Learning the violin is a life journey. Whatever attracted you to start, whether it was a particular performance, the uniquely beautiful sound of the violin, a desire to learn a new skill or the fact you had always wanted to play an instrument, there’s a lot of fun ahead. For more advanced students too, as you deepen your relationship with the instrument and the repertoire, there is always more to learn.
Progress takes diligence and patience, but there are certain things you can do that will keep you on the right track. These ten violin-playing tips can be followed at every level of playing and will have a really positive impact on your experience of the violin. Treat yourself to an immersive, holistic learning journey. If you’re stuck, if your practice feels stagnant, or progress has ground to a halt, use these ten tips as a checklist for progress.
Start with a good quality instrument
There are many low-cost student violin kits on the market, and some of them are really horrible! They sound bad, look cheap, and even the most experienced professional would find them hard to play. Shop around for the best instrument you can afford. Nobody expects you to turn up to your first lesson, or even your 101st lesson, with a Stradivarius, but you will learn better if the violin works well.
There are plenty of good student sets too, and an experienced luthier will be able to improve a low-cost instrument by refining the set-up. Ask your teacher’s advice before buying a violin and talk to your violin shop about fitting a good violin bridge. If you don’t want to commit straight away, many dealerships offer rental options while you look around for the right violin to buy.
Take lessons
The cost of violin lessons can seem high, but one-to-one time with an experienced tutor is invaluable. Your teacher will assess where you are in the learning process and which skills you need to work on. A skilled musician will direct your learning and identify problems before you develop bad habits. One-to-one lessons offer a great opportunity for development. Modern technology gives the opportunity to have wonderful learning experiences wherever you are in the world. Many students now have violin lessons over Skype with their teacher in a different city or even continent.
Nowadays, many learners take lessons via webcam using software such as Skype.
Put in the practise
Daily practise WILL lead to progress. Yes, there’s the research that says it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill, but don’t feel you have to practise for hours every day to see improvement. Much more important is HOW you practise. Work undertaken with focused concentration pays off, but mindless repetition can actually set you back. Study in small time-blocks with lots of breaks, maintaining an awareness of your focus. Before repeating a task, identify where the problem is and what you are aiming to change.
Include your body
It takes a lot of brainpower to play the violin, but ultimately you make the sound by moving your body. Do some simple warm-up stretches before practising and keep a spot check of your posture throughout the session. Notice any areas of tension, analyse what is causing them (I’m clenching my jaw because I am trying too hard; I’m raising my right shoulder because I’m worried I will drop the bow). If you can’t release the tension by yourself, ask your teacher’s advice. Many problems can be resolved by simply remembering to breathe and maintaining awareness.
A flexible, well-balanced body posture is essential for good violin-playing.
Listen to yourself
When learning how to manage the violin physically, it is sometimes hard to concentrate on how you sound. And because the violin is placed so close to the left ear, it is not always easy to get a real sense of how the performance sounds to others. Record your practise as often as you can. Listen back, looking for positives as well as points you want to improve.
Listen to others
Whatever repertoire you are learning, it is really important to listen to the piece. By listening to other violinists, not only will you develop a well-rounded idea of your piece, you will develop your ear. Passive listening (listening away from your instrument) can improve pitch, tone and phrasing, while active listening (with the music in front of you and the violin or an air violin in your hand) can actually trigger physical improvements and musical insights. For example, miming your bowing along with a section of a recording can deepen your muscle memory of that bowing, and help identify problem areas. There are literally thousands of videos and recordings available on YouTube, featuring some of the greatest violinists who ever lived. Sometimes you can even get ideas for fingerings and bowings by watching your favourite soloist play!
Work on scales and technique
Technical exercises and scales are the building blocks of violin music. Working on these simple patterns out of context of the repertoire gives an opportunity to improve intonation and tone production across the board. Scales also help teach an understanding of key. You’ll find loads of scales and technical exercises in our resource library.
Find out about the music
All music, no matter how simple, comes with some historical and social context. Is your piece based on a dance or a song? Who was the composer, and when was it written. For more substantial pieces, it can be interesting to find out why the work was composed and what was going on in the composer’s life at the time. If someone had fallen in love or was suffering from depression, those feelings will be reflected in the music and might inform how you choose to express certain phrases.
Performance practice
A major reason we get nervous during performance is because it is an unfamiliar situation and therefore fraught with pressure. Practise performing, either by simulating performances where you play your piece without stopping to an armchair full of teddy bears or smart phone microphone, or set up performance opportunities with friends. Integrate the act of performing into your preparation and it will soon feel natural.
To give a good performance, you need to practise performing! Make performance practice part of your regular practice habits.
Keep it simple
It is easy to panic and feel stressed if things are not going to plan. Whatever your age or playing level, a bad practise session can feel like a personal disaster. If your practise is really going badly, stop! Take a break, go for a short walk, try some breathing exercises or have a glass of water. Never pick up your violin expecting it to feel the same as it did yesterday, that would be like walking into a room and finding everyone in the exact same mood they were the day before.
Begin where you are today, with a sense of exploration. If something will not go right, break it down to open strings, practise some slow bows or go back to relaxed scales.
If you want to find a topic about which most violinists will disagree, the subject of shoulder rests should be high on your list! Every violinist has their own preference about which shoulder rest to use, if at all. Shoulder rests have only been in mainstream use since the 1950s, and some players still view them with suspicion!
Some people argue that a shoulder rest can reduce your agility, and that the violin becomes stable in relation to your body position - it cannot be moved around as easily. Some types of shoulder rest can also cause a slight muffling of the sound. But generally these are not significant enough issues, and nowadays many people prefer to use a shoulder rest (although it is still common for players of baroque violin not to use one).
The purpose of a shoulder rest is to give you more comfort and flexibility when you are playing. This is particularly the case if you are practicing, rehearsing or performing for a long period of time. If a shoulder rest is correctly adjusted, this should also improve your technique and prevent any long term neck problems.
Choosing a shoulder rest is more about finding one that is appopriate to the shape of your own body than that of your violin. The lenght of your neck and the breadth of your shoulders are the most important factors to consider.
You will also need to work out exactly where the right playing position for your violin is in relation to your body. To do this, hold the instrument as if are about to play. Ensure that your shoulders are relaxed, and keep your neck straight, without projecting your head forwards. Once you're in this stable position, you simply need to identify which shoulder rest fits best between the violin and your collar bone.
It is very important that you try out different types of shoulder rest to find out what works most effectively for you. If a music shop gives you a shoulder rest and expects you to buy it without trying it out, refuse! Make sure that you allow plenty of time and insist that a shop gives you the opportunity to try out different types of rest before making your purchase.
Finding the most comfortable shoulder rest is a bit like looking for a new technique in your playing: you need to work out what is most comfortable for you, that also gives you the most flexibility of movement. Experiment with different shapes, and if necessary consider bending the rest into a shape that feels comfortable, or try using a cloth, sponge, or other adaptation to see if you get a better result.
Above all, remember that a shoulder rest is a piece of equipment that is extremely personal to you. By trial and error, and with plenty of persistence, you will find the setup that is right for you.
Sheet music shops, like bookshops for the avid reader, are a wonderful resource for the violin student. Since the advent of online shopping, they are also becoming a rarity. The tactile and satisfying experience of looking through shelves of crisp, new music has given way to a search engine, a click of the mouse and guaranteed next-day delivery.
