Playing The Violin - The Basics by Ned Best

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.

Taking private lessons from a qualified teacher can help, but starting out you may do just as well learning the basics from a friend or relative that plays. For instance you don't need a pro to teach you how to hold the instrument, yet this is very important. Get this wrong and you'll be very uncomfortable. You may be tempted to quit before you really get started, or worse, you could even suffer some form of stress injury. So let's do this right. Start by putting your left arm under the body of the violin. Hold the neck with your left hand and curl your fingers over the neck. Your hand and fingers will be on top of the strings and the the chin rest on the instrument will be between your chin and left shoulder. Take the bow in your right hand an you're ready to go.

One thing you'll notice about the violin is that unlike a guitar, there are no frets on the neck. You'll essentially be learning the notes by ear until you get to the point where you know exactly where every note is on the fingerboard.

You'll start by identifying four distinct positions on the instrument. Position one is at the end furthest way from your body. Naturally the low pitched notes are here. Close to your face is the fourth position where the high notes are. The strings will be tuned in lowest to highest fashion. They are G, D, A, and E, meaning that when you play them open (with no fingers on the neck) these are the notes they play. Placing your fingers at different spots on the board will make different notes.

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.

Understand going in that the violin is not an easy instrument to learn. It will take plenty of practice on your part before you are really good. But that's OK, it's worth it because it's a fun instrument with a beautiful sound.


If you are serious about wanting to learn how to play the violin visit www.Discount-Violins.com. We'll show you where to go to get high quality instruction on the Internet, and direct you to great prices on new and used violins. There's no need to reason more than you need to for a great sounding instrument.

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