Originally posted on 2013-06-13 by Laura Geissler  

I used Bow Buddies with two of my violin students this past year. 

Both students had a lot of difficulty with position issues. 

Both right and left hand. 

Both also struggle with learning difficulties. 

I was needing to find the balance between helping them find enjoyment in their music, but also continuing to make progress with their technique. 

I found that the Bow Buddies very successfully stabilized their right hand, allowing me to focus on violin hold and making beautiful music.

With one student, the mother bubbled over with relief that she didn’t have to keep correcting the bow hand.

It removed much conflict during practice at home.

This student has a beautiful violin hold with the left hand that solidified this winter.

I transitioned her off of the Bow Buddy for my spring recital.

The transition was very easy and her bow hold is very nice. I am contemplating adding a corn pad just to give her a small reminder.

The other student is still on the bow buddy.

He is enjoying his violin these days, which is great as I thought I might lose him as the violin was so difficult for him.

There is still a lot of work to be done on the violin hold before I remove the Bow Buddy.

I have never seen a child with such tense/frozen muscles.

He used to shudder whenever he placed his violin and bow in position.

One of his accomplishments this year is that the shudder rarely appears.

As he relaxes, he is enjoying playing music more.

He has a good ear for critiquing his own sound.

This is becoming a motivating factor to correct posture.

I don’t see moving away from a bow aid in the near future.

On this child, it has helped to stabilize the bow hold well enough to focus on other important issues that we still need to finish.

I like to teach a proper bow hold w/o an aid to my students.

However, I am firmly a supporter of this product for students who have those extra needs.

It allows the bow hand to stabilize while other aspects of technique are taught.