Where in the bow · From Zero to Mozart

A real violin part doesn't just tell you the notes — it often tells you which part of the bow to play them in, and which direction. These marks are a vocabulary, and the whole point of this short lesson is that you can recognise every one when you meet it in Vivaldi, or Mozart, or a study.

Direction

Mark	Means
⊓ (a bracket, open at the bottom)	down-bow — pull the bow, frog toward tip. Naturally the heavier, stronger stroke.
V	up-bow — push the bow, tip toward frog. Naturally the lighter stroke.

You met these in Stage 3. The strong beats of a bar tend to fall on ⊓ — there's a whole lesson on why (the-rule-of-the-down-bow).

66 bpm

A marked-up bar: down-bow the G (whole bow), up-bow A, down-bow B, up-bow the C at the tip ('Sp.'). The marks above the staff are the bowing plan — the direction signs, where in the bow, when to change.

Which part of the bow

Abbreviation	In full	Where
WB	whole bow	frog to tip
LH (also ½L, Lo. ½)	lower half	middle → frog
UH (also ½U, Up. ½)	upper half	middle → tip
M / MB	middle	the balance point (rarely marked — it's the default)
frog / at the frog / au talon / talon / nut	—	the heel end, by your hand — most weight available
tip / point / punta d'arco / Sp. (Spitze, German) / Pt. (punta, Italian)	—	the far end — least weight, needs the most arm

Different editions and countries use different words for the same places — au talon (French), Sp. (German), punta (Italian) all just mean "frog" or "tip". The K.216 edition uses Sp. and au talon, so those are worth knowing by sight.

The retake

A small comma, an apostrophe, a half-circle, or the written word "lift" — all mean retake the bow: lift it off the string and reset it (you practised this in hooked-bowing-and-retakes). It's a silent gap, not a played note.

Check yourself

The usual mistake

Reading a position number (roman III, IV) or a fingering (1 2 3 4) as a bowing instruction. They're not — positions and fingers are the left hand; bowings are the right arm. This is the same numeral tangle you met in Stage 3 (finger-string-or-position) and Stage 4 (the-first-note-of-mozart). A ⊓, a V, Sp., WB — those are bowings. A 3 or a IV is not.