An Investigation of Tone Production in Relation to Management of Bow Weight and Speed among Beginning and Intermediate String Players: A Pilot Study

Management of the bow to the point of achieving the most efficient physical interaction between the hair and strings is crucial to successful stringed instrument achievement and performance. Inferior tone production often restricts string students from achieving a totality of musically-acceptable performance skills. A spectral analysis of open string bowing was performed with middle school and high school string players in grades 6–10. Each subject bowed two separate down bows on the open violin A string. The specific objective was to investigate student control of bowed weight and speed management skills among a small sample of middle school and high school string players. Visual graphs were produced and analyzed from the digital analog recordings and are discussed in terms of amplitude across time in relation to management of weight and speed. The findings indicate that inferior tone production may be the result of inconsistency among young string players’ ability to maintain an appropriate balance between weight and speed.