow is drawn into the middle of the stick. Only at the frog and tip, where forearm movement alone is no longer sufficient, does the upper arm take part in guiding the bow. The main movement is done by the forearm, which guides the bow on the string; here, as noted earlier, the wrist regulates the direction. In small movements of the bow on the string, the forearm is also almost immobile, and the wrist alone is active. It also serves to cross from one string to another with the bow. By turning the hand slightly to the right, the bow goes from the higher to the lower string. Conversely, turning the hand to the left causes the bow to transition from the lower to the higher string. (A distinction is made between bending to the right and turning to the right: in the first case, the hand keeps the same horizontal surface, and in the second case, the surface is lowered to the right.)

First Exercises in Drawing the Full Bow on the Open Strings