{"id":3854,"date":"2021-06-20T16:59:42","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T16:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/?page_id=3854"},"modified":"2021-06-20T17:34:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T17:34:17","slug":"rosin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/misc-topics\/rosin\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosin (a.k.a. Biroza)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>For Bowed Indian Instruments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>by <a href=\"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/about-us\/bio-of-d-courtney\/\">David Courtney<\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/media\/l_p_s.gif\" alt=\"working tools\" width=\"39\" height=\"10\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/images\/rosin_biroza.jpg\" alt=\"biroza (a.k.a. Rosin\"\/><figcaption>Various Types of Rosin (Biroza)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Biroza<\/em>, more com\u00admonly known as rosin is a gum resin which is applied to the hairs of mus\u00adical bows which facili\u00adtates the bowing of the string.&nbsp; In this page we will look at it from the stand\u00adpoint of In\u00addian bowed in\u00adstru\u00adments such as <em>sarangis<\/em>, <em>dilrubas<\/em> and <em>esrajs<\/em>.&nbsp; How\u00adever since these rosins are al\u00admost al\u00adways for\u00admulated for Western in\u00adstru\u00adments such as the violin, nu\u00admer\u00adous non-Indian references are unavoidable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- March20_4_2020 -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0047309040523061\" data-ad-slot=\"9410001606\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I know that a lot of peo\u00adple have ques\u00adtions and con\u00adcerns and wish me to get right to the <em>khaas baat<\/em>.&nbsp; So here is the abbrev\u00adiated version:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Experimentation is the name of the game.&nbsp; Exper\u00adiment&#8230;. experi\u00adment&#8230;.experi\u00adment!&nbsp; When you are start\u00ading to learn, al\u00admost any rosin will work, but as you gain exper\u00adience, you will develop your own prefer\u00adences.&nbsp; There are nu\u00admer\u00adous formu\u00adlations of rosin out there; if one type of rosin does not seem to be working for you, try an\u00adother one.<br>&nbsp;<\/li><li>If you are having problems, it may have nothing to do with the brand of rosin you are using.&nbsp; For insta\u00adnce the strings and bow hair must be cleaned periodically, fail\u00adure to do so will create problems.&nbsp; Check the gauge, material, surface char\u00adacter\u00adis\u00adtics, and tension of your strings; these also have a very great influence on the bowing.<br>&nbsp;<\/li><li>New bows require extra rosin.&nbsp; Once a bow has been broken in, it requires less rosin.&nbsp; It is gen\u00aderally not neces\u00adsary to rosin your bow every time you play.<br>&nbsp;<\/li><li>The surface of a new block of rosin is not suitable for the bow.&nbsp; Remember to roughen up the surface a bit before using it.&nbsp; This may be done with sand\u00adpaper, a nail file, or even a coin.<br>&nbsp;<\/li><li>Rosin has a shelf life of about two years.&nbsp; After that, it starts to harden and change its char\u00adacter\u00adis\u00adtics.&nbsp; If you are par\u00adti\u00adcu\u00adlar about your rosin, you might wish to change it period\u00adically.<br>&nbsp;<\/li><li>There is a myth con\u00adcerning the colour of the rosin.&nbsp; The myth is that darker rosins have more grip while the lighter rosins are harder and have less grip.&nbsp; Many times a rosin is darker be\u00adcause it has dye added to it.&nbsp; Don&#8217;t trust the colour to be an in\u00addi\u00adca\u00adtion of the rosin&#8217;s char\u00adacter\u00adis\u00adtics.<br>&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Now this is really all that you need to know, but if you want more infor\u00admation read fur\u00adther.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Basics of Rosin (Biroza)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us take a closer look at rosin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The etymology of the Eng\u00adlish word &#8220;rosin&#8221; is inter\u00adest\u00ading.&nbsp; Rosin is just a variant of the word resin.&nbsp; Although this is ob\u00advious, there has arisen a slightly dif\u00adfer\u00adent colour to the two terms.&nbsp; Where the Eng\u00adlish term &#8220;resin&#8221; has ac\u00adquired a generic quality of refer\u00adring to al\u00admost any gummy extract of a plant, the term rosin has ac\u00adquired the impli\u00adcation of refer\u00adring speci\u00adfically to the refined material ex\u00adtrac\u00adted from conifers (e.g. pine trees).&nbsp; In medieval Eng\u00adlish this was re\u00adfer\u00adred to as <em>&#8220;recyn&#8221;<\/em>, <em>&#8220;resyn&#8221;<\/em>, <em>&#8220;rosyn&#8221;<\/em>, and <em>&#8220;rosine&#8221;<\/em>.&nbsp; These terms were evidently der\u00adived from the mid\u00addle-French <em>&#8220;resine&#8221;<\/em> and <em>&#8220;resin&#8221;<\/em>.&nbsp; Both the mid\u00addle Eng\u00adlish and mid\u00addle-French terms were evidently der\u00adived from the Latin <em>&#8220;resina&#8221;<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The etymology of the Hindu\u00adstani <em>&#8220;biroza&#8221;<\/em> is not clear.&nbsp; The term <em>biroza<\/em> (Urdu) is also called <em>biroja<\/em> (Hindi) and <em>baroza<\/em> (Punjabi).