Select Page

Silver or Gold Mounted Violin Bow: Why does it Matter?

Do you think it’s nonsense to pay for silver or gold mounting?

When looking to buy a violin bow, the information on the internet can be very confusing

silver mounted violin bowOn the picture and in the description the bows look the same, but you seem to pay a lot extra for silver or gold mounting. What’s this about?

For your bowing technique, sound quality and musical expression it’s SO important to have a bow that matches you and helps you. However, buying a violin bow is even more difficult than buying a violin. It’s extremely personal and can all seem different everytime you compare them.

Should you care about silver or gold parts? What’s the advantage?

Does a silver or gold mounted bow play differently?

Technically… the same bow with nickel, silver or gold won’t play differently. Yes, gold is a bit heavier than silver, but this is not why you would want a gold mounted bow.

Short history of violin bow mounting

The first bows with gold or silver has been introduced by French bow makers near 1780

The famous bow maker François Xavier Tourte started to work with gold and silver at the end of the 18th century by adding ferrule on the bow frog. Tourte than introduced tortoise to his work in the first years of the 19th century. Bone, ivory and tortoise have been used in other works for the French royalty (guitars by Voboam or Boule, in fournitures etc) since many years.

The use of tortoise and gold in bow making is generally for the best pieces of wood

Gold adds weight to the bow (gold is 1,5 times heavier than silver) and tortoise is more compact than ebony. Bow makers used lighter and stiffer wood for there top of the line bows. Some of the greastest bows made out of tortoise have been made by Tourte, Peccatte and Sartory. Most bows are made with 18k rose gold, except those by Ouchard made of hand engraved yellow gold. If you want in depth information, read ‘l’Archet’ by Mr Millant and Mr Raffin.

Hi! I'm Zlata

Let me help you find a great bow for your violin, so you can improve your bowing technique and sound quality:

Learn More

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

How to choose between a silver or gold mounted violin bow?

The metal standard (nickel, silver or gold) is a tradition to match the quality of the wood to the mounting of the bow. Nickel for good wood, silver for very good wood and gold for the best bows in the bow maker’s collection. As gold prices have gone up and up, bow makers have changed this a bit. Silver is used for VERY good bows today.

Sometimes it’s true that unscrupulous makers or companies tried to slip a lower bow into a higher price point by upgrading the metal, but overall better bows have more expensive mounting. It also depends on the level of the bow maker. Some great makers are a little modest and use nickel fittings for extremely good bows. Some mediocre bows have gold fittings.

gold mounted violin bowSo what DO I look for when buying a violin bow?

Don’t mind the silver or gold mounting. Just think about what sound and playability you’re looking for and find a bow that matches your playing and your violin.

What kind of violin bow do you have? How did you pick it? I’d LOVE to read your story in the comments below!

Ah, there's much more to silver and gold mounting in violin bows than you might think. Read all about it here: #violinbow Share on X

How to Find Discipline to Practice the Violin

You don’t need to push yourself every day to learn to play the violin

You can get fast progress without discipline! Use this strategy instead:

As a small business owner my to-do list is enormous and my work is never finished. After eleven years of pushing, grinding and hustling I decided to try out something different in the last weeks: I ONLY take inspired action.

What’s inspired action?

Do you sometimes have that soft loving voice in your mind that tells you things to do that are good for you? It can be taking rest, going to the gym, eating something healthy or playing the violin. This voice can inspire you to discover new sound possibilites on the violin, to explore different interpretations of the piece you are playing or to perfect that difficult passage.

Discipline is something entirely different

This comes from a place of forcing yourself, pushing, doing something you don’t REALLY want to do. You are not connected to why you want to do something. You are not connected to the dream you have and how it inspires you every single day to pick up your violin. Discipline is being harsh to yourself.

You don’t need to push yourself every day to learn to play the violin. You can get fast progress without discipline! Use this strategy: #violin #learnviolin Share on X

FREE Violin Scale Book

Sensational Scales is a 85 page violin scale book that goes from simple beginner scales with finger charts all the way to all three octave scales and arpeggios

Download!

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

This works for my business as well as my violin playing

It feels very scary in the beginning. You have to unlearn things you learned at school where MUST do all kinds of things you don’t want. You must let go of planning. You must feel useful even though you’re not frantically rushing through scales and etudes. Maybe you feel inspired to focus on one phrase and really make it sound exactly like you want.

When I tried inspired action vs discipline, I got more done in my business and I got faster progress on the violin

The thing is that you do the things you need to do and MORE! In my business it meant that I did the right things in the right time: when I was most inspired and in the right energy.

For my violin playing it meant that I let go of the planning that I needed to ‘finish’ that scale, etude or piece. My practicing took less energy, but was more precise. I focussed on small things and made them sound really really beautiful. I was more patient.

I practiced longer, because I felt more energized

One day I just practiced a couple of pages of a Bach fugue for hours. Another day I looked at a Paganini caprice and experimented with bowing techniques. Some days I played all repertoire on my music stand.