However, music shops still have their place. It’s much easier and more interesting to gauge the content of a tutor book or scale manual, search for chamber music for your group or find the score for your favourite piece when you can look through the pages of music.
For ViolinSchool learners based in London, there are a number of established sheet music stores. Many of them have online shops, but they can offer a much more specialist, personal service in store. There’s also always the opportunity to buy a few extra treats; a new book of pieces, a shiny pin badge or a pencil shaped like a treble clef…
Yamaha Music London used to be called Chappell of Bond Street, before it was incorporated into the Yamaha fold. Based on Wardour Street in Soho, a short walk from either Tottenham Court Road or Oxford Circus tube, it has an extensive sheet music department.
Also in Soho, at 48 Great Marlborough Street, Schott Music is a smaller shop, but no less expert. Schott is also one of the leading publishers of classical music.
Another famous music publisher, Boosey and Hawkes, used to have a shop right by the world-class chamber music venue, the Wigmore Hall. They relocated in 2005, and are now based in Covent Garden on Aldwych, right in Theatreland.
Chimes Musichave three stores in London, each one within easy reach of one of the top music colleges. The Kensington shop, two minutes from South Kensington tube is close to the Royal College of Music, they have a store at the Barbican Centre, convenient for Guildhall students, and their third shop is inside the Royal Academy of Music’s York Gate building.
Foyles is well known as a bookshop, but their Charing Cross Road branch specialises in music too. The entire third floor of the store is devoted to music, with sheet music, books and CDs for sale where originally the shop stocked gramophone records.
Musicroom is an internet-based company with a huge online store, and a shop in most major cities. Musicroom London is on Denmark Street in Soho.
There are also numerous small sheet music shops in London’s ‘towns’. Check out your local area to see if there’s a hidden gem such as North London’s Islington Music. Tucked behind Upper Street, Islington Music has a range of sheet music as well as instruments and accessories. In East Dulwich, South London Music are the local sheet music specialists, and in Camden Town, Dots Music boasts an ever-increasing stock.
If you don’t get into central London much, and are anxious that any shop you choose to visit may not have what you need, there’s always the option to phone in advance and ask for advice. Sheet music shops are a pleasure to visit, and these businesses thrive despite Internet shopping, so take the opportunity to immerse yourself in an exciting aspect of learning, and next time you need to buy some music, visit your local sheet-music shop.
Auld Lang Syne is sung around the world every New Year's Eve, so today, why not try playing it on the violin?
Happy New Year from everyone at ViolinSchool. Here's to a wonderful year of music-making in 2017!
At this time of great change, as people across the world celebrate this special time of year, it's more important than ever for us to remember the great human values that draw us together.
At ViolinSchool, we celebrate our two 'guiding forces': Creativity and Community.
Community binds us together through shared musical experiences and brings joy and understanding to our lives.
Creativity allows us to be inspired; to dream, to imagine and to create the wonderful musical expressions that previously seemed unimaginable.
The whole ViolinSchool team is taking a few days out to rest, re-energise, and prepare for an epic few months ahead. Wherever you are today, we wish you a peaceful and restful holiday season.
ViolinSchool Support is closed on 25 & 26 December, with limited service only on the 27th. See you again from 28th December onwards!
As you can imagine, we see hundreds of violins pass through the doors of ViolinSchool each year, and for our London students, a lot of time and energy is spent ensuring that violins are in tip top condition.
This page will give you the low-down on all the violin shops in London. We are in contact with most of London's violin shops, but we maintain complete impartiality. By listening to the feedback from you, our students, we are constantly monitoring the quality and integrity of London's violin shops, and reflecting as accurately as we can the strengths and weaknesses of each.
This page is focused on Violin Shops (which are usually string shops - catering also for viola, cello and bass instruments). But don't forget that many general music retailers also supply entry-level violins, and you can also find a good selection of instruments on the internet (and also a very bad selection... we will write more about how to avoid being ripped off soon!).
Violin Shops in London
Stringers - Marylebone
The appropriately-named Stringers actually takes its name from the proprietor, Maureen Stringer, who opened the company in Edinburgh. More recently, they have begun trading very succesfully in London, and now have a dedicated shop in Lisson Grove, near Marylebone Station.
Guivier is the grandfather of violin shops. Since the 1960s, they have been trading at their shop in Mortimer Street (near Oxford Circus), but the history of the company goes way back into the early 20th Century.
Gareth Ballard has set up his violin workshop near Imperial War Museum in Lambeth. Gareth offers a very personal service and have much experience in getting the most out of musicians instruments as well as repair/restoration and hand crafting new instruments.
The Violin Orchestra had so much fun in London last week playing the Pirates of the Caribbean theme tune, amongst other great music... if you missed the livestream, you can still see it on our Facebook page! (including the attack on our conductor by Domini the Pirate!)
Here's another great interpretation of He's a Pirate by Hans Zimmer, by Mr Cool Violin himself, the virtuoso violinist David Garrett.
It's that time of year again... The Violin Orchestra is back today with a Christmas Concert & Livestream today, Saturday 10th December!
To celebrate, we've made all our Christmas Carols free to download for everyone until the end of the weekend... you can grab them here!
If you'd like to play along with The Violin Orchestra, join us on our facebook page for the livestream... our London learners will play solos from 2pm, and then The Violin Orchestra will be performing from approx 3.20pm London time today (Saturday 10th December).
p.s. In London, UK? Join us in person at The Warehouse, Waterloo from 2pm (doors open 1.45pm). Entry by donation, no ticket needed - just turn up!
The circle of fifths is a musical theory tool that has its roots firmly in mathematics. It explores the relationships between those musical intervals that are most pleasing to the ear, based on discoveries made by the mathematician Pythagoras two and a half thousand years ago.
Pythagoras discovered and investigated the most basic facts about frequency and pitch. He found that there were mathematical ratios between notes. The octave, which is the most basic interval, the point at which pitches seem to duplicate, has a natural 2:1 ratio. If a string of a certain length is set in vibration it will produce a particular note. The shorter the string is, the more times it will vibrate per second, once it is set in vibration. When a string vibrates more times per second, the pitch of the note produced is higher. Therefore, if the string is kept at the same tension but its length is halved, it will produce a note one octave higher than the first. The same happens when you blow through a tube of air. A tube twice the length will produce a note an octave lower.
The circle of fifths, sometimes called the Pythagorean circle, is a diagram with twelve points that represent the twelve semitones within an octave. It is a chart rather like a clock face that organises all the keys into a system and can be used to relate them to one another. It is called a circle of fifths because each step of the circle is a perfect fifth from the next. The fifth is the interval that is closest in character to the octave, in that it is more consonant (less dissonant) or stable than any interval except the octave (or the unison).
A perfect interval is one where natural overtones occur. If you play a note on your violin and listen closely, you will hear the pitch you are playing. You will also hear overtones sounding. The most significant of these, or the easiest to hear, is usually the fifth. Where the ratio of frequencies between octaves is 2:1, the ratio of the frequencies of the fundamental to the fifth is 2:3. A perfect fifth is an interval of seven semitones. These seven semitones represent the building blocks from the first note of a scale to the fifth.
Watch this video for a clear description of how the circle of fifths is built.
The circle of fifths is useful because it shows the relationship between the keys, key signatures and chords.
