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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Fundamentals Of How To Play The Violin

By Ned Dagostino

Do you want to learn how to play the violin? It truly is a beautiful sounding instrument. And if you want to learn, you certainly can. Most people will tell you that to play this difficult instrument you need to start young. That can be beneficial for sure, but the fact is that you can learn to play and play well at any age.

You can start by taking private lessons from a professional teacher, but really that's not entirely necessary at the start. If you have a friend or relative that can play, they can certainly get your started with the basics. That means learning how to hold the instrument correctly. This is important for several reasons. If you hold it wrong you'll be uncomfortable, which will take the fun out of playing. But if your form is wrong you can also have a stress injury so make sure you get it right from the start. Place your left arm under the instrument's body and hold on to the neck of the violin with your left hand. As you hold it your fingers should curve over the next so that your hands and fingers are set over the strings. The chin rest should be between your chin and left shoulder. Put the bow in your right hand and you are ready to play.

Once you are in the proper position you'll need to learn how to play the notes. You'll quickly notice that there are no frets like many other stringed instruments. That means you'll be learning the notes by ear. That may sound daunting but it won't be too long before you'll know where every note on the fingerboard is located.

For this, you'll need to identify four positions on your violin. The first position is located the furthest away from your face and has low pitched notes. The last in fourth position is the highest notes and is the furthest up the neck. The strings themselves are tuned to specific notes; lowest to highest, they are tuned at G, D, A, and E as "open" strings, whereby there are no fingers pressing on the strings when you play. Other notes can be played by placing your fingers as instructed by your teacher at various places on the strings themselves.

There are two ways to play these notes. Most start out by plucking them. This is called pizzicato. The other way most people are familiar with is by steadily drawing the bow across the strings in a long stroke.

Something else you'll need to know is how to read music. If this is not something you already know there are several ways to learn. You can take a class, have someone who already knows teach you, or simply by going online and reading one of the many free tutorials.

If you want to learn how to play the violin expertly, remember that this is a process that takes many years, but it can be done with plenty of hard work and practice. - 18418

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