How to apply rosin properly on a violin bow

The violin bow can only make the strings sound, when there is enough friction between the string and the bow hair. In order to achieve this, the bow is rubbed with rosin. Rosin is an amber-coloured tree resin, which is usually obtained from pine, spruce pine, spruce or larch. By noble additives then an optimized rosin is created.

The violin bow is stringed with horse hair. The hair has little barbs. When rubbing the bow rosin is caught on the barbed hooks and barbs are set up. This creates the necessary friction resistance and the bow can make the strings sound.

young woman applies rosin to a bow

How to apply rosin to a bow?

The method of applying rosin always remains the same, regardless of whether the bow is played much, the bow hair was cleaned, the bow was newly strung or was recently purchased. The bow is tightened and taken into one hand. With the other hand, the rosin is taken and calmly spread over the hair back and forth from the frog to the top of the bow and back to the frog. For a new bow or a newly strung bow, this should be done properly. This is very easy, if the piece of rosin has been used very often. For a new rosin, which has a very smooth surface, you can roughen the surface of the rosin gently with a piece of sandpaper. Thereby the surface of the rosin is opened and it is then found dust on the surface.

How can you tell if there is sufficient rosin on the violin bow?


Here are two possibilities:
 
  • Acoustically: you shall strike the bow across the strings as a test. If the bow does not slide easily and produces no sound or only a faint, thin sound, then the bow hair does not have enough rosin. But if the bow is very scratchy, then it may have gotten too much rosin.
  • Optically: you can scrape across the bow hair with the thumb nail. If there is some rosin sticking to the thumb nail, then there currently is enough rosin on the hair.
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    There are many different varieties of rosin. This is due to the different variety of the raw material and on the number of different additives. However, the question, which rosin is the best, is difficult to answer. Because the sound produced depends not only on the instrument or bow, but also from the sound ideal of the violinist and his playing style. The hardness of the rosin depends on the cooking temperature in the production. The melting point can be changed just by different admixtures. So each musician hast to find out individually which rosin suits him best. It should be noted which adhesive force is needed for the individual strings and the bow:

     

  • Steel strings require a low adhesion (hard rosin)
  • Synthetic strings require an average adhesion force (medium hard rosin)
  • Gut strings require a higher adhesive force (soft rosin)
  • Violin bow: lowest adhesion (very hard rosin)
  • Viola bow: low adhesion (hard rosin)
  • Cello bow: average adhesion (medium hard rosin)
  • Double bass bow: high adhesion (soft rosin)

    Rosin ages and becomes sticky with time. Approximately every two years, you should buy a new rosin, so it is always available in the best quality. Therefore, it should always pulverised easily and not grease. When using another rosin brand, you should be sure to first clean the bow hair thoroughly. Even if the bow hair is greasy, for example due to improper handling of the bow hair, make sure you clean the bow hair with a good special cleaner for bow hair.

    The strings also have to be cleaned regularly. After each play, you may remove the rosin from the strings and the table of the instrument with a soft cloth. More stubborn impurities can be solved with a good string cleaner. 

    Can you apply too much rosin? Generally speaking, it is better to apply a little more than less rosin. If there is not enough rosin on the bow, lacking the necessary friction the musician plays with increased pressure used to compensate this.

    As a general rule:

  • for refreshing 6-7 even strokes from frog to tip are sufficient -for a freshly cleaned bow you should make 10- 12 strokes over the entire length of the bow.

    At Paganino there is a wide selection of rosin.