11/20/24 Something No String Teacher Has Ever Said Out Loud

“Use less bow!”

Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like every time there was a lesson or a coaching at the Juilliard School, there was a teacher imploring a young string player to use more bow and produce a sound that will resonate to the back of a concert hall.

But I always have to tell my students—different rules for different schools.

First of all, in a non-classical context such as a jazz/rock/bluegrass/latin/whatever band, many string players are amplified and playing either a fully electric instrument or an acoustic with a pick-up or a microphone.

But more importantly, I’m talking about playing rhythm. The real difference of schools is melodic playing as opposed to rhythm playing.

When you are responsible for keeping the groove alive as a rhythm player, it is crucial to be precise. We are playing the subdivision with our bow, strumming with our bows, if you will. So, we are playing a lot of fast notes. The faster that tempo gets, the less bow we should be using. This helps with precision and keeps it from sounding sloppy and uneven.

Tiny bows allow you to bring out the accents but also to completely ghost other notes. If you’re using too much bow, it’s hard to ghost--notes will get squeaky or won’t disappear.

So, the pro tip from the rhythm players—use less bow!