I've been playing for about 6months and I'm doing Grade 2 in June.

One of the things that drives me mad is the way my bow bounces. My teacher says it gets better when I relax my shoulders and use the whole bow but it's still really maddening and I feel like it's never going to stop. It ruins my playing and makes me feel low when I just want to express my music through my playing.

So any cures for bow-bouncing??? Does it get better with time? I think it's better than it was.

Perhaps your bow is very light? I have a carbon fibre bow which i dont really like because it bounces around so much, and I have a much heavier wooden bow which I use alot . You could try relaxing your wrist more and this might help a little. I know its hard, it took me ages but it will make your playing much better too and make playing fast thing easier, especially if you are playing in a scottish fiddle orchestra!

I think tilting the bow up onto the far edge of the hairs a bit helps as it helps the hairs absorb the downward energy without losing contact with the string on a bounce. When the hairs hit flat it is quite a sudden shock and they also loose contact as soon as they bounce a bit. Imagine jumping off the bottom step of your stairs and landing on you heels instead of your toes. On their edge they soak up the energy slower and don't lose contact so easily if there is any bounce. Might help

This is most likely to be due to tension in the way you are handling the bow - at this early stage, it's unlikely to be coming from your bow or fiddle - it will be due to your bow hold and the fact that you are probably (like I was at g2) gingerly moving the bow from end to end whilst trying to keep a perfect angle, make good changes and do all the other things your teacher wants you to do. It will get better with practise. Make sure that your shoulder doesn't lift when you play and that your hand and arm are relaxed, that the wrist remains loose and relaxed without being floppy.

At the beginning you should try to avoid tilting the bow to correct this problem, as it's kind of avoiding the issue. It is perfectly possible to play with the bow hair totally flat and not have the bow bounce, you should practise until you can do this. Then you can use a tilt in the bow for certain effects.

That's my take on it, but we have a couple of teachers on here and at least one pro, I'm sure they'll have much better advice!

Good luck, keep practising, honestly it will go away before you know it - just don't take any shortcuts.

Allan

Thanks for all the tips folks.
I love your signature Allan! My clarinet discovered Guinness when I was touring Ireland with the Edinburgh University Chamber Orchestra in the late eighties and I reckon it developed a mind of it's own after that (not to mention changing it's name to Hamish). The Guinness fairly improved its tone!

I have to say that the tone on my fiddle has improved too, since the addition of guinness. Don't know if this comes from the fiddle or my gradually decreasing perception as the guinness has its effect, though...