It can be used to:
find the key of a piece
transpose it to a different key
compose new music
understand harmony and scales
Now you’ve watched the video on how to make a circle of fifths, have a look at this interactive circle of fifths. You can use it to look at the relationships between chords in any key.
So what is the circle of fifths useful for?
It is possible to learn the order of sharps and flats as they occur in music by using the circle of fifths. You can work out how many sharps or flats are in a key, and also which notes are sharpened or flattened.
If you look clockwise around the circle you will see the order in which the sharps appear in the key signature. When there is one sharp, it is F#. When there are two, they are F# and C#. Three sharps will be F#, C# and G# and so on.
Looking round the circle in an anticlockwise direction shows the order of flats. If there is one flat it is Bb. Two flats are Bb and Eb. Three are always Bb, Eb and Ab, and so on.
In a circle of fifths in the major keys, C major appears at the top of the circle. C major has no sharps or flats. The next key in a clockwise direction is G major. G major has one sharp, which we now know is F#. Then comes D major which has F# and C#. Going in the other direction, F major has one flat, Bb. Bb major has two flats, Eb major has three flats.
Use the interactive circle of fifths above to notice the enharmonic changes this creates in flat keys between, for example F# and Gb. Look at the circle in D major and then in Db major to see how the pitches are renamed. Two notes that have the same pitch but are represented by different letter names and accidentals are described as enharmonic.
The circle of fifths can also be used to work out which keys are related to each other. You can see that the keys on either side of C are F and G. Therefore, the two closest keys to C, which has no sharps or flats, are F, which has one flat, and G, which has one sharp. F and G therefore make up the primary chords in C major. F is chord IV, the subdominant, and G is chord V, the dominant. Using these three chords you can build the standard chord progression IV V I.
The secondary chords are those further away from the note of your key, so in C major, D, A and E would be secondary chords, which means they may appear in the harmony of your piece but are not as strong as the primary chords.
Watch these two clips. They explain how the circle of fifths works in major and minor keys:
The circle of fifths is also useful for understanding chord progressions such as those from dominant seventh chords. Dominant seventh chords have a tendency to want to go towards another chord. They contain a dissonance that melodically and harmonically needs to resolve. The chord that the dominant seventh resolves to is one fifth lower, so A7 resolves to D major, F7 resolves to Bb major, and so on. If you are asked to play a dominant seventh in the key of D, you will start on the note A.
Here is another clip explaining how to use the circle of fifths to understand your scales.
The model of a circle of fifths, with the consequent understanding of chord progressions and harmony and the hierarchy and relationships between keys, has played a hugely important part in Western music.
The violin bridge is a device designed both to support the strings and to transmit their vibrations to the body of the instrument. Made from maple wood, the shape of the bridge varies from one violin to another, and its placing and fit have a significant impact on the tone and playability of the instrument.
Violin bridge fitting is a task best assigned to a trained luthier with specialist knowledge. The height, thickness, placing, shape and top curve of the bridge are all vital to how the violin will work.
Student violin kits often arrive in the mail without the bridge set in place. Instruments are packed this way to avoid breakages in transit.
The bridge that comes with a beginner instrument will often be a chunky, approximate cut, far too thick to vibrate well. Oddly, violins designed for beginners can therefore be more difficult to play than those owned by advanced players.
When your violin arrives, take it to a good violin shop or luthier to set the bridge up. Violin bridge fitting involves a certain amount of refining and shaping as well as knowing where to place the bridge.
Every bridge starts out as a ‘blank’, a crude, thick, unshaped design. Bridge blanks come in different sizes. A standard full-size bridge is 41.5 millimetres wide, but a narrow violin will require a smaller bridge. A trained luthier will be able to tell you if your violin needs a non-standard bridge.
A good bridge blank shows a longer grain of wood on the front where it will face towards the fingerboard, and shorter grain on the back where it will face the tailpiece.
How does a bridge blank become a bridge?
The feet of the bridge sit on the belly of the violin. When the bridge blank arrives, the feet will be flat, but the belly of the violin is curved. Some violins have a higher belly arch than others and no two are the same.
The feet of the bridge must be sanded so that they sit firmly on the belly. As the bridge is held in place by the tension of the strings and NEVER glued in place, this element of violin bridge fitting is crucial. The better the fit, the more contact the bridge has with the belly, meaning the vibration travels down into the body of the instrument unhindered.
The top of the bridge (which is most likely the same height on both sides of your bridge blank) must be shaped and cut down so that the arch and string height is correct. A standard height for the E string is 3mm above the fingerboard while the G string rises 5mm.
Again this will very from one instrument to another and from player to player. If this shape is cut badly, the violinist will experience difficulty in crossing strings. If the strings are too high they will require too much left hand pressure which can cause tension, and equally strings that are too low can cause left hand discomfort and distortion in the sound as too much of the string is in contact with the fingerboard.
Once the violin bridge is fitted to the correct height, it then needs to be properly shaped. The back of the bridge will remain at a right angle to the body of the violin, but the front of the bridge must be thinned.
Carving out much of the wood again improves the transmission of vibrations from the strings to the body of the instrument. The ankles can be narrowed, the feet be made thinner and the ‘kidneys’, the holes that look decorative but have the function of reducing the bulk of the bridge, can be carved out.
Too much wood in a bridge will dampen the sound of the violin in the same way that placing a mute on a well-fitting bridge produces a more muffled sound because it prevents the bridge from vibrating to its full extent.
Finally, grooves must be added so that the strings can sit on the bridge. The strings should sit on top of the bridge and never sink into the wood, again to aid vibration.
An old bridge that has developed deep grooves can be adjusted with veneers to raise the strings. Strings left sinking into a bridge can also cause warping, as the bridge will be tugged back and forward every time the violin is tuned.
Can I fit my own violin bridge?
If your violin bridge has fallen over or received a knock, it is sometimes possible to set it back in place by looking carefully at the marks on the varnish of the belly which will show where the feet normally sit. However, if you have an older instrument, there may be numerous such ‘footprints’ which will make it hard to set.
Loosen your strings and place the bridge on the violin, making sure the lower side is on the E-string side of your violin. Tighten the strings a little at a time, ensuring that the back of the bridge remains perpendicular with the belly of the violin.
Tightening the strings can cause the bridge to pull forward, and if left leaning either forward or backwards the bridge can easily warp over time: As the strings pull down on the bridge the feet will stay in direct contact with the belly causing the bridge to bend.
If your bridge is cut badly or your instrument is of better quality than a basic student kit model, it is advisable always to take it to a professional to adjust the bridge. The shape and fitting of the bridge is so integral to the sound it is not worth getting it wrong, and whilst the bridge is easy enough to move it is also easy to break or damage.
Never change your strings by removing them all at once; change them one at a time and watch out for the bridge pulling or leaning forward as you tune the new string.
Ask your luthier to show you the optimum position for your bridge, and check it regularly to see that it is not leaning. A new bridge is expensive and unless a bridge has warped or broken it should last many years.
To get the best out of your violin and your playing, it is important to have your bridge shaped and fitted by an expert. Just as you could cut your own hair but you might regret the results, there is a complex knowledge bank behind the skill of violin bridge fitting.
There are countless videos on YouTube giving various levels of advice, but they cannot replace the specialist training and understanding of a luthier. That small piece of maple takes the vibrations from your violin strings and produces the mighty singing voice of your violin. Treat it well and it will reward you with years of beautiful sounds.
