Best Violin lessons for your students
Best Violin lessons for your students
The violin is one of the most rewarding and beautiful instruments to play. The road to learning the violin is a long one, but with patience, discipline, and enthusiasm, these steps will help you start down the road to success with this storied instrument.
1. Gather Equipment
If you’re just starting out with the instrument, there’s no need to spend an excessive amount of money on a violin, but like most instruments, the quality of the violin generally rises as the price goes up. Expect to spend a few hundred dollars on a decent beginner’s violin.
Buy full size or 4/4, if you’re an adult. The violin is a small instrument, but there are specially designed smaller sizes available. These are generally only intended for very young children, so be sure the violin you’re buying is full size unless you’re very small. You can ask the shop for a recommendation if you aren’t sure. You can also ask the shop to measure your arm length to see what size violin you need.
2. Tighten the bow.
Once you’ve set up your music stand and sheet music, open the case and remove the bow. The hair of the bow should be limp. Tighten the bow hair by turning the end screw clockwise until the space between the hair and the stick is big enough to pass a pencil through cleanly from tip to tip.
3. Rosin the bow
Rosin comes in two types, dark and light; either is fine to use, and neither is expensive. In warmer climates, light is preferred, dark is recommended in more northern areas. If you live in an unpredictable climate, it is advisable to have both. It’s usually a rectangle of hard, translucent material in a paper or cardboard casing that’s open on two sides. Grip the rosin by the papered sides and gently but vigorously rub it up and down along the length of the bow hair three or four times. The goal is to transfer some of the rosin “dust” onto the hair, making it stickier. You will need to rosin your bow about every time you practice.
4. Practice playing open strings (G,D,A and E in order from top to bottom string).
Open strings are simply strings played without fingertips on them. Rest the neck of the violin in the space between the left thumb and first finger. Hold the bow with your wrist, elbow, shoulder and contact point on the string within one plane. Change strings by raising or lowering the elbow to bring the bow to the proper height. Try short strokes of 6 inches (15.2 cm) or so in the middle of the bow at first, then try half strokes from the frog to the middle and back again. Work your way up to full-length strokes.
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