I had my first violin lessons today! It was great although it went very quickly. I am doing scales and have been told to practise "Give me oil in my lamp" for next time. I think the hardest bit is relaxing my body enough to hold everything properly and get a good tone. Can't wait till next lesson!


Agreed!!

Yeah, ain' that the truth! Yesterday, my teacher said, 'Something else, as if you hadn't enough to remember already,....' and she gave me loads of useful hints. I told her always to be completely honest with me as to how I was doing as, as she is the expert, I will believe everything she says and, if she's just being kind and encouraging without real basis, then I might get the wrong idea about my level!!

I'm enjoying it a lot too, although my fingers are pretty sore still (the tips from the still unaccostomed pressure).

Have embarked into the wonderful world of chamber music. My friend and I have decided on the 2nd movement of Mozart's Violin Sonata in G K301. *grin* Other than that, I'm frankly quite sick of practicing scales. Anyone have suggestions on how to make scale practice fun? It's always the first 15 minutes I dread because of the warm-ups (scales! ) heehe.

Well....having started violin beginning of january I am now here:
I play with all the fingers in first position on all strings.
My teacher makes me use the book: Waggon Wheels if that makes any sense to anyone...I am now at the end of this book and I have started slurring notes a week ago. I do quavers, I have done a couple of semiquavers too I am practicing dynamics, playing softer and louder and even louder (like I said in my previous post my teacher wants me to be a million times louder).
My teacher did not ask me to but I was too curious so I have started learning 3 pieces from the grade one book (I only just attempted them a couple of times), I can get the notes right and play through them I have to work on the dynamics of them of course and the timing on one of them. I don't know if this is counter-productive to adventure into grade one pieces without being told by my teacher that I am ready to do it, hope not, I felt I wanted to learn something I wanted to learn rather than something which was 'prescribed' (I do tend to be one of those who 'break rules' I wonder if this is going to hinder me as a violinist!)

I am now back from my break in Italy and don't have a lesson for 2 weeks by which time I will have finished my book and I hope I'll be a little louder for my teacher so that he will shut up about it LOL LOL

I still love Figaro (my violin of course) to bits and can't get enough of him

Well, I have finished the book and I am louder now! can't wait to see if I am now loud enough for my teacher....but then something came to light... my teacher always shows me how loud to be on his violin (which of course is a different instrument, different strings and set up), next lesson I'll ask him to show me how loud he his on mine as I suspect he has a louder instrument than mine that's why I 'can't match up' with his noise level
Will start on book fast forward soon (I have ordered it from musicroom.com but it won't arrive for 2 weeks as another book I have ordered with it is not available for that long, that will give me 2 weeks to become an expert on waggon wheels LOL)

There is. My son & I both use Essential Element for Strings 2000 Book 1 as well -- mine is for viola & his violin. both have same pieces of music, just in different clefs. So I get to learn the alto clef & whatever violin clef is...

Treble clef!

Hurrah! Another adult viola beginner! Where are you in the book kc? I've just started on the quavers bit, around about piece #70. I expect I'll start 4th finger next lesson. Are you on the G or C string yet? I'm still only playing on A and D. How long have you and your boy been learning? What drew you to viola?

Nosey piece, aren't I?

My goodness Elizabeth, you are flying with your viola aren't you? Wasn't it only one or two weeks ago you started using the bow? Well done!

Hmm, let me see. It was my 3rd lesson that I started on bowing and I've had 5 so far, so I think that will be about 3-4 weeks ago now. The book I'm using has an interesting way of teaching things as it kinda sticks to the stuff everyone in the strings section has before splitting off a bit and intro-ing cello and viola to their C strings and violins and basses to their E's!!! So, yeah, I'll learn how to get E on my A string before even touching my G or C strings. Am I right in thinking that you were doing all 4 strings including fingerings up to '3' before going onto to 4th finger??

Haven't practised since a really rubbish session on Friday, but promise to have a go tomorrow before clearing off to work. Perhaps I ought to take Vicki with me and, as it's now Uni hols, do some prac in an empty classroom somewhere???

That's Good!!
yes, I kind of learnt all open strings first then first finger on all strings, then second finger on all strings, third on all and now am doing fourth on all. I am also doing slurred notes at the moment.
Slightly different way to go about things but we'll all get to the same target at the end
so yes you were remembering right.