Why do you play violin? What inspires you right now?

Try this practice strategy out today. Before you start, think about why you’re actually playing the violin. What’s your dream? What or who inspires you? Share this in the comments below. After that, practice! Get back to the comment section and let me know the difference in what you did or felt.

Enjoy playing around with inspiration! Let it fuel your practice every single day!

Why you get Stuck in your Violin Progress

Do you feel your violin playing has reached a plateau?

Are you afraid that ‘this is all’ and that you lack the talent?

It was in the fourth year of conservatory that my playing only seemed to get worse

It was even worse than getting stuck. After spending hours on an etude, it just got worse. I was so frustrated, my teacher put a lot of pressure on me and I thought I could never graduate. If there was an excuse to skip the lesson, I did it. I didn’t have any progress to show anway.

After months of struggling, I finally found the way to get massive progress

I switched teacher and it appeared that the previous teacher who humiliated my had taught me a lot of wrong things. Once these were corrected, my playing skyrockeded and I could play virtuoso stuff I thought I could never play. Two years later I graduated succesfully as a violinist.

Tips to break through your plateau and get fast progress

1 Get back to the basics

In my fourth year at the conservatory, I had to get back to the basics. I changed my violin hold, the way I place my left hand fingers and the weight in my bow. This allowed me to learn very advanced techniques.

No matter your level, if you get stuck, look on how you can improve your basic technique. Even if you’re not a beginner, my free beginner course for the violin could be helpful to you. Ask yourself:

  • Do I hold my violin and bow in a way that supports my playing? Lots of people get stuck, because their hold gets them to a certain level, but not beyond.
  • Is my left hand moving efficiently or are there movements that can be smaller or more effective and secure?
  • Are my bowing basics right: bowing straight, movement in your wrist and fingers and creating a sustained full sound?

A true master shows in the basics. Don’t feel ‘too good’ to go back to them and refine them further. This is something you will do in many stages of your playing.

Why you get stuck in your violin progress and how to break through: #musiclesson #violin #learnviolin Share on X

Join my FREE beginner violin course

I take you from scratch step by step to your first violin concerto including 40 videos, sheet music and violin tabs.

Sign up!

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

2. Practice consistently

When I was stuck on the violin, it was very hard to find motivation to practice. I kept going. I kept practicing for hours every day despite of seeing NO results for months. Accept that this is also part of your learning progress. The results will come. Don’t give up.

A lot of people never learn a certain technique, because they try and stop when they don’t master it instantly. This happens a lot with vibrato. A lot of violin players can do ‘sort of’ vibrato, but they aren’t happy with it. However, they think they don’t have to do those vibrato exercises anymore, because they ‘know them already’.

To stay with this example: vibrato needs a step by step plan of specific exercises done a couple of minutes daily. Those who just try out stuff once in a while, don’t get the results. If you want to learn more about this, sign up for my free mini masterclass ‘Learn a Beautiful Vibrato on the Violin’.

Be very honest to yourself and ask yourself: Do I really do what it takes? Or do I do what’s convenient?

3. Check out different resources

I’ve had lots of different teachers in the decades I play violin. I learned different things from all of them. Take the best things with you and leave the rest. See what works for YOU. When learning the violin, you shouldn’t use one source of information. Have a lesson with a different teacher once in a while, watch a YouTube video, read a book, look what your favorite soloist does and try out different things yourself.

Have you been stuck in your violin progress?

Share your experiences in the comments below!

Technique vs Musicality: Which One is Learnable?

We often think that technique is just a trick you learn, while musicality is the artistry that can’t be taught

I think it’s exactly the other way around

Playing technique is sometimes looked down upon

As musicians should be artists and not mechanics, we like to focus on expression and musicality. Which is good, because this should be the end goal and too many players get lost in the technique. However, the technique sets you free: it gives you the tools to make music.

Over the last years in my violin shop and violin studio I’ve seen a lot of players struggle with technique and admiring my ‘talent’ or that of child prodigies. However, is this talent? Did they put in the same hours, dedication and lessons as the soloist they admire? Did they do the same technical exercises? It can seem like that 7 years old playing Paganini is ‘born with it’, but people don’t realize that at that age they might have had thousands of hours experience on their instrument.

However, not everybody putting in the same amount of hours or exercises gets the same results. We all have different talents: fine motor skills, lean muscles, a good ear, a good memory, a good feeling of rhythm and so on. Putting in the work gets you results, but there are components you can’t control and all of our journeys are different.

Musicality is seen as the magic that can’t be learned… is it?

What’s musicality anyway?

Musicality is something that is part of everything you do on the violin: your bowing technique, tone production, vibrato, dynamics and choice of bowing and fingering. Developing each of these areas and learning a big palette of sound colors, gives you infinite possibilities to make music your own. There are three aspects to musicality: tone, phrasing and affect. I talk about this in depth with Emily Williams, who wrote an entire book series on musicality.

