How to Hold a Cello Bow

Part of the Video Series How to Play the Cello

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Learn about the proper way to hold a cello bow in this free online music video lesson on playing the cello.

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Member Comments

Posted by 845celloguy on Saturday, 22 March, 2008 at 10:11 PM

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Hey. Russell, I think you need to check your bow grip; you're holding it like a violin bow and your wrist is too high. Also, judging by the video, your stick has no camber. Just a few friendly words of advice.

Video Transcript

How to Hold a Cello Bow
Hello my name is Russell Squires and I’m here today on behalf of ExpertVillage.com. I’m going to be talking to you today about the parts of the bow. To begin with, we have our shaft, it’s made up of two parts, we have a grip and the upper portion, and this can be made either out of fiberglass or wood. Wood is normally a higher quality of bow. That leads up to the tip, the tip is where the top half of the hair is kept taunt. The hair is the portion of the bow that we use to actually pull the strings and produce sound, that’s connected to the frog which is then connected to the screw. These two pieces work by when you twist the screw clockwise, it tightens up an eyelid on the frog, which pulls it downward and tightens the hairs. The proper position for playing a bow is to have it tightened to where there is only a slight curve towards the hair. To produce a good, full sound with the hair on the bow, you have to make it really sticky and that’s why we use rosin. Rosin is basically just a tree sap, that’s usually an orangish color. We rub it on the bow and it turns it a bright white. Once this is done, we can play the cello. The bow is gripped by placing the thumb at the base of the grip on the shaft and the rest of the fingers are simply wrapped around the front in a curving motion. When we produce sound, simply lay the bow on the string you want to play and with a light pulling motion, applying only a slight amount of pressure, we pull the full extent of the bow.

About the Expert

Expert: Russel Squires has been playing cello for 14 years. Read More