Bowlback Technique: How to hold properly?

[Jim Garber]

Thanks, Eugene. As usual, you do quite well explaining these things.

[Beanzy]

Personally, I would find that the mandolin would be very hard to control using the stomach rest position (see Eoin's photo above). I want the body of the mandolin to be stable and the neck completely free to allow for position changes and enough freedom to change angles of the left hand for switching from single notes to chords.

Interesting perception.
I chose it because it was the most stable position and gave me the freest hand movement. In case anyone gets confused it's on the lower sternum and not resting on the stomach at all for me. It's the pointiest bit of the bowl that sits in there best for me. I think the stability is from the right angle triangle that forms across the body and arms, with everything in-line and no broken angles. As soon as I go to positions where the arms aren't in-line with the instrument lines then I was having to use other things to reestablish stability, I think it is for the reasons Martin gives above.

The only bit that I was initially concerned with was whether the left arm was too far forward and may be limited, but that proved to be the opposite of my initial worries. It now moves really easily up and down the neck as it works with the line of the instrument. Picking across the strings or doing sweeps is much easier for me now too as the bowl does not move and the hand is straight as it crosses all four courses. I think if the sound-board was not canted then things would be less easy and may need tweaking as the right elbow would have to be elevated to reach around the bowl, but the canted top is just the correct angle.