bowing
The technique of drawing a bow across strings to produce sound.
In Depth
Bowing is the primary sound-production method for violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The bow — a wooden stick strung with horsehair — is drawn across the strings, causing them to vibrate. The player controls volume, tone color, and articulation through bow speed, pressure, and contact point on the string.
There are many distinct bowing techniques: détaché (separate strokes), legato (smooth, connected), spiccato (bouncing), sautillé (fast, controlled bouncing), and tremolo (rapid repetition). Each produces a different character, and mastering the bow is considered the most challenging and expressive aspect of string playing.
A professional violinist's bow contains between 150 and 200 individual horsehairs, all from the tails of white horses — dark horsehair is considered too coarse.