Sorry if I've posted this before, but anyway I have a bit of a confusion over bowing and dynamics.
I'm sure my teacher would not mind me posting this

Ok, first my first teacher says I should always use the whole bow when I play. That's fine, except I had no dynamics.

Second teacher taught me how to use the point and gradually work up to mid-bow and then the whole bow when the passage looks like this.
pp mp mf f ff
Problem is, I tend to use the point more when the passages are between pp and mf.

So what do I do in between when the passage more or less stays in the same dynamic range? And when is it appropriate to use the heel to mid-bow? Or is it not used at all except for spiccato?

And does one only control dynamics by fast bowing of the whole string? Or by using more pressure?

What is the best rule of thumb for deciding how much bow to use?

Three things affect the dynamics: speed of bow, pressure and contact position of bow on string.

In general:

- If you need a long slow bow stroke, the bow contact point should be nearer the bridge. If you need rapid whole bow strokes they should be nearer the fingerboard, as this gives the best tone.

- Play forte nearer the bridge, piano nearer the fingerboard.

-If playing in low left hand positions, bow should be midway between bridge and fingerboard. If playing in higher left hand positions bow should be nearer the bridge.

If you use too much or too little bow pressure the tone will get worse.

You can get the same dynamic level with little bow and strong pressure close to the bridge, or with a lot of bow and little pressure further away from the bridge. It is generally better to use more bow as this gives the best tone.


Some bow strokes need to be done nearer the heel. When playing at slow speeds, forte, on the G-string or when playing double stops you need a bit more weight from the bow arm, so you will find you need to move closer to the heel.


Listen to the sound/tone that you are producing and experiment. Sometimes you may want the tone to be whistling or scratchy, but that wouldn't suit most pieces.

I hope this helps a bit. These are of course just generalisations, so just try experimenting and listen carefully to the sound that you are producing.

Bowing policies:

The player ought to be able to do a crescendo on a down-bow and a diminuendo on an up-bow;

The composer, arranger or section principal ought to try to get the bowing the other way round, so that the section will produce the right dynamic without difficulty.

One aphorism I always remember, from Christopher Adey, violinist, conductor and author of a book covering a multitude of aspects of managing an orchestra, referring mainly to dynamics:

"It doesn't matter which way the bow is travelling, it's which bit of it is on the string."

Ok thanks purple viola and kenm. I will try to remember that!
I think it's clearer to me now!