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Playing "Bow on Bow"
I just found a new way to do damage to your violin bows. Proceed with caution.
Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 Topic Rating: 0 (0 votes) 
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Irv
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January 12, 2018 - 6:52 pm
Member Since: December 24, 2017
Forum Posts: 1650
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Never heard of this before and I see no Youtube videos that show it.

I just completed George Lang's autobiography called "Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen."  On page 110, he reports that he competed on Arthur Godfrey's "Talent Scouts" show.  I quote the book here:  "As a parlor trick, I had developed a novel technique of playing two violin bows by using one as a violin and the other as a bow.  I became the Paganini of the metier.  With the help of a microphone, the sound was quite loud, like a chorus of bees groaning the "Anniversary Waltz" a capella, which was exactly what I was playing."

He lost.

Has anyone else heard of this or, better yet, can anyone here do this?  

Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.

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Charles
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January 17, 2018 - 3:42 pm
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Can't say that I have.

I'd offer one bit of advice to anyone who want's to try - make a carbon fiber bow the "violin". It'll stand up to the degree of tension needed a lot better.

I'm a tad skeptical it was a regular bow with regular hair. It'd be mighty hard to get all that hair onto a round stick to play different notes.  Playing ONE note, yes. Enough different ones to make a song....?   One quarter the usual hair and an octagonal stick, maybe. Don't try anything near the tip, though. Way too much force needed to get a note.

I'm insane enough that I was ready to give it a try, then I remembered finger oils on bow hair. Something to only be done with a bow you don't want to use as a bow until after it's next re-hair.  (Or maybe with latex gloves... 🙂 )

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Fiddlerman
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January 18, 2018 - 12:42 pm
Member Since: September 26, 2010
Forum Posts: 16583

Louis Armstrong..... LOL

I never heard of it either.

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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Martha

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February 7, 2018 - 12:38 pm
Member Since: December 25, 2017
Forum Posts: 48
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Gadulka (traditional Balkan "fiddle," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadulka) and erhu (traditional Chinese "fiddle," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhu) are played by touching the strings, not by pressing them against a fingerboard. So--in theory--pressing hairs of the "violin" bow against its stick may not be necessary.

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RPr

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March 29, 2018 - 11:06 pm
Member Since: March 28, 2018
Forum Posts: 3
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I pretty rough description but my bet was he as playing with one bow and letting the other bow ride a open string as a drone; hence the "chorus of bees" sound.

Might work well with a cross tuned instrument.

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