Playing with my eyes closed. That's how I think that I've more or less solved my bouncing bow problem. I was getting so frustrated that my bow kept bouncing, especially on certain notes, and the problem seemed to be getting worse.

I tried everything, based on things that I've read and helpful advice from folks here. I tried loosening my bow hair, tightening it, using more rosing, using less rosin, trying to relax my hand, adjusting the position of the violin. Nothing seemed to work. Ugh!

So, yesterday, in desperation, I decided to try closing my eyes and playing a few tunes that I've memorized. I played them slowly and tried to focus on what bowing felt like when the sound was good and what it felt like when the sound was bad.

And eventually, I was able to stabilize my bow and get a nice smooth sound. It also seemed like I wasn't accidentally hitting adjacent strings as much.

To me, when the sound is smooth, the bowing feels like a rocking motion. So, my theory is that before I wasn't flexing my wrist enough, which made the bow fight with the strings, which caused binding and, thus, bouncing.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

I've had a few more practice sessions today, and the eyes closed thing still seems to work. Of course, I open them to play songs that I don't know by heart so that I can read the music. But this technique seems to be a good warm up and good to go back to if things start to fall apart mid-practice.

I'd be interested to hear if this works for anyone else. Even if you haven't memorized many songs, try it, even if it's only on scales or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Hopefully, it will work for you, too!