Sometimes things sound great when playing on one string, but as soon as you play the same material on another string, the tone disintegrates into a scrape. Typically this is because your bowing arm height is changing too quickly, and the bow is being pushed into the new string before it has time to settle […]
The instrument needs to be stabilized. This is a hard concept, but the violin should never be allowed to slide, or to twist, or sink towards the floor, etc. If this happens, you will squeeze with the left hand, which freezes the fingers, destroys intonation. Squeeze is a response to instability. If the instrument is […]
New players often find that even with a comfortable bow, the left hand still can’t get to the right spot on time. Fingers flail above the fingerboard, notes are slow, and easy passages feel clumsy. This is almost always due to an attempt to control the fingers, as opposed to the hand, as a whole. […]
As soon as you begin, you realize that it isn’t as easy as you thought it would be to produce a clear sound on a violin. Because the violin is sensitive to the amount of pressure applied, the speed of the bow, and the exact placement of the bow on the strings, it is easy […]
