Dress up your frog!

Goodbye, BOW-vember...

Hello, BOW-cember!  

Okay, so it doesn't quite work.  But we can't just stop thinking about the bow now that the month is gone. Plus, I have lots more to say about bow stuff, so I refuse to let it end now.  Let's keep this bow party going!

To continue the last blog post about an ergonomic bow hand, I wanted to share a quote from Alice McVeigh's article in The Strad in which she talks about cellists (especially adult students) wanting to grab the bow tightly so they don't drop it:

"I may feel like an idiot standing over some guy twice my size requesting that he kindly let his bow drop onto the carpet three or four times, but you can spot by the sheer anguish in his face how much the worry of dropping it is destroying any chance of his ever getting the flexibility and constantly changing fluidity required for a really good bow change. By allowing the bow to drop (it’s only a foot and a half on to a carpet and you’re not doing it tip downwards, for God’s sake) you are in fact removing a fear so primal that most people couldn’t begin to articulate it."

Besides dropping your bow on the floor to experience the worst-case scenario--and realize that it isn't really all that bad--there are other ways to alleviate the bow-dropping paranoia. 


Such as...

Dressing up your frog

Different strokes for different folks, of course.  Some of my students can't stand the bow cushion that I use, so I stock up on a variety of different ones for them to try out. 

Dress up your frog?

I can't stand to play with a naked frog. 

(Heh. My inner kindergarner is having a good time with that one.)

Because the varnished stick is rather skinny and can become slippery with perspiration at the drop of a hat, I always have some kind of padding at the junction of hand and bow.  

I feel strongly that by adding this comfortable extra layer, I avoid feeling as though I have to clutch the bow to keep it in its place.

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This is what I am using right now. I love the non-slip feel of these Foohy brand pencil grips, and though they are meant for pencils and not bows, their stretchy material is easy to pull over the stick and frog.

Here's how:

STEP 1: Detach your frog.
Loosen the screw until it comes out of the bow. Then, gently pull the frog away from the stick.  Do not tangle the hair (twisting is fine, but the stick should not pass through the hair).

STEP 2: Keeping the tip of the bow against a soft carpet or pillow (and being mindful of the hair), pull on and then roll up the grip to a location on the stick above where the frog will be attached.

STEP 3: Reattach the frog and tighten the screw to secure.  Then roll the grip back down to cover both the stick and the part of the frog where the thumb comes in contact with the bow. 

OPTIONAL: If you think you would like a nice ledge for your thumb to rest upon, use a holepunch to create a nice hole about one-third of the way up the grip  before you slide it on.  Be sure you slide it on with that hole facing you so your thumb can rest there.

Before I found these pencil grips, I would cut a wide rubber band and wrap it around the same place on the bow, securing the end by tucking it in.  It worked pretty well, but once in a while it would come undone during a performance.  That was enough reason for me to experiment with other products.

Before I settled on something I liked, I found lots of products to try! A few that I really like are listed below. 

• Stringvision bow grip:  a few of my students really like these
  
• Cellophant:  nice for little kids sometimes
• Bow tubes:  I have seen these on many professional bows

What do you like to use?

Cellophant is so cute!