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Today, it’s all about where the rubber meets the … string. Or rather, the rubber-like bouncing bow meets the violin string. Building on yesterday’s articulation experiments, in today’s scales I explored bounced strokes in all parts of the bow. To begin, I did a mental recap of the factors that have a big affect on the quality (or success) of bounced strokes:

Part of the bow
Angle of the hair
Amount of bow
Weight
Shape of the stroke (“U” shaped – more horizontal motion – or “V” shaped – more vertical)

Why do this one?

Bounced strokes are an essential tool for any violinist. So any chance to explore them and experiment with them is time well spent.

The details

Today is all about bounced strokes – in all parts of the bow. So I started with bounced strokes at the frog, then went to the middle, then finished at the tip (with ricochet).

Frog / Lower Half: This is a great opportunity to focus on the shape of the stroke – whether it’s more horizontal (“U” shaped) or vertical (“V” shaped). That’s because the stroke tends to be slower and bigger here, so it’s easier to make (or observe) the difference between the two and all steps in between. You can do this doubling each pitch, or not (see the notation below).

It’s also is surprisingly good at revealing your intonation, because each note is so short that there’s no time to adjust if you missed it at first. (And the gap between notes is relatively long, so there’s lots of time to think about just how far off that last note was.)

Middle / Balance Point: For the bow stroke here, which is naturally faster than at the frog, finding the right spot in the bow is key. Get it right, and the stick will spring to life. But if you’re off, nothing you do will get it to bounce. Once you’re in the right spot in the bow, you can play around with the amount of weight and how much bow you use. Both will have a big impact on the kind of bounce you get. Remember that here, it’s all about the stick bouncing; the hair may or may not actually leave the string.

Because the part of the bow is so crucial, and being off by just ½ inch can cause big problems, it’s worth watching to see if it changes as you cross from one string to the next. But without any landmarks to measure the spot with, it can be difficult. So I cut a small strip from the sticky end of a Post-It note and wrapped it around the spot in my bow where I wanted to be. This made it really easy to see what was happening at the string crossings. And it revealed exactly the opposite of what I thought was happening! This post would get waaay too long if I got into details about why, so let’s just leave it at the fact that it was very revealing and very helpful.

Upper Half / Ricochet: For this stroke, use flatter hair to get more bounce, angled hair for less bounce. The amount of bow you use will also make a big difference in the type of bounce and in how easy or hard the stroke is to control. The notation below shows 2-ricochet and 3-ricochet, but if you’re up for it, it would also be worthwhile to practice 4's, 5's, and maybe even 6's.

If you’ve tried today’s scales, I’d love to know what your experience was like! Just post a comment below.

Do this in any key, and keep your usual fingerings.

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