BOWS FOR INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS

Past the early stages of learning, the student will be expected to use the bow for special effects such as 'marcato', 'staccato', 'spiccato' where the bow sometimes needs to bounce on and off the strings at speed.

Traditionally, the ideal material for bows has been 'pernambuco' wood. It has very dense fibres which give it great strength and flexibility, and extremely athletic reflexes upon hitting the string, making it ready to bounce again and again, whereas bows made out of other woods do not have this agility and can skid or be too slow in their response.

A poor bow will make learning slower and more difficult. If the bow does not bounce as needed, players will often spend precious lesson or practise time adapting their technique to make it happen. Once they have a bow that fits their needs, they will again spend time undoing this wrong technique. It would have been much more effective to buy a better bow in the first place.

Today, a number of makers are using carbon fibre compositions to manufacture bows. There are some very exciting new developments which are constantly advancing, offering players very similar characteristics to a good pernambuco bow and a considerably wider choice.