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What kind of bow hold do you have? What do you think is the most perfect kind of bow hold? Itzhak Perlman has the Galamian, and performs the Paganini Caprice No.1 flawlessly (except maybe a little too fast) , but i have noticed that violinists with the russian hold like Heifetz have trouble doing ricochet smoothly. On Heifetz's recording, the notes sound a little choppy...due to the extremely curved index finger, and high pinky. I was taught the galamian in middle- early highschool, but now i am being taught the franco-blegian style by my teacher, the very awsome Phillip Lewis.

lol...it's ok. i just recently learned about it in depth. Your pinky doesnt allways have to be touching the bow. Many violinists DO have a bit of a short pinky (especially those of German and Polish background)...but with a refined bow hold, you can touch the wood and use it to your advantage. That is very impressive that you are starting the Partita in E major after only a year and a half. I loved learning that song. Be sure to get hilary hahn's recording of it (it's AWSOME). If you have any questions about that song i would love to help you biggrin . Good luck!

Over the summer I had a teacher for a festival tell me that my bow hold was completely atrocious and wrong, and that I was a hopeless violinist.

Later I learned that my bow hold was just Russian. lol

I've kind of fixed that now, relaxing my hold on the bow a little and moving my index finger back so that I'm not pressing down on the bow with my second knuckle. Other than that... I have only been taking lessons for two years, so I am also somewhat uneducated as to technical things that other people of (if I may flatter myself) my level know because they've been playing longer.

I really don't have a clue.
And I'm somewhat ashamed to say that since I've stopped taking private lessons, my bow hold has gone somewhat by the wayside. I play much more fiddle than I do violin, and really, a perfect bow hold of one form or another seems to make it more difficult than if I just relax a bit. I often catch myself with my pinky floating above the bow instead of doing its job. The ring finger is even known to hover above the bow as well. :/ I try to keep them in check during orchestra, fairly successfully.

What's the difference between the different bow holds?

It may not have been intended that way, but that really came off as rather rude. Thanks for the lecture. I'm not intending to pursue a professional violin career. I play fiddle because I love it, and I am actually quite good at it. I don't know if you've ever really watched many excellent fiddlers, but a great quantity of them are self-taught. Their wacky bow-holds hold some of them back, but actually, after experimenting with some of their styles of holding the bow, I can see why they hold them that way. If I'm trying to play some spicatto excerpt for orchestra, or a lyrical singing melody; no, I don't want to hold it in that manner. But if I'm trying to dig into the strings and produce a harsh tone for a tune for a set dance, then sure, why not do something to make it easier? Just because something isn't the established, accepted, publicly deemed "correct" style of doing something does not mean it is wrong. And I'm not looking for another lecture if you care to disagree.

Ah, really? I thought that a Russian bow hold was if your fingers were all close together with your wrist slanted upwards in the direction of the tip of the bow. neutral
God, such unreliable sources, I have. stressed