Here's a lovely piece of music for a Sunday! The legendary jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli performs Blue Moon at a live trio recording from 1990. Enjoy!
Christmas is a-coming! Let's kick off the season with an old favourite, Jingle Bells! Click the image below to go to the free download page, and grab your copy today. O what fuuun it is to play our Jing-le Bells todaaaayyy.... !!
Here's a wonderful piece of violin history! American virtuoso Itzhak Perlman reminisces about his first meeting, as a student, with the legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz, at the Juilliard School in New York. Heifetz tried to catch Perlman out (though Perlman is too modest to say it like that!), by asking for a really difficult set of scales. Luckily, Perlman had done his practice...
Scales are really important for giving you clarify and confidence in your left hand, and we recommend to build a conscientious scale routine into your regular violin practice. If you're new to this practice technique, check out our article How to Practise Scales which will help you to get started!
Yesterday we shared Benjamin Zander's wonderful TED talk, The Transformational Power of Classical Music. Here's another - actually the most viewed TED talk ever - about creativity in Education. It's now over a decade old, but has lost none of its power and urgency... Sir Ken Robinson's message about placing creativity at the heart of education is inspirational, funny and moving all at the same time.
We watch this video every couple of years to re-inspire and energise ourselves... If you've never seen this video before, watch it now, you won't regret it!
Here at ViolinSchool towers we're all buzzing with excitement... we've launched our new flagship Violin Course, we're cracking on with getting the online courses out to you, and our ViolinSchool Blog starts up again today on our new ViolinSchool.com website! And what better way to begin with one of our favourite ever videos, The Transformative Power of Classical Music TED talk by conductor Benjamin Zander. Enjoy!
If you enjoyed this video, you might also like Zander's book The Art of Possibility - a thoroughly inspiring and uplifting read that's a massively helpful tool for developing good performance and practice psychology.
Introducing The Violin Course, our new flagship study program, developed exclusively by the team at ViolinSchool:
The basic building blocks of music are rhythm, pitch, and sound. When a scale is played well, the pitch is even so all of the notes with the same name in different octaves are in tune with each other. The tone quality and rhythm are even, not disturbed by bow changes or shifts. Evenness does not mean that the scale is robotic. Each note has its own musical character.
Once you have practised your scale so pitch, sound and rhythm are all good, the next thing to go for is to make it feel easy. Simon Fischer suggests that a nice way to do this is that each time you do something well, you should then see if you can achieve the same result with half the effort, then half the effort again. He says that until you can play something well with little effort, there is still room for improvement.
Instead of practising your scales as complete figures, work on the elements of each scale. The scale can be broken down into different components or “problems” such as one octave scales, shifting exercises, exercises for the coordination of left and right hands, finger preparation and finger placement. Rather than repeating a scale mindlessly over and over, search for exercises within the scale to address the particular problems you are having.
Here are some ideas for developing your scale practice…
Developing the Right Hand
Apply rhythms, accents and bowing patterns to all of your scales and arpeggios. This will produce the greatest improvement in the shortest time. Ivan Galamian, the famous violin teacher believed that by learning how to play different rhythm patterns you discover and repair all the weak areas where you don’t really know what to do with the bow and fingers, or where your fingers move too slowly.
Practice with different dynamics. This trains the bow for greater control. Combine crescendos and diminuendos within the space of each octave or between the bottom and top of the scale.
Tone
Play long smooth notes on an open string, for example, the A-string. Listen for the smoothness of tone. Now place your fingers on another string, such as the G-string, in a scale sequence whilst still playing the A. Try to keep the tone of the A as even and smooth as before. Build up the left hand activity to include a shift to third position and back down.
Ideas for the Left Hand
Start at the top of the scale instead of the bottom.
Practice scales within the limits of one position. This exercise is the first in the Schradieck book of scale studies and will teach you the hand positions in every part of the fingerboard.
Intonation
The major scale contains five whole steps and two half steps like this: T T S T T T S. If you think of this pattern as two groups of four notes that are joined by a tone, you can see the symmetry of the shape.
A scale should be built so that each note is heard relative to its position in the key. Each note of the scale has a unique hierarchical function and understanding this is important for building good intonation. The great cellist, Pablo Casals, and the famous violin teacher Dorothy DeLay both independently used this idea to devise a system for structuring the scale to hear the tuning within it.
Begin with the notes of what are called the perfect intervals. These are the first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale. In A major this would be A D E and A. In G major it would be G C D and G. Play only these notes all the way up your scale and back down again.
Then add the leading note, the seventh pitch. In G major this would be F#. This note leads to the key - note. Feel the sense of upward pull towards the key – note or tonic.
Next add the second and sixth notes.
Building the scale using this sequence is musically satisfying. Remember to try it in all the major and minor keys you are learning. It is easy to forget to work on all the different keys. In fact, when Carl Flesch first published his system of scales, it was only written out in C major, the idea being that his students would use the exercises in every key. Flesch realised that in reality many students only practised C major, so he wrote out the system in every key and even added bowing and rhythm patterns, and this is how Das Skalensystem was created.
Take a small section of your scale. Notice which fingers you can leave down and which you need to lift. By leaving fingers down you will give strength to the hand shape, making intonation more reliable, and by avoiding unnecessary finger movements you will gain an economy of movement, which is helpful when you want to play faster.
Use as many different fingering combinations as you can find, don’t always stick to the same one. By learning different fingerings your intonation will develop and you will have more freedom of expression and musical choice in your pieces.
Speed of Left Hand Fingers
Practice a section of your scale using short, repeated fast bow strokes on each note; say four sautillé notes on each pitch. Learning to sound these short notes will improve coordination between left and right hands and the left hand fingers will learn to move faster.
Shifting
“Trill” the shifts. Take an awkward shift and start working on it slowly, trilling between the two notes. Gradually speed it up to make it sound like a trill.
Practice scales on one string. Take a one-octave scale and learn to play it on one string, keeping a good hand position. Can you play a two-octave scale on one string? This may seem difficult but when you return to your three octave scale it will seem much more approachable.
Practice scales using only first and second fingers, shifting every two notes.
Practice the scale with the note before the shift missed out, instead repeating the previous note.
Identify your problem shift and isolate it. Can you find an exercise in the Sevçik book of Preparatory Scale Studies that will help you improve the shift?
Practice your shifts with “ghost notes.” Work out where the hand is going. Is there an intermediate note you can sound? This is particularly good for downward shifts where the hand is going to a position where it lands on a weaker finger. Practice these ghost notes in dotted rhythms and gradually eliminate the extra note whilst keeping an awareness of how the shift works.
Mindfulness
Another benefit of breaking your scales down into their separate elements is to give you a chance to learn to use your body in a comfortable, natural way. Practising long scale sequences in a mechanical way leaves no space for awareness and leaves you vulnerable to strain and injury. Breaking down your scale practice into bite-size exercises leaves the mental space for mindfulness of how the muscles are achieving the end result. This will give you better, more secure, long-term results.
Improving Your Scales
In the introduction to his book of scales, Contemporary Violin Technique, Ivan Galamian explains, “The direct way to … mastery lies through working procedures which present a constant challenge to the … thinking processes. For this reason new problems must always be faced and solved.”
