Six Ways to Encourage a Straight Bow:
- Watch in the mirror
- Practice "Open and Close the Door" bow exercises, taught in many Suzuki studios.
- Prop your bicep against the edge of a door. Standard, globally-accepted technique is to only move the forearm, not the upper arm, for 90% of the bow length. The only exception is right next to the frog.
- Imagine you're painting this shape while pulling the bow across the strings from frog to tip. It's usually at the ends of the bow that the stroke starts to stray. It's an optical illusion of sorts to imagine the bow curving in the opposite direction to the curvature of the bridge, like a wide smile or upside-down rainbow, but it does create a straight bow. This is one that has worked well for me.
- Use straws or pencils in the f-holes as a "fence" to keep the bow from going diagonally while practicing.
- Pick an invisible spot on the string and watch as every part of your bow crosses that spot for the whole stroke. I sat in a class with a former member of the Utah Symphony and he said in his experience teaching, this is the best method he's found to encourage a straight bow.
Why Do We Need a Straight Bow?
- Very clearly and simply put, it looks better
- Crooked bows interfere with purity of tone
- Similar to #2, overall, it's easier to achieve most bow strokes and get good sound if the bow is consistently parallel to the bridge
- People won't take you seriously as a violinist if your bow isn't at least reasonably straight
