When i play my violin lately, the bowing often makes an unclear sound, especially on the G and A strings. It's probably just a mixture of me not been playing for long and naff strings or something, but it's really annoying me.
It's like i have to press hard to get a clear sound out but obviously that just sounds horrible and harsh and results in many squeaks.
It's like the bow isn't grasping the string, but I've tried rosin. Many times. To be honest i'm not entirely sure how much should be on there, i know that's such basic stuff that i should know but as i said i've not been playing for very long.
It's only been occasionally happening lately but today just urghhh i sound terrible!

I don't really know how to explain it (- the sentence that's in practically all of my posts!)

Do i need more rosin and less pressure, or more pressure and less rosin? Or just a whole lot of practise haha

Sounds to me like you need A LOT more rosin.

Liz

i am not an expert on bowing, but what my teacher got me to do really improved my sound, as well as my concentration on or consciousness of the type of sound i make (although you already seem to be very conscious of your sound). i had to do first just long held open a-string, then shorter, repeated a's trying to get as clear a start to the sound as possible. then 3-octave scales with as long a time for each note as possible - as loud as possible. there were probably some other things but i have forgotten them, and now i end up just making up my own variations on these exercises.

The reason that bowing is difficult for beginners is that you have to control three input variables simultaneously, to make the sound that you want. They are speed of the bow, position on the string and normal force (usually referred to as weight, but I shall call it force, to avoid confusion with the actual weight of the bow, which is different). You can choose any two of these, within limits, but you must then control the third to ensure that the sound remains acceptable. The results that you are trying to control are the sound quality and quantity.

For a given position on the string, force must increase as speed increases, and the sound will get louder; if force does not increase, the sound will become wispy, and eventually you will get unwanted harmonics or screeches; if force increases and speed does not, you will eventually get sub-harmonics (I call them grunge noises) which some composers now request.

For a given force, speed must increase as the bowing position moves away from the bridge and decrease towards it; for a given speed, force must increase as the bowing position moves towards the bridge and decrease away from it; if you want to produce the same dynamic and economise on your use of the bow, so as to play a long note without a bow change, you move the bow towards the bridge, increase the force and decrease the speed.

Keeping the force constant is non-trivial, because the right hand has to provide a varying moment to provide the same force at the varying distance that the string is from it: typically, you "lean" on the bow when you are bowing at the point, and hold it off to prevent the force becoming excessive at the heel. You may sometimes have to overdo this effect, because you are asked to make a crescendo on a down-bow or a diminuendo on an up-bow (both of which you should be able to do) but "friendly" bowing will put long note crescendi on up-bows and diminuendi on down. Accents are often accompanied by down-bow indications, but what is more important is that you should bow them at or near the heel, to give best control of the force. "It doesn't matter which way the bow is moving, only which part of it is on the string." (Christopher Adey)


I agree with this advice. My 'cello teacher got me moving my bow in semicircles (like the bottom of a U) touching the string at the bottom, to learn what it feels like to make a clean start.