There are various books of scale studies available, the newest of which is Scales by Simon Fischer; a written-out practice full of comprehensive exercises for improving scale practice. There are also the scale studies by Jahnke, Hrimaly, Schradieck and Sevçik which can look a bit intimidating, but many of which contain similar ideas. For less advanced exercises try the Paul Harris series, Improve Your Scales, which are graded by the ABRSM system, so they start right at the beginning.
Practice in as creative a way as you can so your mind is always switched on and always learning. By analysing and exploring the elements of a scale and practising it in different ways, the original scale will seem much easier when you return to it, and your enjoyment of your scale practice will increase. There is nothing worse, after all, than practising something you find boring and not getting anywhere!
On this page you can learn the G major violin scale. Build up your understanding in different ways by using the video to link your aural and visual memories, the fingering guide to link your intellectual and physical memories, and the 'visual grid' to link the physical, visual and intellectual memories.
As you start to get familiar with the patterns and start to rely more and more on your aural senses, your intellectual/physical knowledge of the scale will begin to become 'automatic'. Then, you can start to use the sheet music as a quick visual reference for which notes you need to play.
VIDEO GUIDE:
how to play a G major scale
Here is a video guide explaining how to play the G major scale:
FINGERING GUIDE: which fingers to use
The symbols below will show you which fingers you need to use, so that you can play the scale without needing to read the sheet music.
The letter represents which string to use
The number represents which finger to use
e.g. - 'E1' = 1st finger on the E string, 'D3' = 3rd finger on the D string
[close] indicates that the two notes are next to each other, i.e. there is NOT space for another note inbetween
[wide] indicates that the two notes are one step apart from each other, i.e. there IS space for another note inbetween
Here is the one octave scale, which uses just the G and D strings:
Going up:
G [wide] G1 [wide] G2 [close] G3 [wide*]
D [wide] D1 [wide] D2 [close] D3
Coming down:
D3 [close] D2 [wide] D1 [close] D [wide*]
G3 [close] G2 [wide] G1 [close] G
*if you prefer, you can use a 4th finger instead of an open D string on both the way up and the way down. The interval still sounds 'wide' (known as a 'tone'), whichever way you choose.
Here is the two octave G major scale, which uses all the strings of the violin:
Going up:
G [wide] G1 [wide] G2 [close] G3 [wide]
D [wide] D1 [wide] D2 [close] D3 [wide]
A [wide] A1 [close] A2 [wide] A3 [wide]
E [wide] E1 [close] E2
Coming down:
E2 [close] E1 [wide] E [wide]
A3 [wide] A2 [close] A1 [wide] A [wide]
D3 [close] D2 [wide] D1 [wide] D [wide]
G3 [close] G2 [wide] G1 [wide] G
VISUAL GRID: where to put your fingers
Here is a visual 'grid' showing where to place the fingers on the fingerboard:
SHEET MUSIC: notation to remind you which notes to play
Here is the sheet music notation for a two octave G major scale:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is the quintessential piece for people beginning to play the violin! It's actually a great choice because it's fairly straightforward to play with three fingers and two open strings (A and D).
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is one of the best-known melodies in the world, and one of the first songs that children often learn.
The English lyrics were first written by London-born poet, Jane Taylor and published in 1806 with the title "The Star" in Rhymes for the Nursery.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
The original poem has five verses, but only the first is well known.
In this video, Simon from ViolinSchool takes you through the piece 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. Learn the piece by playing along with the video and following the instructions! If you need a written guide on which fingers to use, check out the instructions below:
Here is the finger pattern you need to use in order to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The letter represents the string, and the number represents the correct finger. So 'D' would be the open D string (no fingers), and 'D1' would be first finger on the D string, etc. etc. If a note is in bold, you should hold it for two counts (beats) instead of one.
If you'd like to learn how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and many more great pieces for the violin, you can become a member of ViolinSchool and benefit from lots of great online resources including video tuition, live online classes, music libraries, and much much more!
Following a major upgrade on 5th November, we’re rolling out our long-awaited Online Courses between now and the end of the end of the year.
Our new Online Community is now available for members once you’ve logged in, and our program of Live Online Classes begins from 7th November.
Our twice-annual Violin Orchestra project is underway… this Christmas, you’ll be able to take part ‘virtually’ by sending in your recordings from wherever you are!
Or if you’re in the UK, join us in London on 10th December for our live webcast!
If you’re new to ViolinSchool, start with our New Learner Questionnaire which will show you where to begin learning!
If you’ve got any question or need help learning the violin, then get in contact with our Learner Support team anytime! We’re here 7 days a week to help you learn:
In this feature, we'll take a look at how often you should practise sight-reading, what music you should use, and how to structure your sight-reading practice to get the best results.
When and what to practise
Sight-reading is an important skill that you should be developing regularly during your usual violin practice sessions. A good approach is to try at least one new piece of music every day (or every time you practise). If you have lots of time to practise (e.g. 2 or more hours per day), then of course you can do more than that!
Sight-reading practice doesn't have to take long. You can just choose a very short piece of music to read. Try to get into the habit of playing something new 'at sight' as often as you can. If you're a member of ViolinSchool, you can start with our library of sight-reading exercises - if you have time, try a new one every day!
When it comes to developing the skill of sight-reading, consistency and regularity of practice is far more important than length or difficulty. If you practise sight-reading simple pieces a lot, then your sight-reading skills will improve, and you'll find it much easier when you eventually try to sight-read longer and more difficult music.
But if you start trying to sight-read repertoire that's too advanced for you, you will struggle to develop your skills correctly, and you may become demotivated. So be sure that you're not trying to tackle pieces that are too hard.
How to practise sight-reading
So you're in your practice room and you've chosen the piece or exercise that you want to use to develop your sight-reading skills.
But what do you do next?
Here's a useful method we've developed that will help you stay focused in your practice:
1) TRY IT!
Glance over the whole piece that you're about to play, and make sure you consider everything on 'The Sight-Reading Checklist', so that you're clear about exactly what you need to do.
Then, try playing it through once - straight through from beginning to end. Don't stop, don't go back, just perform it as best you can.
2) PRACTISE IT!
Now it's time for a second look. Play through the piece again, but do it slowly, carefully, and fastidiously... this time, you can stop and practise any bits that need practising.
3) METRONOME IT!
Play it through again - this time with a metronome! One of THE most important things to consider when you're sight-reading something is the timing - particularly the pulse of the music and the rhythm of the notes.
Don't worry about making mistakes - it's usually much more important for the music to STAY IN TIME than it is to get every note 100% right.
This is especially the case if you are playing with other people; even if the notes aren't totally accurate it's still possible to keep playing together, but if one person gets the timings wrong then the whole piece will fall apart!
4) PERFORM IT!
Imagine you are giving a concert, and try to give the best performance you possibly can - make it confident, convincing, accurate, and musical. Remember, you're now practising performing as well as sight-reading... so whatever you do, don't stop! You can always go back and fix any mistakes afterwards.
**
Remember this list to help keep your sight-reading practice efficient and effective!
TRY IT
PRACTISE IT
METRONOME IT
PERFORM IT!
**
Always remember that sight-reading is a learnable skill, so the more you do it, the better you'll become. Sight-reading is a critical skill for succeeding in a group environment, so you'll also rapidly build up your confidence - which is especially useful if you're playing with other people.
