Welcome to our forum. A Message To Our New and Prospective Members . Check out our Forum Rules. Lets keep this forum an enjoyable place to visit.
Please participate in our “Let it Snow” Xmas 2020 Group youtube project!”
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
(0 votes) 
Regulars
Offline
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?
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. —Frank Zappa
The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed. —William Gibson
Regulars
Offline
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... 🙂 )
Offline
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."
Offline
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.
Offline
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.
1 Guest(s)
Loading ...