To use the bow, you need to coat the hair with rosin to create friction so the hair can excite the strings. Rosin is processed, hardened pine tree sap. You hold the bow in your right hand and bow its hair across the strings. The friction of the bow hair causes the strings to vibrate, producing the notes.

Play your scale, one bow per note, three metronome clicks per bow. Use as much of the bow as you can while playing forte, keeping your weight in the bow through the bow change. Begin with your sound-point about 1 cm toward the fingerboard from the midpoint between the fingerboard and the bridge (Photo 4).

When the player pulls the bow across the strings (such that the frog moves away from the instrument), it is called a down-bow; pushing the bow so the frog moves toward the instrument is an up-bow (the directions "down" and "up" are literally descriptive for violins and violas and are employed in analogous fashion for the cello and double bass).