Saw playing has been around for some time, though as noted in Jim Leonard's Book "Scratch My Back." written documentation goes back only to about 1904. In its heyday (1920s and early 1930s) saw playing was a bit of a sensation. In 1921 Clarence Muessehl founded the first professional musical saw company and for the next decade was selling upwards of 30,000 saws a year. Saws were found in vaudeville acts as well as dance bands, but vaudeville was dying and more versatile instruments (e.g. Hawaiian guitar and Dobro) that could make similar sounds soon supplanted the saw.

Some commercial carpenters' saws can be used instead of a saw made expressly for music; Stephen Christoff performs on a Sandvik Stradivarius, the same as the saw pictured above. This saw has a limited musical range because of its smaller size. Use of non-musical saws often requires extra skill to overcome limitations in the saw.

The player bends the blade into an "S" shape then creates a vibration (hence a tone) at the junction of the two opposite curves of the S by using the bow, much as a violin player sets a string into vibration. The pitch of the saw is controlled by flexing the blade: a straighter, relaxed blade results in a lower pitch while increasing the bend raises the pitch. A skilled player can apply the right amount of smooth vibrato to notes. Less skilled players often lack tight pitch control; this can result in wide pitch sweeps rather than well-defined notes. It can be difficult to hear the melody with the notes swirling around.

Because it takes some strength and considerable muscle control to keep the saw in tune, saw players often begin to lose pitch control after several songs. It's wise to allow breaks to let the muscles recover.