Violin Forum/Message Board

[grace]

Here are some things I wasn't able to clarify with my teacher before he left..

1. I was told to remove loose bowhair to prevent choppy sounds. However, when I removed one there was another loose one as soon as the first one came off! So I just leave it until it's REALLY loose. How do I prevent this? I don't want to dispose of my bow too soon..

2. I get this swooshy sound when I bow on the G and D strings. Is it because of the loose hair or it's because the violin is of the cheaper make?

3. There's this mark in Suzuki books that looks like this: 1----
What does it mean? I thought they stood for one bow or legato but the recording reference doesnt have a trace of slurs in the indicated parts.

[Becky]

How did you remove the hair? If you cut it off, it shouldn't cause further problems (other than less hair on your bow) but if you yank/pull it out (regardless of how gently) you can end up loosening the rest of the bow hair and need to get the whole thing rehaired. The reason for this is because of the way the hair is attached to the bow. What's relevant for this topic is to realize that all the hair is tied together in a bunch. It's tied very tight, but if you pull a hair out it will obviously get a little looser...and if you keep pulling loose hair out, it will get even looser still.

The swooshy sound could be for a variety of reasons. Try putting more rosin on your bow and see if that helps. The rosin helps the bowhair "grip" the string as opposed to just gliding over it. An unrosined bow makes a sort of swishy sound. What kind of rosin are you using? Quality rosin is essential (and it doesn't cost too much either). Because the sound only happens on the G and D strings, perhaps the problem is the way you're bowing on those strings. Are you lifting your upper arm enough? (A visual example is much easier here, but I'll try to explain...your upper arm should always be level with the bow...same height, same angle...if you had a long piece of cardboard it should lie flat/even across your whole bow and upper arm) Are you using enough weight? Really push the bow into the strings? One big bowing lesson I learned was to play "into" the strings, not on top of them. What's the quality of your bow like? When you tighten your bowhair enough, does the wood of the bow curve inward towards the hair, does the bow loose its curve and become straight, or does the bow curve outward away from the bowhair? Many of the bows I've seen that came with the cheap violins are absolutely horrible! I'm wondering if your loose hair problem is because of a cheap bow. A nice bow might solve your problems (check with your teacher though...I'm just guessing as I obviously haven't seen or tried your bow). While a cheaper violin will not sound like a strad, it can still sound decent. Does the sound come from the strings/bow, or from inside the violin (maybe sound escaping through an open seam)...I don't think the violin itself is the problem. Quality strings can make a noticeable improvement on a cheap violin.

Regarding the marking in the Suzuki books, I'd need to look at the actual marking in context to be positive, but I'm pretty sure that it means you put your first finger down to play the note the 1 appears over. The dashes mean to keep your first finger down in that spot while you're playing the other notes the dashes appear over.

If anything I said doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll explain better.

[Shirley]

Grace, Becky said it all - a lot of good information for free! Lucky us!

[grace]

Oops.. I accidentally clicked on post new reply..

Anyway.. Thanks Becky!