When many people think about the violin, they think about an complicated, difficult instrument.
The thing is… they aren’t exactly wrong. The violin is a member of the string instrument family – and is known to demand many hours of practice. We also can’t forget the typical screeches and scratches you might expect from a beginner’s attempt at playing the violin.
What makes most people think the violin is hard?
Most people learn instruments by putting together two things: theory and practice. They learn how to understand music, they understand what they need to do on their instrument, and then they practice. They repeatedly play things and exercises until their muscles “remember” how to replicate good playing and figure out how to play the instrument.
This approach works, and it’s been in wide-ranging use for decades now. The drawback is that this approach can be time-consuming and difficult.
It can be time-consuming because “practicing until your skills come together” isn’t the most reliable form of understanding something, even if you have guidance from a teacher. It can be difficult because even though you know what to do, you still have to push yourself to find your way into acquiring the skills that you want as you practice.
BONUS: Find out how to learn the violin faster than 90% of violinists.
How should I learn the violin?
The violin is a complex instrument. But it does not have to be a difficult one.
Violins are string instruments that have nothing to guide or help you play the right things. They have nothing to help you move the bow on the string well without accidentally hitting others. They have nothing to prevent you from sounding like a tortured hyena (something that all of us string players have to go through and laugh about).
For many people, practicing day in and day out for decades was how they learned the principles that made them able to sound good consistently. It worked for them, because they gradually learned what to do and gradually filtered out what not to do.
However, there IS a way to bypass all most of that. First, learning an instrument will always take practice. That being said, there are special pillars about playing the violin that, when followed, will allow your body to work with the violin instead of against it, and make the instrument a breeze to play.
BONUS: Find out how to learn the violin faster and with less effort than 90% of violinists.
Pillars of Violin Technique
- Hand-Neck Contact
- Shoulder Angle
- Bow Hold
- Body-Placement Principle (A fancy name for a method to always feel free when playing the violin)
- The Vibrato Factor
I’ll get more into these individually in a different post. However, if you want to dive straight into these right now, go check out the main site and sign up for my email list. I give consistent advice on each pillar on an almost-daily basis, and I regularly take questions because I love to help violinists who want to improve their playing and get better.
Good luck in your violin journey, and feel free to check back here because I’ll be updating these posts frequently.