&nbsp; The term <em>biroza<\/em> has generic quality about it that seems to be applicable to al\u00admost any gum resin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The making of rosin is inter\u00adest\u00ading and has a long his\u00adtory.&nbsp; The ear\u00adliest forms of rosin appeared to be nothing but the natu\u00adrally weathered sap from pine trees.&nbsp; How\u00adever for a long time, rosin has been a pro\u00adduct of very sophist\u00adicated agri\u00adcultural and industrial pro\u00adcesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pro\u00adcess of making rosin ac\u00adtually begins with the pine trees.&nbsp; Some\u00adtimes live trees are tapped.&nbsp; Just as toddy palms are tapped to get <em>shendi<\/em> and maple trees are tap\u00adped to get the sap for maple syrup, in the same way pine trees are some\u00adtimes tap\u00adped to get their sap.&nbsp; How\u00adever in many places the liv\u00ading trees are not tap\u00adped, but the en\u00adtire trees are used.&nbsp; It is com\u00admon prac\u00adtice to grind pine wood into pulp for the paper in\u00addus\u00adtry.&nbsp; In such si\u00adtua\u00adtions, a mash of ground wood is heated in giant tanks known as &#8220;digesters&#8221;; these separate the wood pulp from the var\u00adious oils found in the sap of the tree.&nbsp; It is from this liquid extract that rosin is often ob\u00adtained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the saps have been col\u00adlected, the finer ver\u00adsions of rosin are made by mixing the saps from var\u00adious other trees; these may in\u00adclude larches, spruces and firs.&nbsp; The nature of these mixes are closely guarded secrets.&nbsp; These saps are then strained and heated. After they have been heated a while, the lighter tur\u00adpentine is boiled away leaving the rosin be\u00adhind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The colour of the rosin will vary due to a num\u00adber of rea\u00adsons.&nbsp; One cause for var\u00adiations in colour are the season in which the saps are tap\u00adped.&nbsp; When the saps are tapped in late winter or early spring, then the rosin tends to be hard and a have a golden colour.&nbsp; On the other hand if the saps are tap\u00adped in summer or fall then the rosin tends to be darker and gummier.&nbsp; Another rea\u00adson for the colour to be dif\u00adfer\u00adent has to do with the man\u00adner in which the saps are heated.&nbsp; It is also com\u00admon to add dyes to the rosin; this is gen\u00aderally to make the rosins more ap\u00adpealing to var\u00adious markets.&nbsp; The con\u00adsequence of adding dies to the rosin means that the colour of the rosin is not nec\u00ades\u00adsarily indicat\u00adive of its char\u00adacter\u00adis\u00adtics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It must be noted that a myriad of other ingred\u00adients may be added to rosin to alter its char\u00adacter\u00adis\u00adtics.&nbsp; Many times metals such as gold, silver, lead or copper are added to the rosin.&nbsp; It is said that this increases the friction.&nbsp; On other occasions sub\u00adstances like bees wax are also added to the mix\u00adture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although there are innumerable formu\u00adlations of rosins, the var\u00adious mixes tend to be divided into two classes for market\u00ading rea\u00adsons.&nbsp; There are the ge\u00adne\u00adral pur\u00adpose rosins, which are com\u00admonly used for violins, and there are the bass rosins.&nbsp; The violin rosins are harder and dryer while the bass rosins are gen\u00aderally softer and stickier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It should also be noted that there are also hypo\u00adallergenic rosins for those who are unfor\u00adtunate enough to be allergic to the dust from the rosin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is all well and good, but let us see what this has to do with the bowing of the instru\u00adment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Rosin and Bowing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The physics of what goes on in the act of bowing and the ef\u00adfects of the rosin are inter\u00adest\u00ading.&nbsp; At first they seem simple, but in practice there are a num\u00adber of very comp\u00adlex theo\u00adretical and prac\u00adtical con\u00adsi\u00addera\u00adtions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its simp\u00adlest, the act of drawing a bow hair across a taught mus\u00adical string may be des\u00adcribed as a pro\u00adcess of &#8220;grab and release&#8221;.&nbsp; It works like this.&nbsp; The string is pulled laterally under the force of the friction exerted ag\u00adainst the string.&nbsp; As the string moves laterally there is a gradual increase in tension.&nbsp; At some point this lateral tension be\u00adcomes greater than the force of friction, at which point there is a sudden rebound on the part of the string.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where the rosin is impor\u00adtant.&nbsp; If you have ever tied to push a box across a floor, you can feel that it is much easier to keep it moving than to start it.&nbsp; To put it an\u00adother way, we can say that the resting coefficient of re\u00adsis\u00adtance is greater than the sliding coefficient.&nbsp; The pur\u00adpose of the rosin is to accentuate this difference.&nbsp; But not every for\u00admulation of rosin does this in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pro\u00adcess of &#8220;grab and release&#8221; creates a sawtooth motion at the place where the string meets the bow.