How to Use a Violin Bow

Video Transcript

"Today, we're going to talk about how to use the violin bow. The important thing about using the violin bow is you want to be in the string, not over the string, not on the string. You want to be in the string, whether you're playing loud, whether you're playing soft, you want the violin bow into the string, or loud. You need to be in the string playing louder or softer. You need to stay in the string and not over the surface of it. So you're not letting the elbow come back and you're not coming back here. You're not getting unnatural. What you're going to get with that kind of a movement is this kind of a sound. And you don't want to see the bow go back this way, and all... You need to be parallel with the bridge right here, so it feels like you're bowing up to the front when you do that. You need to be out that way. So just remember, there's a lot of techniques to playing with a bow, but remember, the bow needs to be parallel with the bridge or...to get the best tone. And if you want to play louder and brighter, you're back towards the bridge. If you want to play softer and warmer, you're over towards the finger board. So there's a ton of techniques you can use. You can bounce. You can use it for a rhythmic thing. You can play pizzicato -- quick notes -- or you can play long. You can play airy stuff. Rock and roll, if you want. Or you could play real big, fat. There's a lot of ways to bow a violin. I mean, there's so many different techniques of bowing. There's books dedicated just to bowing techniques and bowing exercises, and they're all good for you -- redundant sometimes, but it's good for your playing. So just remember, there's so much expression through the bow. So many times, I see the left hand years ahead of the right hand. The bow's, to me, the most important thing."