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Regulars
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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?
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing. —Werner von Braun
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. —Frank Zappa
Experience is a difficult teacher, it gives the test first and the lesson after.
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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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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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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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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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