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Draw the bow upward, from the tip toward the frog.
Usually shown by the sign V above the note rather than in words; the words up bow appear in teaching editions and footnotes. The sign applies to the note it marks, and the following notes alternate unless further signs appear.
Also spelled: up-bow, upbow
An up-bow starts at the point and travels toward the frog, so it grows naturally and suits upbeats and lighter attacks. Mark bowings only where the phrasing depends on them — consecutive up-bows for a series of light pickups, for instance — and leave routine bowing to the players.
Up bow is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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