By making time for sight-reading on a regular basis and ensuring that you are always practising in a clear, ordered way, you will also be improving your overall musicianship and performance skills, as well as your violin technique.
The violinists’ chin rest and shoulder rest are accessories designed to facilitate ease of movement in violin playing. They should make holding the violin feel secure and comfortable. But how do you choose the right chin rest and shoulder rest? Should you make do with the chin rest that arrives with the instrument, or is it worth trying different shapes and sizes? And how do you know when a shoulder rest fits?
An early type of chin rest
The chin rest was invented in the 1800’s by a violinist called Louis Spohr. Spohr is less well known today, but during his lifetime he was very famous – as famous as Beethoven. He was the leader of orchestras in Vienna, Frankfurt and Kassel, and also wrote a substantial number of compositions. He was responsible for the preservation and promotion of works by Bach and Handel, and the violin music he composed is difficult.
His invention of a small rest for the chin was designed to enable the left hand to move more freely between positions, giving security in higher registers and more mobility around the fingerboard. The first chinrest was very small and placed centrally over the tailpiece, but it immediately took off amongst violinists and has since evolved into a standard piece of violin playing equipment.
There are now many different designs of chin rest, all sorts of shapes and sizes, to enable players to find a comfortable fit. There are just as many different shoulder rests.
The shoulder rest is a more recent addition to the violinists’ toolkit and the history is less clear. In the August, 1921 issue of Etude magazine, an advert for the Mado Shoulder Rest can be found, whilst the August, 1923 issue of The Violinist contains a list of American violin makers, in which the Lockes' Violin Shoulder Rest is mentioned, stating that this particular shoulder rest was invented by Guyon Locke in April 1876. So just as Spohr’s chinrest idea was adapted and refined, many violinists had solutions for the shoulder rest, and each created something that suited their own playing.
The shoulder rest is also by no means a compulsory accessory. Some people prefer not to use one at all, claiming that it impedes the movement in their left arm, or stating, correctly, that fixing a shoulder rest to the violin prevents it from vibrating fully and mutes the sound.
It’s clear then that right from the earliest days of the chin rest and shoulder rest, no single design worked for everyone. This makes sense, because every violinist has a different shaped jaw, a longer or shorter neck, broad or sloping shoulders, a unique technique and a personal sense of comfort with the instrument. Ultimately, each violinist will find their own combination of chin and shoulder rest. It really is a matter of personal taste, as violinist Hilary Hahn explains in this video.
The Chin Rest
Many violinists will simply stick with the chin rest that came with the instrument. It’s all part of the same thing, right?
Student violins will come with a generic chin rest, often one that is not comfortable for anyone, and every instrument, right up to the best professional instrument will come with a chin rest already attached.
How do you tell if the chin rest doesn’t fit you?
A poorly fitting chin rest will be uncomfortable. It will cause you to tilt your head or even to reach forward with your head in order to hold on the violin with your jawbone. If your violin droops too much or you find that your chin is resting in the wrong place, the chin rest is not right for you. Compensating for a badly fitting chin rest with poor head position will cause neck aches, headaches and soreness in the jaw where the chin rest presses. It reduces the free movement of the arms and actually creates the exact problems that a chin rest is supposed to prevent. The violinist ends up adjusting their technique in order to hold on to the violin securely, limiting left hand freedom and reducing ease of shifting.
Chin rest showing cork riser.
The only way to find a chin rest that fits is to visit your violin shop. Finding a comfortable shape may mean trying out many different rests. There are so many shapes available to fit different jaws, but the only way to know is to try them, making online shopping impractical for this purpose.
A well fitting chin rest will be both the correct height and the right shape for your jaw. It will allow your head to serve as a counterbalance to the weight of your extended bow arm. This will relieve your neck and shoulders of any unnecessary tension, preventing muscular pain and improving tone production.
A violinist with a round, fleshy jaw may find that a chin rest with a flat plate and a long, low ridge across the back is very comfortable. A player with a pointy jaw will need a totally different shape of rest. A rest that slopes downwards from the part nearest the neck will give good leverage, but one that is too high towards the left side near the ear will be likely to create skin irritations. If you need to nod your head exaggeratedly in order to touch the chin rest, it is too low. If you have to lift your head it is far too high. If your chin rest fits well but is a fraction too low, you can have it raised with the addition of a small piece of cork under its foot. If you have a long neck you don’t necessarily need a really high chin rest. Try a rest with a larger hump to match your jaw shape.
A chin rest with a high arch
One aspect to consider, which is also important when choosing a chin rest, is the mobility of the left shoulder. If your left shoulder is flexible, you may prefer a chin rest placed to the left of the tailpiece. If it is less mobile, or if you have particularly narrow shoulders, you may prefer a centrally placed chin rest, or one that reaches more over the tailpiece.
Once you have a chin rest that fits well, you will find that your downward shifting and vibrato feel more secure. The chin rest will hold the weight of the instrument towards the collarbone, close to the spinal column, supporting the violin with the body’s natural balance. Your collarbones and arms will be free to move, the scroll height will naturally fall correctly and your violin will feel lighter.
Violin and viola showing different placing of chinrest (image Frinck51)
There is also the option to cover your chinrest with chamois leather or a Strad Pad to prevent the skin from rubbing.
The Shoulder Rest
Choosing a shoulder rest is actually a bit more straightforward. Some players play without a shoulder rest, but some sort of support is often recommended for beginners as it helps to develop correct playing posture. The shoulder rest can help prevent the shoulder from hunching up under the violin, and can aid a comfortable neck position. It also removes the weight of the violin from the collarbone and gives space for the left arm to move freely under the violin.
Conversely, some players find that a shoulder rest can actually limit movement, though in this instance the shoulder rest is not correctly fitted. You should make sure when choosing a rest that there is not too much material pressing into the left shoulder or protruding down over the chest, because this will stop the natural rotation in your shoulder which you need to move around the fingerboard.
So how do you find the best shoulder rest for you?
There are many options. Some rests are soft and cushioned; others give a firm hold that helps keep the violin in place. Shoulder rests come in different shapes and sizes, and physical aspects such as shoulder breadth and the length of your neck are important considerations. Many rests are adjustable and ergonomically shaped to curve with the shape of your shoulder. They can also be positioned in various ways on the back of the violin to provide optimum support.
Again, the best way to find your set-up is to experiment. Many beginners start with a sponge or folded cloth fixed to the back of the violin with an elastic band. This is cost effective, but gives unreliable support and mutes the vibrations of the instrument considerably. Anything that covers a large surface area of the violin, particularly something made from an absorbent material, will affect the tone. A wooden shoulder rest in a design that sits away from the body of the violin will provide more resonance.
There are two basis reasons for using a shoulder rest. Firstly, it can help you to support the violin and secondly it offers comfort while playing. It effectively closes the space between the jaw and the shoulder that is not filled by the violin. You may find you prefer a soft sponge-like rest or perhaps you find a less padded, contoured, bar-shaped rest works better.
Adjustable shoulder rest foot
The correct height is important to consider too. If you have a longer neck, you are likely to need a taller rest, though most rests have adjustable heights. Foam rests and small sponges are much lower.
