"You ask me what is most difficult in playing the violin? It is bowing.
Bowing makes up approximately eighty per cent. of the sum total of
violinistic difficulties. One reason for it is that many teachers with
excellent ideas on the subject present it to their pupils in too
complicated a manner. The bow must be used in an absolutely natural way,
and over elaboration in explaining what should be a simple and natural
development often prevents the student from securing a good bowing, the
end in view. Sarasate (he was an intimate friend of mine) always used
his bow in the most natural way, his control of it was unsought and
unconscious. Were I a teacher I should not say: 'You must bow as I do';
but rather: 'Find the way of bowing most convenient and natural to
you and use it!' Bowing is largely a physical and individual matter. I
am slender but have long, large fingers; Kreisler is a larger man than I
am but his fingers are small. It stands to reason that there must be a
difference in the way in which we hold and use the bow. The difference
between a great and a mediocre teacher lies in the fact that the first
recognizes that bowing is an individual matter, different in the case of
each individual pupil; and that the greatest perfection is attained by
the development of the individual's capabilities within his own norm.
[Illustration: JACQUES THIBAUD, with signature]