One of my favourite Swedish words is stråkmönster, which means (bow)stroke pattern and is pronounced “stroke munster”. Getting the right pattern of stroking the strings with the bow is THE key element to getting the best sound with the nyckelharpa and having the right swing to the music. It is the most challenging element for me, coming as I do from a clarinet-playing background without prior bow experience. So the resemblance between the Swedish word mönster (pattern) and the English word monster is very apt. I hope this monster doesn’t eat me up. The farther I dig into this world of nyckelharpa playing, the more nuance and finesse I notice. But it is difficult to reproduce what I can now hear.

This shows a polska bowing pattern, down-bow on the first beat, up-bow on the second, and down-up on the third beat of a 3-beat measure. Thanks to Sheila Morris and Leif Alpsjö.

Some of this pattern involves stroking a single string with the bow, with or without changing the pitch with the keys. But there is also string crossing, sträng växling in Swedish, which adds a lot of difficulty. Each string has its own character and quirks. Then there is gungstråk or rocking stroke, also known as infinity bowing, which is essential for the best and most interesting sounding nyckelharpa. It can take place between two strings or on a single string. (This is also applicable to the violin.) It all adds up to the need for a lot of practice.

This is Olov’s drawing of a bow, with the infinity symbol at the lower right, and arrows indicating the movements needed for gungstråk.