Ultimately, the shoulder rest you choose comes down to personal preference. Try different shapes and sizes and see what feels comfortable, but always remember to consult your teacher too. You may find that a rest that initially corrects one problem can cause another, and it is best to be really sure that your shoulder rest is suitable for your body shape and technique. You may also find that as your playing develops you want to try something different. Many violinists experiment with different shoulder and chinrest set-ups, and not many established players still use the exact same accessories they used as students. Be flexible and imaginative, and be open to experimenting, but be careful not to become obsessive. Ultimately, once you find something comfortable that does the job of supporting the violin, relax and enjoy your playing.
Shoulder rest with rubber bands for extra grip.
Existing set-ups can often be adapted for even more efficiency. A worn bar-type shoulder rest can be revitalised with the use of rubber bands for more friction and security. Some shoulder rests offer extra long adjustable legs. Shoulder rest feet can be rejuvenated with new rubber tubing. Nickel allergies can be avoided with titanium mounted, silver-plated or hypoallergenic plastic chinrests.
The shoulder rest and chin rest should work together by providing opposite forces. The shoulder rest supports from underneath the violin, and the chinrest gives the violin its position in regards to the body.
Ask yourself…
Am I comfortable?
Is my posture relaxed and fluid?
Try holding the violin more towards the front or more to the side
Shrug your shoulders up, sigh and let them fall. This is a great way to find out where your shoulders sit when they are relaxed
Bring the violin to your body, don’t bring your body to the violin
Talk to your teacher about how you are holding the violin. Make sure you have a clear concept of how things should feel so you understand what you are looking for in your chin and shoulder rest
Make sure you are not compensating for a badly fitting chinrest by simply raising the height of your shoulder rest
Ask friends with a similar build what they find comfortable
Don’t worry if it takes you a little while to find a good combination, or if you initially make mistakes in choosing your rests. You will need more than ten minutes in the back room of a shop to make the right choices. Enjoy the process and experiment with the options!
For every violin student, from beginner to advanced, the purchase of a suitable instrument is a distinct milestone which can prove challenging. Your violin is your voice, and so must meet your expectations of tone as well as allowing development in technique and musical knowledge. A bad instrument is often much harder to play than a good one.
Most of us would love to own one of the million dollar Italian violins by a great maker, but given that they cost millions of pounds, the more pressing issue is how to find a violin that is just right for you at the price you can afford. This has been a subject of discussion for violin students for as long as the violin has been studied. In Louis Spohr’s Celebrated Violin School, an instruction manual on playing the violin published in 1832, Dr. Spohr notes:
“Every new Violin, even of the oldest wood, has, at first, a rough, unpleasant tone, and arrives only, at one of fine quality, after having been used for a number of years. Old instruments, therefore, which have been brought to perfection by constant use, are the only ones adapted for solo playing. Of these, (and, indeed, of all which have yet been manufactured,) the most esteemed are those of the three Cremona makers, Antonio Stradivario, Giuseppe Guanererio, and Nicolo Amati, who flourished in the latter half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. The Violins of these makers unite in themselves, especially if well preserved, all the advantages of a good instrument, viz: a strong, full, and rich tone, perfect equality in the tones of each string; and a free emission of every sound from the lowest to the highest. They differ, however, in form, and in the characteristics of their tone.
These excellent instruments are dispersed throughout Europe, but, being mostly in the hands of rich amateurs, are scarce and dear; and as they yearly become more so, a young beginner will seldom meet with an opportunity of purchasing one.”
There are various questions you might consider when looking for a violin, whether it’s your first instrument or an upgrade.
What do you need to look for?
What do you need to look out for?
Where can you buy a violin?
How much should you spend?
How do you go about the purchase?
How much should you pay?
For most people, the price you pay will depend to a large extent on what you can afford, but with the violin it is really worth remembering you get what you pay for. The price of an instrument will generally determine the quality. However, it can be possible find a cheaper violin that sounds good, and sound can be improved by the set-up of the bridge and sound post, quality strings and various other adjustments.
The value of a violin depends on several criteria: Who made it, where and when it was made and its condition. Because the violin has become an investment item in some circles, the sound of the instrument actually comes last on the list.
If you are really unsure about which violin to buy, consider renting first. Renting is a nice, low-commitment way to try out the instrument and get used to what you might look for in your own violin. You will also build up a relationship with the violin shop that will be useful when you want to buy.
Generally new violin outfits that cost less than £100 are not worth having. They often have so many problems that it’s likely you’ll be put off playing altogether. The parts are cheap and badly made, the bow won’t work, wobbling and skidding as it’s not properly balanced, the strings will be awful and the accessories will be cheap and poor quality. Some beginner sets can look like good value; you get a violin, a bow, spare strings, rosin and a case for what looks like a bargain. It’s likely that the hair will fall out of the bow in a short time, the bow stick will warp, the strings will sound so bad as to need replacing, and the violin will have cheap components which don’t work and a badly cut bridge that makes sound production much more difficult than it should be.
There are many brands of new violin set, many of which are only available online. These are not worth buying. Lark, Skylark, Cremona, Cecilio, Crystalcello, Mendini, Prodigy, Stentor, Palatino, Stagg, Breton, Doreli, Bellafina, Lazar, Persona and Florea are all cheap brands worth avoiding. Eastman sets are good, and violin shops will usually have their own brand of beginner violin too.
New student violins depreciate in value, particularly those that were cheap new. Another option could be a good quality used instrument. As Louis Spohr explained in his 1832 treatise, a violin that has been played for some years works better than a new instrument. A new violin always needs playing in, whereas an old one can provide a gratifying tone and help develop your playing right from the start.
The best way to buy is in person. Avoid eBay or Gumtree unless you can go and try the violin. Often instruments bought online need hundreds of pounds worth of repairs before they are playable.
Many of the older handmade instruments around are European violins made between 1880 and 1930; the most prolific time for violin making. These are known as trade, or factory made instruments. They are all handmade, but not by a single maker. One person would make the backs, one the tops and so on. It was fashionable for these to be aged to look like antique violins, and they often contain labels marked with the names of famous violin makers such as Stradivarius. These were never meant to be fakes; they were sold as copies. Just because they’re old doesn’t make them good. These factory instruments range from some of the worst violins around to some that are excellent for all but professional players. Never buy a violin because it’s labeled Stradivarius in the hope of netting a fortune. You won’t.
The best way to buy a violin, whether new or old, is from a reputable, specialist violin shop. It is normal to be able to take an instrument on trial for a week or two with no obligation to buy. It should also be possible to hear someone at the shop play the instruments for you so you can gauge how they sound from out front. A general music store is unlikely to employ a member of staff to show the instruments like this, but a violin shop will do. Take the violin to your lesson and ask your teacher’s advice too.
The Basic Milestones:
Don’t waste your money on anything less than £100. Save for a bit longer. It’s worth it. Really cheap violins are no good. Imagine buying any household appliance and going for the cheapest option. You wouldn’t expect it to last. The value toaster that blows up after a week; the washing machine that breaks down after a month; you just wouldn’t.
The better beginner violins are normally Chinese, and cost upwards of £250. You can get a really good beginner outfit for £500.
After you’ve played for a couple of years, you might look to move up to a violin for between £500 and £700. If you can’t afford to buy a better violin just yet, get a better bow first.
A violin that costs above £1000 will have a better quality of workmanship and wood. It will usually have a better sound and more evenness over the strings than a cheap model.
