Holiday Special Ends Today

Yea, time grows very short to take advantage of major discounts on my courses.

Now, one of my violin mastery friends sent me an email yesterday suggesting I talk about bow tension; particularly as it has considerable bearing on the ‘jumping’ characteristics of the stick.

The rule of thumb is that the space between the stick and hair be about equal to the thickness of the stick, when it is tightened.

Of course there is some flexibility in this.

If the bow stick is particularly ‘soft’ or flexible, you might want a little more tension; if it is stiff, somewhat less.

Personal preference plays a part as well. Heifetz played with less tension, David Oistrack with more, from what I’ve been told.

Yet for the novice player, unless an expert has identified your bow as particularly one way or the other, I’d stay with the rule of thumb on this.

One last thing, don’t neglect to loosen the bow after practice. There are two reasons for doing this. One, the stick will gradually lose it’s curvature if you don’t; a costly thing to remedy.

And two, sudden drops in humidity will cause the bow hair to shorten. If you leave the bow tightened in the case and this happens, you may open the case to find the tip snapped right off. Another costly repair.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop