Every new violinist have wondered about how to rosin a bow. Especially if there has never been lessons before. Nobody ever explained it and you are left wondering how to rosin the bow.

So out you go and get a new piece of Rosin from Amazon or from a violin or music store. You come home and try to rosin the bow only to find out that you don’t actually know how to do this.

First let me explain why it is important to rosin a bow and then I will get to the “how to” part. Rosin is what makes the bow make a sound on the strings. If you have tried to make a sound on the violin strings and nothing has worked, no sound whatsoever, chances are that you need to rosin the bow.

The first thing we need to remember about putting Rosin on a bow is that it needs to be chipped. This gives the rosin a better chance of giving off residue or powder if you want to call it that. So chip the rosin against your music stand or against another hard object. Never chip it against an instrument or this will cause harm to the instrument itself.

You then take the chipped part of the rosin and rub it up and down the hair of the bow. If its the first time you apply rosin, you need to apply it quite generously. But if it has had rosin on before, you do not have to rosin the bow so generously.

I hope this has helped you figure out how to rosin a bow. For more information, please check out my YouTube channel.