I’ve learnt differently to both of you lol. I did open strings for a while, and now I’m just doing all fingers on all strings (although mostly first and second fingers because of the level of pieces that I play, but I didn’t learn the fingers in any particular order). I don’t have a book to learn from; I’m just doing exercises and small pieces that my teacher gives me according to what we decide I need to practise. I haven’t practised that much this week either because of my piano exam, so we shall see how I get on in my lesson!

I am learning the 2nd finger neutral notes and running the C-major finger scales atm... and working on my intonations and bowing skills... We kind of jump back and forth a bit because our teacher wants to make sure I didn't forget and go back to those bad habits I finally gotten out of.

We started learning in November '06. I pick viola because I like the name and I remember how much I hate my cousin's violin screechings when we were younger. It sold me when the description of viola on Wikipedia (i think) says that viola has deeper and sometimes mellower tone than violin.

*sorry, was at work when posted the last reply, so the post was bit sloppy.*

Before the lesson last night, I was working on slurs & intonations still. Keep running out of the bow when slurring more than 2 notes, and seems to always go sharp on 1st fingers after playing the open strings We discovered that my finger tips are pointy so I have been unconsciously overextending my knuckles back to compensate when pressing on A & D strings, which snowball-effect the rest of the finger positions. This wasn't a noticible issue until I started working on pieces that has shifting the B/F Sharp to B/F Neutral notes and I kept lifting my 1st finger off the strings to shift, and intonations went haywired. When the teacher wants me to keep the 1st finger on the string at all times during the shifting, that's when we discovered the over-extension problem.

So now, still working on intonation & slurs, plus doing yoga on the first knuckle of the index finger (wiggle it at my son or dogs didn't do the trick ) and working on more flexibilty at the wrists.

Had another lesson today...
my teacher keeps telling me that I am doing even too well with the technique, position, bowing etc (he reckons I am learning quick), he is STILL moaning about dynamics. I explained to him that it is a matter of 'confidence' and knowing a piece really well then I can apply very good dynamics, in fact if I go back to pieces I was playing 4 weeks ago, I have NO problems in being loud/soft/crescendo/diminuendo etc
Anyway,
he has now asked me to learn three pieces from the grade one book and I picked three I have 'kind of ' learnt already (can do the notes and my technique is right, just have to better my dynamics on them) which are:
J'ai du bon tabac, Ode to Joy and Fiddle time.
But, as I have no lesson for 3 weeks I think I will learn as many pieces as I can from the grade one book and then practice them as much as possible.

He has not taught me anything 'new' so far, of course there may be a very good reason why he hasn't.

So, you're about twice as far on as I am, kc - in the book I mean. What bits do you keep being taken back to?

I'm feeling stuck at the mo and have decided why that is: You know how the book starts on pizz and gets you doing some quite 'complex' tunes on the D and A strings with that? Then it moves on to bowing and goes back to really simple stuff. Well, I'm basically stuck on the later pizz tunes as my teachers wants me to bow those and there are some things in there, (like fairly rapid string changes - in beginners' terms anyway), that make it REALLY hard. So, I'm effectively being kept on something that the course never intended me to do at that stage at the expense of moving on in the proper progression.

Now, I know that I know next to nothing about music teaching etc, but I am a teacher myself and know that it's not half a bad idea to basically follow your chosen textbook. All teachers have their own preferred methods, texts and so forth, (and I bung in extra material in my language classes - but only at the same level and very similar content as we're covering in the main text), but I think the chaps who wrote that book kinda didn't ask you to bow those pieces at this stage for a reason! It's so hard and I'm just getting worse and worse at things that I feel are far too advanced for me that it's taking the fun out of it to some degree.

SO, I've decided to strongly suggest that we leave those pieces for the time being and move on in the book. My technique is suffering as I'm having too much slung at me at one go, (mostly I fear for lack of teacher familiarity with the book...... ), and I just want to learn in sequence and build my confidence slowly. Before we got bogged down in all this, I was gung-ho to try for G1 in June. Now I fear I'm even going to disgrace myself in the prep test, never mind G1! I don't want to come across like I know better than my teacher, but I really need to feel like I'm making progress instead of more and more mistakes with something that's too hard for me at this stage. Later on I'll laugh at ever have struggled with it, but struggling I am and I don't want to. I don't mind hard work, but I do mind no progress!

Anyway....

Kc, I too have trouble with my first finger notes being too sharp. I found out something that helped though and that was simply to move my hand all the way up to the scroll. I was finding that I was letting it slip down the fingerboard, but if I have it right up as far as it can go, then I get the note in the right place first time.

