Violin Exposé

If there is something that I didn't regret doing the whole of this year, it's taking up the violin.

It is so marvellous an instrument I don't know where to begin! And so I find myself beginning with my favourite part of the violin - the back.

The shoulder rest affixed to the back is actually a second hand one sold to me by my violin teacher during my few first lessons. It set me back around 10 dollars and it is extremely comfortable. It is one of the few things I cannot live without while playing.

Since I was totally new, my teacher had to teach me everything from scratch. From setting up the violin, to putting on the shoulder rest, to tightening the bow and loosening it after use, she taught me like a newborn baby, which I think is quite something.

I remember not touching the violin for the first and second lessons.

All I did during the first 1 hour lesson was try to hold the a thick pencil like I would the violin bow. I remember clearly that my hand was to be shaped like a rabbit head while doing it. The second lesson saw me applying the hand position to the violin bow and also practise correct wrist and arm movements for upbows and downbows, which I did upon my shoulder. Just writing about it makes me smile.

I actually touched the violin come the third lesson and I played my first note on it with all the grace of a penguin trying to fly. It sounded mildly like the penguin was choking while doing that too. By the end of that lesson I resolved to play a nice whole note by the next lesson.



In all honesty, I tried to but in the midst of practising with only that string, it broke. It was the E-string. The next lesson my G-string broke. I was a little weird texting that to my violin teacher though. Imagine receving the following message:

my G-string broke.

I would a little traumatized. But not my violin teacher; she changed it before I even had a chance to blink.

I know now that achieving that gorgeous sound you hear from professional violinists is by no means an easy feat. There are many factors to consider like bow speed, bow pressure, bow placement, wrist position amongst others just for playing a singular note. And when you have different notes, you have the additional string change to take into account.

The very first time I put all of that into practise was with variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - to rather disastrous effect. I must caused some in my block many a sleepless night.

To help with my practice, my teacher came up with a few tricks.One of which involved scotch tape.

Tuning on the violin varies with every mm and so to try to get around it,my teacher placed scotch tape as markings for my finger positions. Just deviate a little from these positions and you will most probably play a semitone sharp or flat. That's awfully sensitive.

Tuning the strings on the violin , however, completely evades me.


This is where these little knobs come in. They help with minute tunning issues and most of the time, these guys are more than enough. The way my teacher tunes my violin, she plays double stops( playing two notes at the same time) and listens for the perfect fifths while adjusting the knobs. When they are in tuned, you can almost hear the harmonics. It really is quite a sight to behold.

It has been about 4 months and I am about to move on to another book .I owe my violin teacher and of course that special soul who kindly offered me the violin a huge thank you. Thank you making the violin a part of my life.