&nbsp; The acoustic con\u00adse\u00adquen\u00adces of this saw\u00adtooth motion are profound.&nbsp; It tends to cause the string to produce many more over\u00adtones than a vibrating string would normally tend to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point a lot of very comp\u00adlicated things happen.&nbsp; Some of these things happen with the string (e.g., Helmholtz motion, double-slip motions), some things happen with the skin, and some things happen with the cavity of the air inside the resonator.&nbsp; The comp\u00adlex resonance of the skin and air cavities are all very inter\u00adest\u00ading, but they are ac\u00adtually tangent\u00adial to the topic of the rosin, there\u00adfore we will not dis\u00adcuss them here.&nbsp; But the comp\u00adlex motion of the string is very sig\u00adni\u00adfi\u00adcant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The con\u00adsequence of this unusual string motion is very pro\u00adfound.&nbsp; Although we will not go into de\u00adtails here, there is one thing that must be kept in mind.&nbsp; You must be con\u00adstantly sen\u00adsitive to this resonance and constantly adjust your bowing to be part of it.&nbsp; <strong>Never forget that the motion of the string influences the grab \/ release mechanism of the bow; at the same time that this grab \/ release motion influences the motion of the string<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- March20_4_2020 -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0047309040523061\" data-ad-slot=\"9410001606\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<h2>What Is The &#8220;Bottom Line&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We dis\u00adcusses bowing and rosin in great length, but as music\u00adians we want to know the &#8220;bottom line&#8221;.&nbsp; In other words, you want me to tell you to go out and buy &#8220;such and such&#8221; rosin and all will be right with the world.&nbsp; I hate to dis\u00adappoint you, but it is just not going to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rea\u00adsons that I cannot just recommend a par\u00adti\u00adcu\u00adlar brand, is that I do not know what you are play\u00ading.&nbsp; A <em>sarangi<\/em> with its gut strings will cer\u00adtainly behave dif\u00adfer\u00adently from an <em>esraj<\/em> or <em>dilruba<\/em> with its metal strings.&nbsp; Even within <em>dilruba<\/em> \/ <em>esraj<\/em> applicat\u00adions, I do not know what your strings are, or what key you play from.&nbsp; I myself have two <em>dilrubas<\/em> and one <em>esraj<\/em> and they are all strung and tuned dif\u00adfer\u00adently.&nbsp; I also do not know what bowing technique you are using (i,e, do you bow with the hair flat ag\u00adainst the string or do you have it set at an angle).&nbsp; With these myriad of variables, there is no way that I can pontificate about what rosin you should be using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However I have given a lot of information.&nbsp; I hope that this infor\u00admation will allow you to experi\u00adment with some clear con\u00adcepts of what is going on.&nbsp; Intelligent experi\u00admentation is al\u00adways better than just randomly going out and buying every rosin under the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(OK, I know what you are think\u00ading.&nbsp; You want to know what I use.&nbsp; I prefer a nice, sticky, bass rosin.&nbsp; I find that the light coloured, hard rosins like most violins use just does not allow me to get that rich, multi-textured sound that I like.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- March20_4_2020 -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0047309040523061\" data-ad-slot=\"9410001606\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2>Selected Video<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rosin Tricks\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bznmHjB4eMs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rosin your Bow: Myth vs Fact\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ajrca-aGg-o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Violin Basics 1 - the bow and using rosin\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y2vm-ZyR5bE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2>Other Sites of Interest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/aquila.usm.edu\/theses_dissertations\/2898\/\" target=\"_blank\">Natural Antioxidants from Industrial Rosins<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/doras.dcu.ie\/18585\/\" target=\"_blank\">HPLC and Capillary Electrophoresis For Determination Of Acids, Terpenes And Aldehydes In Natural Rosins<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikibooks.org\/wiki\/Cello_Handbook\/Rosin\" target=\"_blank\">Cello Handbook\/Rosin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Bowed Indian Instruments by David Courtney Biroza, more com\u00admonly known as rosin is a gum resin which is applied to the hairs of mus\u00adical&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/misc-topics\/rosin\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Rosin (a.k.a. Biroza)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":360,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3854"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3869,"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3854\/revisions\/3869"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chandrakantha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}