Top 5 Myths of Bowing for Violinists and Violists

Myth 1 - You rest your bow on the string

Technique

min read

Violinists and violists often speak of resting your weight on the string, but your instrument does not magically float in the air, waiting for you to sink your weight into it. You have to support your violin/viola so it doesn’t fall, and wherever you directly contact your instrument to do that, those are the places that receive the weight of your bow arm.

I call this your “violin/viola sandwich”, with anywhere you touch your instrument representing a piece of bread, be it your collar bone, chest, jaw or left hand.

How you make your violin/viola sandwich has a profound impact on how you feel and how you sound. There is no one correct way; it depends on your size, shape, set up and simply what feels good and sounds good to you.

The more in touch you get with your sandwich, the more comfortable any set up will become AND the more attuned you’ll become to choose just the right set up for you.

The violin/viola sandwich busts another myth: that you sink our weight toward the floor. Gravity indeed goes down, but your arm weight sinks back into yourself through your instrument, and sinks at quite different angles depending on the string. In other words, each string has it’s own unique sandwich and in fact every place on the bow has a unique sandwich too. One way to think of it is that it’s a mushy, multi-layered sandwich constantly shape-shifting, yet the gooey, sandwichy feeling remains throughout.

So much neck-shoulder tension and confusion comes from violinists and violists not recognizing and embracing their violin/viola sandwich.

If your collar bone and chest do not know they receive the weight of your arm, they will not find the most comfortable, effective way to do so. And if they do not do not provide a secure cushion, your arm will never feel safe sinking into them. Indeed, only once you tap into your sandwich, can you melt into yourself and find an easy feel-good-sound-good set up.

If you’d like to explore your violin/viola sandwich, check out my online workshop for violinists/violists called Bowing With Your Whole Self.