I'm trying to get a fair amount more practise in now and also have been using the mute about right so that I don't worry about the neighbours too much... I'm gonna take Vicki into work over the next few weeks and disappear into an empty basement classroom to practice for a while twice a day!! There are no offices near there, so I should be able to make some progress there too. I will still work on those tricky pieces, but I just don't want to be losing most of my lessons on them every week. I wanna move on to what I'm actually meant to be doing at this level.

I can understand 'where you're coming from' Elizabeth and if you are not a 'chicken like me' then a nice chat with your teacher is what's best next (I say chicken like me as I keep meaning to tell my teacher to stop annoying me EVERY TWO SECONDS about how much louder I should be but then I never 'have the guts to do so'!).
It makes sense to me what you are saying, maybe there's a good reason why your teacher is asking you to do that but she (or he) needs to know how 'frustrated' you are feeling about it.

I also take Figaro to work but whenever I do that the shift always turns out to be REALLY



I can understand 'where you're coming from' Elizabeth and if you are not a 'chicken like me' then a nice chat with your teacher is what's best next (I say chicken like me as I keep meaning to tell my teacher to stop annoying me EVERY TWO SECONDS about how much louder I should be but then I never 'have the guts to do so'!).
It makes sense to me what you are saying, maybe there's a good reason why your teacher is asking you to do that but she (or he) needs to know how 'frustrated' you are feeling about it.

I also take Figaro to work but whenever I do that the shift always turns out to be REALLY busy (maybe Figaro's presence acts as 'labour stimulant' as whenever he's with me I get lots of labouring women to look after). If I bring my keyboard to work then the shift is not so bad

I am currently stuck on the skill building pieces (THE SLUR ), I keep running out of bow when doing 3-note slurs, also working on sounding each note clearly during slurring (that part gets me... why call it slurring if u suppose to hearing them clearly? )

At lease I can play the Banana Boat now...



I wish I could take Ying to work so I can practice during my lunch hour but these darn high-rise corporate buildings have lousy sound-proof walls -- like NONE. Oh and don't get me start on the "workspace etiquettes"...

Don't congrtulate me yet, Jo, I haven't had my lesson and said, 'Can we please come bck to those in about a month?' (i.e. when you've forgotten they exist, Teach!! ) I'm not looking forward to it as I dread sounding like a right know it all and you never know how people are going to take it..... I listen to my students and take their comments and feelings seriously, but I know that's not a universal approach. I have protested a little about these pieces before to no avail, but we shall see. More on that on Thurs and I'm enjoying playing the bits I'm actually supposed to be doing and moving onto G and C myself ahead of the book!!

I think slur means you're supposed to hear them clearly enough, but that they run into each other??? Haven't got to that bit yet.....

Oh, 'tis good to have another budding violist on this thread!

YIPPEE! Did it! I asked if we could leave behind the bowing the pizz exercises for a good few weeks and explained why and, after we looked forward in the book a bit, (she really needs her own copy.....), she seemed OK with just going on in the course. So, I did several new 'pieces' today (is one line of music really a piece!!?? ), started on minims and even did a line or two with repeats, minims and quavers in!

I like doing it this way as the progression challenges me still, but it's a comfortable and manageable challenge. I'm really looking forward to practise again now as before it was just so hard and I felt like I was losing heart. The next step would have been losing interest and that could have been fatal.....

Anyway, kc, have now got to ex 82, (I think), the last one before 4th finger is introduced, so I want to get all I've done so far well under my belt ready to move on to the challenge of 4th finger next week. The last exercise before that, the 4+ pizz (with left hand 4th finger) my teacher told me was quite an advanced technique, so that was interesting.

Onwards and upwards, hurrah!

Excellent Elizabeth!

Well done you

Thanks guys! It wasn't that hard either! The tizz we work ourselves up into, huh?

4th finger next week, Woooh!

Fourth finger is hard

Yeah, it looks it! I've had a little go, but thought, 'EEEEEK!' when I did it. Still, I can always develop that one slowly....

I have been doing exercises and my skill at using fourth finger has gone from completely and utterly bad to only quite awful

Yes I remember that EEEEEK feeling! just stick with it, it will get easier quicker than you think

Had our lessons last night, my intonation has improved so now we are moving forward to different pieces but still want to revisit the slurring bow issue -- our teach wants me to smooth out playing the piece through as whole instead of being nervous and slow down when slurring.

