Common Problems Faced By Beginner Violinists In Learning
By Vera | May 12, 2019
In today’s article, I would like to highlight the problems and difficulties faced by almost every beginner violinist with a 99% probability. It’s no secret that the violin is one of the most difficult instruments to learn. It would seem such a small, compact instrument, and much harder to master than, for example, piano or guitar. It’s an amazing thing that it is in the design of the violin that the main difficulty lies.
Each of us at least once in his life was holding a guitar. Recall what the guitar neck looks like; it is divided into small parts by the metal frets and it is they that separate one note from the other. And what about the violin? There are no such frets on the violin fingerboard. And then how to distinguish one note from another? And here we are close to the difficulty number 1:
Violin Intonation. Violin fingerboard does not have frets that separate one note from another. Thus, the visual control is nullified, and you are almost completely obliged to rely on your aural skills. There is an opinion that if a person does not have an absolute pitch, you should not even begin your studies on the violin. I want to note that this statement is controversial and unreasonable. Indeed, the presence of an absolute pitch greatly simplifies the learning process, but in fairness, it should be noted that the music world knew talented violinists with a relative pitch, although developed close to the perfect pitch. Is it possible to develop your aural skills? You bet! Aural skills, in contrast to the sense of rhythm, can be developed and this is done in the solfeggio class. By performing a variety of exercises, you will be able to improve your ear training to the sufficient level necessary for control of purity and accuracy of intonation.
Advice. Contact a professional to test your aural skills. It will not be difficult for any musician to determine the presence or absence of these in just a few minutes. The professional will also be able to clearly answer the question of whether you have the ability to play the violin and how great your chances are to learn to play this instrument decently. You can also install useful mobile apps like Toned Ear: Ear Training; Perfect Ear – Ear Trainer, etc. They can also assist in testing as well as training your musical ear. Although, of course, any musician will determine professional suitability faster and more accurately than any computer program.
Musical notation. In modern music, we can easily find a violin in almost every musical genre: from classical to rock music. With all the variety of genres and styles in which the violin is used, it is still always considered the queen of classical music. For more than 400 years of the development history of the instrument, a huge number of violin pieces have been created, many of which are known to a wide range of people, sometimes even to those people who have no idea about classical music. After all, the violin works by Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Paganini are widely known. Such pieces as Niccolo Paganini “Caprice 24”, Antonio Vivaldi “The Four Seasons” brings people into the violin class. Thus, it’s so clear that you will not manage violin with the ability to read tablature (excuse me, guitarists for this attack in your direction :). A beginner violinist will really need to learn musical notation and know the basics of music theory right from the start.
Keep your chin up! Most people are afraid to learn musical notation completely in vain. As practice shows, you can improve your sight-reading skills in 3-4 months of regular classes. After all, it is easier to read violin sheet music than guitar or piano sheet music. Why? You see, the guitar, like the piano, is a polyphonic instrument, and even the most talented guitarist/pianist has developed sight-reading skills for years. The violin (for beginners) is the monophonic instruments and the violin classical pieces in 95% are monophonic (occasionally you can find double stops and chords), so sight-read on the violin is easy.
Proper Bowing Techniques on a Violin: one of the primary, but difficult to achieve tasks at the initial level, since the bow of beginner violinists can produce only squeaks and scratches. In the first weeks of training you will not have to play with a bow at all, all the exercises and easy melodies you will play pizzicato (played by plucking the strings with the finger). Playing open strings pizzicato – these are the first simple skills for a beginner to get sound from a violin. Then, you will learn a lot of exercises to build strength and awareness in the bow hand. And only after achieving freedom and independence in your hand, you will start to play with the bow. You are unlikely to be able to immediately get a smooth, continuous sound. It will take months before you will achieve skillful bowing technique. Then, you will have to learn how to plan bow division, which is also not an easy task. And in the end, you will learn how to smoothly switch between strings and master shifting from position to position.
Advice. Practice a little, but every day. Even better, if you manage to do a few approaches per day, for example, in the morning and in the evening. In the morning, when the head is fresh, work on the details, and by the evening play the pieces and exercises entirely, in the original tempo. The violin is a difficult instrument and it is impossible to achieve a decent result without regular practice.
You’ve mastered détaché bowing, learned how to smoothly switch between strings and mastered shifting from position to position? Excellent! Now you can start exploring bow strokes. The violin has a huge amount of bow strokes, about 15-20 of which are the most used (for comparison, guitarists use only 3 main types of articulations: not-legato, legato, staccato :). Each of these articulations requires a completely different bowing technique. Of course, the beginner is not obligated to be a master of for example “Ricochet” stroke, but in the long run, it is worth understanding that enormous amount of time you will need to devote to studying bow strokes.
In conclusion, I would like to say that learning new things can be tough sometimes and almost always it is connected with a huge waste of time and effort. At the beginning of your training, perhaps, not everything will go smooth and sometimes progress will not be as fast as you would like. But do not be discouraged and give up. Perseverance in learning necessarily lead to results. For my part, I will be glad to assist you in learning to play the violin. I am sure that with my help you will conquer such a difficult but at the same time a wonderful instrument like a violin. Waiting for you in my lessons.
In modern music, we can easily find a violin in almost every musical genre: from classical to rock music. With all the variety of genres and styles in which the violin is used, it is still always considered the queen of classical music. For more than 400 years of the development history of the instrument, a huge number of violin pieces have been created, many of which are known to a wide range of people, sometimes even to those people who have no idea about classical music. After all, the violin works by Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Paganini are widely known. Such pieces as Niccolo Paganini “Caprice 24”, Antonio Vivaldi “The Four Seasons” brings people into the violin class.
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