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hand is larger than that controlling the right. It was also larger than either brain section in the control group of non violinists. There you go - I always knew that playing the violin was good for you!
Violin sound has been described as a palette of colours, and the bow as the brush, the means of applying these colours. One customer, a musician and painter, says he has 40 brushes which vary from very fine and delicate pointy ones to big fat broad ones, and he has one cello bow that he expects to do the same job as all those brushes. No matter how many colours you have on your palette, if you have a 4" brush shedding hairs you can't paint a miniature. If you have a £2,000 violin and a £50 bow you are a £50 musician. You are as good as the bow lets you be.
If you spend twice as much on a new violin you may get a lot more pleasure from the instrument, but if you spend twice as much on a violin bow you can improve as a musician. Experience shows that more people are held back by the quality of their bow than the quality of their violin. Some customers are convinced they cannot play something only to find out after years of struggle that it's the bow that lacks the subtlety. If the bow can't play it you can't learn it.
There are obvious exceptions. Many musicians in folk traditions have made great music on equipment that a classical musician wouldn't give to a beginner - but then who knows what they might have done with better equipment. Sometimes, if you don't know that the equipment has limitations, you can make surprising progress against the odds by sheer force of hard work.
In the trade the often quoted rule is that a bow should cost about a quarter to a third of the value of the instrument. This is only a guide. Someone playing on a £250 Romanian violin would be better playing on a bow worth as much as or more than the fiddle. Someone playing on a £100,000 violin is unlikely to be playing on a bow worth a quarter of that sum.
Testing bows is much the same as testing violins, which we looked at in a previous issue. As I suggested, divide the test into two areas - what can I make it do (responsiveness) and what does it like to do (sound). Don't play too long and don't try too many bows, ideally no more than 3 at once, since you can only keep so many in your head. Keep knocking out the third favourite bow and adding only one new bow until you have two left, then take those two home for a week on approval. If someone, or some shop, doesn't let you take it home for trial I'm tempted to say don't buy it. There may be good reasons for them to say so but it really is important to test the equipment in the acoustic you are used to, not in a strange room with a salesperson looking over your shoulder.
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The main problem most people have in choosing a bow is to get out of the mindset developed with the bow already in use. Many people initially like a bow similar to their own (Some, however, swear within minutes that they will never touch their old bow again.) With a better bow, as with a better violin, you aren't going to get to the bottom of what it can do in half an hour. A much better bow gives you the potential to become a much better player - but it's still going to take time and practice.
If you set a price range of £200 - £300 for a new violin bow and your favourite bows are around £300, this indicates that you might recognise the qualities of a better bow. If you push your limit up to £400 and end up buying a £350 bow then this is good. It means you are buying a piece of equipment rather than just spending money and can be pretty sure you have made a reasonable choice, the right choice for you at this stage of your development as a musician. Players do not usually buy the most expensive bow they try, they buy the one that works for them.
If you try bows at twice the value of your own and can't tell the difference between them and yours, you have various options. You can stick with your old bow and try again in a year and see if you notice any difference. Alternatively, you can try a much more expensive bow, twice the price you want to pay, and see if you can tell the difference. If you can, then you can work back down to a price you can afford. If you can't and you still feel the need for improvement, then you have to look at the other factors involved in playing the violin: the instrument and its set-up, and you and your technique.
The job of the teacher or "better player" to whom you might go for advice is to try to second guess what your musical requirements are over the next few years. This is not easy - remember that no-one can really choose a bow for you, it's far too personal. No-one else has your body, your skeleton and muscles, your violin or your idea of how music can sound. A better player or teacher might be able to suggest a good instrument for you but when it comes to bows they can only say what it is that suits them - not you. The most important thing is to try not to get too stressed - after all music is supposed to be fun! Try treating choosing the bow as a game rather than a life or death struggle and you shouldn't go far wrong.
•Nicholas Woodward
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