Bowed strings alternate between stick and slip motion

Evidence

As the bow is moved across a string in either direction, the string is gripped and moved away from its rest position until the string releases itself, moving past its rest position until the bow hairs grip it again to repeat the cycle. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1129

Categorization

• DEFINE: Classic statement of the stick-slip mechanism driving sustained bowed-string sound.
• XREF: connects to: Bowed string motion is a stick-slip effect producing a sawtooth wave — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 670; A bowed string moves in two straight segments joined at a moving corner; A bowed string vibrates as a traveling kink, not as smooth standing waves (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Bowed string motion is a stick-slip effect producing a sawtooth wave #exemplifies (0.98) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 670
• A bowed string alternates constant-velocity grip with rapid snapback motion #expands (0.95)
• Bow stick-slip generates a sawtooth Helmholtz wave with rich harmonics #exemplifies (0.95) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1804
• A bowed string moves in two straight segments joined at a moving corner #expands (0.90)
• A bowed string vibrates as a traveling kink, not as smooth standing waves #expands (0.85)
• Bowing sustains a string at its fundamental natural frequency with high efficiency #qualifies (0.75)
• Stick-slip friction generates sound vibration in chalk, violins, and scribes #expands (0.70) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 456