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November 15, 2005 at 9:26 PM

Emily's joy over her successful straight bow stroke just reminded me of something my violin teacher taught me recently that was so cool I want to pass it on.

We all know that it's impossible to tell if your bow is going straight without a mirror or something, since the angle of vision messes up your perception. And you can only do so much practicing in front of a mirror staring off to the side. Well, Virginia showed me that the bow slides perpendicular to the strings if it isn't moving straight, and you can tell which way it's off by the direction in which it slides.

Try it! If you're pulling the bow too close to your body on the down stroke (the more common error among beginners, I think), then the bow slides toward the scroll on the down stroke and toward the bridge on the up stroke. If you're pushing the bow too much away from your body on the down stroke (which is my problem...I overcompensate for the tendency described above), then the bow slides toward the bridge on the down stroke and toward the scroll on the up stroke. So you can tell which way you need to correct by watching which way the bow slides.

This is the kind of stuff my previous teachers never showed me. So many errors are possible on the violin, to be sure, but nothing that isn't correctable if you know what to look for. There's reason for optimism. :)

I tell my students that. I think it helps. We actually experiment with sliding the bow around by angling it this way and that, kinda like steering a car. Eventually, you can use that as a guide. We also listen to what it sounds like to be too far over the fingerboard or too close to the bridge. I had one student who wanted her bow straight so badly that it was all she would look at. I tried to help her by getting her to use her ear to tell if she was in the right place. We'll see if it worked this week.
For simply checking to see if it's straight, Oliver had the best advice I've heard. He said it came from Dorothy DeLay I think. If the bow is on the D string, glance at the G and A strings and see if the distance from the bow to the bridge is equal on those two strings. No mirror needed.
I meant the bow hair, if that wasn't the meaning you got.
As in "...see if the distance from the bow hair to the bridge is equal..."
Ok, enough of this...
I get it, Jim. :) I'll try it. Doesn't help on the G and E strings, though.
Greetings,
your suggestion about knowing when he bow is straight by using a mirror is not precisley correct I think. The easiiest way to know if you boiw is straight is to watch the relationship between the hair and the other three strings. If uou are creating a box shape the bow is straight. This was the method taught by DeLay.
I also note in passing that mirros can also be visually misleading depending on how they are used,
Cheers,
Buri
Greetings,
sorry, duplicateed everybody. technology is toomuch for me.
Burp,
Buri
Yeah, you have to be lined up with the mirror just right, too, which can almost be just as difficult. Plus, you have to find a way to look at the mirror without changing anything you're doing, which is nearly impossible. Tricky stuff.

I try to do it without looking in a mirror. I agree that you can compare to the other strings. You can also try to see if the bow is glued to the exact same contact point all the time.

I also have a headache today, from being cross-eyed for so long. From such a close perspective, it's difficult to tell what the heck is going on. I sympathize with my students.

I use a different approach with my students. I tell them that you can't see whether your bow is moving straight, so you have to learn how it feels. Then I hold the tip of the bow, remind the student to keep the wrist relaxed, and push the bow off to an angle. I exaggerate the angle to make it easier to for the student to feel. Later I have them play something they know well with their eyes closed, to prove my point.