I loved doing that interview, because what I preech almost daily is that music is part of being human and musical expression is something that is natural for all of us.

Can you be moved by music? Congrats, because you have the sensitivity to express yourself on a musical instrument!

Sadly not all teachers know how to teach this or don’t have time for it in the lesson. That’s one of the reasons I coach my Bow like a Pro students on creating a beautiful sound, telling a musical story and expressing themselves. Too many violin learners get lost in the technique and think they have to master all of it before they can play expressively. No, even beginners can play simple songs with expression.

Technique vs Musicality: Which One is Learnable? #musiclesson #music Share on X

FREE Violin Scale Book

Sensational Scales is a 85 page violin scale book that goes from simple beginner scales with finger charts all the way to all three octave scales and arpeggios

Download!

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

What’s the first step for more musical playing?

Stop seeing musicality as ‘magic and talent’ and start seeing it as a skill that you need to develop. When you don’t speak any language, you can’t express your feelings in a text or poem. You need to learn to speak the language of music to be able to express what lives deep inside you. Trust that you can learn this and be patient.

In your practice session you need to practice deliberately on musicality. The first step is to focus on it. Listen to how you play or record yourself. Think about the phrases (musical sentenses). Where does the phrase begin and where does it end? How are you going to express that? What is the mood of the song you play? Sad, happy, romantic? Feel into that before you start playing. Notice what you do differently now.

Are there skills you need to develop in bowing technique, tone creation or vibrato? Find some exercises. If you don’t know where to start, search around this website: I’ve made hundreds of free tutorials.

Let me know in the comments what you will change in your practice session to play more expressively!

You are NOT Allowed to do THIS on the Violin

Where do the rules about violin hold, bow hold and other technique come from?

Should you follow them even when they don’t work for you?

After running a violin shop for over ten years, I’m surprised on a regular basis what some violin teachers see as ‘non-negotiable’ or a ‘rule’. The chinrest en shoulder rest ALL students should use, the way to hold the violin, the way to bow, the way to place the fingers and much more. They all teach in a different way, but they all see their method as the one and only truth.

Look, I’m not talking about ALL violin teachers and being a teacher myself I understand that you need to sometimes give students some strict guidance so they don’t mess up all the way. However, sometimes we teachers can go too far in what’s ‘correct’.

Have you ever seen your favorite soloist doing exactly what your teacher has forbidden?

A couple of weeks ago a woman was in my shop and she had been following lessons for almost a year, but was completely confused about her technique. The first months of violin playing were one big struggle. Her violin hold was really uncomfortable and she hardly couldn’t put down her fingers the way she was taught. She desperately wanted my advice to ‘get started’. I made clear that I couldn’t ‘get her started’ in a couple of minutes and that I wouldn’t want to cross her teacher telling different stuff.

I gave her some instructions about how she could place her fourth finger much more easily: by having her knuckles more in line with the neck of the violin and by putting the violin a bit more in her hand leaving more space for your fingers. I also corrected her violin hold, so she was more comfortable.

However, every step on the way she asked ‘but is this allowed’, ‘but may I really do it this way’ and ‘this is so much easier, is it really right’.

Look, there is no police car stopping over to bring you to jail if you don’t ‘play by the rules’.

Whatever those ‘rules’ are anyway!

Are you uncomfortable playing with a shoulder rest and does your teacher say you ‘need’ it? Well, all great players before 1960 didn’t need one… they played all big repertoire without one. There are many more examples.

Join my FREE beginner violin course

I take you from scratch step by step to your first violin concerto including 40 videos, sheet music and violin tabs.

Sign up!

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

In the last couple of hundred years we’ve learned a lot about what’s the best way to play violin

There were great players and great pedagogues, so you would be stupid to invent the wheel yourself. Violin playing is difficult enough as it is, so I always make sure that I learn the best practices.

Some adult beginners want to ‘discover themselves’ in a ‘natural way’ and of course they get stuck and disappointed.

The thing your teacher is hammering on so many times, could be something that prevents you from getting stuck in the future. Perhaps you don’t see that right now. Perhaps your teacher is more experienced and has more knowledge… and if you feel she/he isn’t, find another teacher.

Find a balance between ‘the rules’ and discovering what works for you

Know that there are a lot of different rules. Just look at different concert violinists and you’ll see they don’t play in a uniform way, certainly not when you also look at older recordings. Everyone has a different body, personality, way of moving etc. Music is an art. We have to find our way.

So… don’t be the stubborn adult who gets stuck and throws their violin into the fire after a while.

But… don’t be compliant in a lazy way. Experiment during your practice. Learn as much from your teacher as you can. Look around on the internet and watch other teachers and other players.

Try things out. Have a curious mind. Be open, but be not afraid to research things yourself. Discover what works best for YOU.

Let me know in the comments what’s your biggest takeaway from this article and what you are going to adjust in your practice mindset!

You are NOT Allowed to do THIS on the #Violin Share on X