I have a violin bow that won't catch...help?!
Question: My first violin bow that I've had for quite a while was owned by my brother and I have taken up the violin as well. I recenty bought a pretty good new bow but it won't seem to catch. It sounds like I'm listening to somebody play the violin through an air vent far away. I've tried using my resin stone a few times but it still isn't catching. Any tips on how to make it catch well?
Answers: My first violin bow that I've had for quite a while was owned by my brother and I have taken up the violin as well. I recenty bought a pretty good new bow but it won't seem to catch. It sounds like I'm listening to somebody play the violin through an air vent far away. I've tried using my resin stone a few times but it still isn't catching. Any tips on how to make it catch well?
If you have a new bow, it needs to be primed. Pass the bow over the block of rosin 50 - 100 times (or even more) until the bow starts catching on the rosin. This is a very common complaint and I am amazed that anyone would ask you to have the hair replaced on a new bow!
The hair on a bow does not naturally catch the string. You need something to make the cilia (or the tiny hairs or fibers that stick out from the main shaft) stand out and catch the string, causing it to vibrate. Rosin is nothing more than tree sap, the stuff that gets stuck on your pants when you try to climb a tree, that has been cleaned up and purified and formed into a block so it's easier to keep around until you apply it to your bow. Normally you only need a few passes to get enough on the hair to refresh the grip, but the first time you "prime" any bow, it can take as much as ten to fifteen minutes to pass the bow back and forth until you get enough build up to make a difference. Hold the cake of rosin about where your instrument would be if you were bowing naturally, and get some bowing alignment practice while you are at it. If you can make a hundred or so passes from frog to tip, and then tip to frog, your bowing alignment should improve considerably. Many teachers recommend this practice to their pupils, even when they do their daily routine. There's something about following the path of the rosin that just naturally causes you to lock in your bowing technique like no other exercise seems to do. Hope this helps.
By the way, I never rough up, scratch up, or sandpaper my rosin. I just make a few extra passes until it roughs up on it's own. I figure I need all the bowing practice I can get and what's a few extra passes between friends, right?
You probably need to have the bow reharied.