For handmade violins made by one maker, prices normally start at around £5000. These instruments would suit advanced players who were looking to study music. Once a violinist enters the profession and needs a really good violin, the sky is the limit. Professional instruments start at around £7000 and can go into the millions.
Tips on Choosing:
As already stated, buying a violin online is the worst way to do it. Not only do you have no guarantee of quality or workmanship, there is no chance to do the most important thing; see what it sounds like and feels like to play.
Look out for good quality materials…
Pegs: ebony, rosewood or boxwood. Be aware that some cheap Chinese instruments claim to have boxwood pegs but actually use a type of nut wood, which is of inferior quality. Pegs which are described as ‘ebonised’ (cheap wood painted black) are useless and should be avoided.
Varnish: On cheap violins the varnish is usually a thick, shiny, smooth polyurethane. This actually stops the instrument from vibrating as it is too hard. Look for a violin with a quality oil or spirit based varnish.
Strings: Look for minimum quality student strings, not thin Chinese factory strings. The Dogal Red Label and D’Addario Prelude brands are both decent beginner strings.
Bridge: The bridge should be cut to the correct thickness, height and spacing between strings. Bridges on basic beginner instruments are rather crudely cut, but remember the thicker and heavier the bridge, the more the sound will be damped. The feet of the bridge should fit the violin perfectly and the back of the bridge should be perpendicular with the belly of the instrument or slightly leaning back.
Bow: Always look for genuine horsehair, not synthetic hair.
Violin: Avoid a violin with too thick or thin a neck. The neck should sit comfortably in your hand when you play. Purfling (the inlaid detail around the edge of the violin) that is painted or scratched onto the instrument is not generally a sign of a quality violin, though some of the notable old makers used the technique of scratching on their instruments. On older instruments, check for cracks. A sound post crack can seriously deplete the value of a violin, and any crack will affect the sound. Look for an instrument that sounds evenly over all four strings with a clear, even response.
How to Buy a Violin
The best way to buy a violin is in person, not online. Even with kits that look identical, no two violins will sound or feel the same.
Choosing is not easy. You have to decide on your instrument based on your own personal sense of its feel and sound. If you aren’t yet proficient enough to try the violin yourself and judge the tone based on your ear, have somebody help you.
If you are considering buying an older instrument or one that has been repaired, ask the advice of an expert repairman. Even professional violinists often don’t know what to look for or what they’re looking at when they try an old violin, but while some repairs can have no adverse effect on tone, they may decrease the value of the instrument.
Try out the violin by playing scales and pieces you already know by memory. Long notes will give you a better idea of the evenness of tone than pieces with lots of fast notes. Decide your budget before you even get to the shop, so you know the range of instruments you will be looking at. You can either ask to try the instruments in order of price, cheapest first, or ask the shop to give you the instruments to try in a random order so you can make an unprejudiced judgment on the feel and sound. Try as many violins as you can, each time narrowing down your choice until you have selected your two favourite. Borrow these two for at least a week and play them to your teacher and as many other good players as you can. If you don’t like one of the strings, don’t discount the violin. A string is easily changed.
Don’t be intimidated by the violin shop. Even for seasoned players, going into a specialist violin shop can feel a little like going into a luxury car showroom with your lunch money. The staff are experts and they’re there to help. Ask your violin teacher which shops to try. If you live in a big city there’s likely to be a good violin shop, and if not, it’s worth the journey to find the best violin for you. Learning is accelerated by the purchase or hire of a violin that you really love playing, and playing becomes a real pleasure when you have the right violin.
By Susan Shaw (learning violin for 2 years with ViolinSchool)
Last year, I bought Simon Fischer’s The Violin Lesson. Definitely not to be read from cover to cover, but it’s fascinating as a reference work. Something that really resonated with me is the distinction Fischer draws between advancing and improving (Introduction, p.xviii). I was reminded of this when someone asked me “how do you know you’re making progress if you don’t take Grade exams?” Good question.
I find advancing easy to measure through self-assessment. I know that I can play more complex music than I could a year ago. On my recent annual visit to the Dartington Summer School, for example, I was more than holding my own in string quartets and the string orchestra (as opposed to struggling in the previous year). My first position sight-reading was pretty solid and confident and I even tried shifting. I know for sure that I’m advancing.
But what about improvement? Improvement, according to Fischer, is about how you play rather than what you play. He talks about learners who manage to advance to play complex pieces but without solid fundamentals in terms of intonation and sound.
I think it’s harder to find the evidence to measure improvement. However, I discovered one way of doing this at an Elementary Strings course at Benslow. The pieces we played were much easier than Violin Orchestra 3rd violin parts. Since I didn’t have to think about the notes I made a conscious effort to focus on how I was playing. I experimented with speed, weight and point of contact and could hear different dynamics and colours. I ignored the basic “as it comes” bowing to introduce retakes where it made musical sense.
That experience showed me the value of returning to previously learned or very simple pieces to create brain space to think consciously about everything other than the notes and shift the focus from the left to the right arm. Other forms of self-assessment, of course, include using a mirror and tuner.
But self-assessment, while useful, can take you only so far. I think improvement, as defined by Fischer, is ultimately best measured externally. I find, for example, that my lessons are increasingly focussed on how I’m playing and feedback from performances at ViolinSchool's Minihubs is invaluable. But it’s good to seek feedback from anyone who hears you play, or to record yourself. And, yes, Grade exams (whatever I might think about them in general) are designed to assess how you play as well as what you play so definitely have their place.
It’s tempting to focus on advancing because it’s easily measured and you get more opportunities to play with others once you’re at a certain level of note-playing competence. But if how you play gets out of synch with what you play, overall progress is compromised. This is what’s happening to me at the moment, and my current major challenge is shifting my focus from left to right arm to improve my sound. Once how I play matches what I play I really will be progressing.
Susan & Friends performing in the Summer 2016 Violin Orchestra
We're thrilled to announce that the one and only Christian Howes, American Jazz violinist extraordinaire, is coming to London! He will be visiting ViolinSchool between 9th and 11th September for an epic weekend of coaching and workshops, plus a LIVE SHOW on the evening of Sunday 11th September!
For those of you not in the UK, there'll also be plenty to enjoy online... we'll be filming some exclusive interviews, and livestreaming some of his performance on Sunday.
Check out the full schedule here - preregistration is now open (booking opens in a day or two), so if you'd like to reserve a place / coaching time, get in there now before the places get snapped up!
https://www.violinschool.com/christianhowes2016/
And now for your viewing pleasure, here's Christian's recent tribute to Prince for you to enjoy...!
If you want to find a topic about which most violinists will disagree, the subject of shoulder rests should be high on your list! Every violinist has their own preference about which shoulder rest to use, if at all. Shoulder rests have only been in mainstream use since the 1950s, and some players still view them with suspicion!
Student violin kits often arrive in the mail without the bridge set in place. Instruments are packed this way to avoid breakages in transit.
Once the violin bridge is fitted to the correct height, it then needs to be properly shaped. The back of the bridge will remain at a right angle to the body of the violin, but the front of the bridge must be thinned.
removing them all at once; change them one at a time and watch out for the bridge pulling or leaning forward as you tune the new string.
Sight-reading is an important skill that you should be developing regularly during your usual violin practice sessions. A good approach is to try at least one new piece of music every day (or every time you practise). If you have lots of time to practise (e.g. 2 or more hours per day), then of course you can do more than that!