My 4th finger is short & chubby so I had a heck of times when I started; but after doing all that Finger Yoga, it's not tooo bad now.

My son did start pizz on the 4th finger piece last night -- that boy breezed right through with no problem (he has his daddy's finger type)... so NOT FAIR!!

Way to go, Elisabeth!!

I don't know what to call it but I've started new 'fingering patterns' on position 1
so far I was doing finger one (tone) finger 2 (tone) finger 3 (semitone) finger 4 (tone) so for example on A string was going:
0= A
1= B
2= C#
3= D
4= E

Now am doing tone/semitone/tone/tone
0= A
1= B
2= C
3= D
4= E

and also doing another one (semitone/tone/tone/tone)
0= A
1= Bflat
2= C
3= D
4= E

am I making any sense?

anyway, it takes some getting used to, especially when you are playing pieces with the different fingering mixed up in it (sometimes you forget you are supposed to go a semitone rather than a tone and so on!). So this is my new challenge, remembering quickly where those fingers should land (yes I can hear I am on the wrong spot once I play the note but by then its too late LOL)! On piano this is EASY, any sharps/flats you do on black keys, any naturals on white, but with violin this is SOOOO FUN

Good idea. I never did that exersize when I started the violin It was only A,B,C,D,E kind of thing wiht no flats or sharps.

On violin, just think semitones as 'close together with the last note' fingers, and tones as 'spaced from the last note' fingers. It can get confusing at times though...

That's true Lizbun!
Yes, I think it can be confusing at first as you are so concentrating on so many things as a beginner...so far I have been playing pieces just with one type of finger pattern and i didn't have to think what note I was playing as depending on which space/line on the stave it was I remembered that was finger 1/2/3/4, but now that I am learning other combinations I have to think about what note I am playing it will all come in time I am sure!

The book I'm doing introduces these patterns a little earlier than yours seems to, Jojo. Haven't got to that bit yet though and I won't be starting 4th finger this week as I'm in and out of bed ill and can't practise, plus am cancelling everything so that I can just rest it out (for a change!).

Anyway, kc is on the low 2nd finger pattern - which is just as you mentioned in your chart (which made perfet sense to me ), and I'll get to it soon-ish. Not sure which come first, that or using the G string!!!

Yes, it seems that different books do it at different stages, another book I have which I have not used at all only does the first 3 fingers but in all combinations of 1st position, another book I've looked at only does the a and d string and so on...Mine did all the fingers in first position and now it has thrown at me all the combinations on all strings all of a sudden.

Sorry to hear you are unwell but do enjoy the rest (I had a good rest 6 weeks ago and really enjoyed it) although if you are really ill it will be difficult to enjoy

I don’t have a lesson this week because of the bank holiday, so I have a week in which to practise like mad… I’ve been practising double stopping and it sounds really good and full.

Does anyone have any tips on how to go quickly from a G on the E string to playing a D on the A string and hopefully getting the intonation right? (And is there a better way of notating which notes you are playing on which string?) I’m having lots of problems in going down on a scale

If going directly from G to D then keep the fingers down on the E string and reach the 3rd finger onto the A string. Intonation shouldn't be any harder than going from G up to A on the E string. Practise reaching over the E string and getting the 3rd finger down without touching the E string so you can play the G until you are ready to cross strings with the 3rd finger already in place, this is particularly important for slurring across the two notes.

If going down a scale then keep all the fingers close as you lift them and they are more likely to go back down in the right place. Still try reaching over the open E with the third finger (and similar with other moves from open string down to 3rd finger) to get smoother crossings particularly when doing slurred scales.

Practise is the thing of course.

yep,
thanks for that small lesson!
I am going to start double stopping today and also staccato bowing....
When I have to play D1 and then G1 slurred what I do is put my finger on BOTH the D and G string and that seems to make a 'smoother' transition between the two slurred notes (rather than putting finger on D then on G), is that how it is supposed to be anyway (putting finger on both string?)?





Sorry for all this mess with my post!!!

I wanted to correct my mistake:
it is NOT staccato bowing I will learn but SPICCATO-LIFTED bowing!

My book introduces hooked and stacato bowing! Actually, I think it gives you an intro to a lot of stuff and I'm quite pleased with it.

I wondered why some of the smilies I used have metamorphosised (sp??) and now I see the new 'clickable smilies' panel to the left. Let's play with some:



And one for my viola playing:

Not practising at the mo as I'm not up to it and have cancelled my lesson for this week too, but will soon be back on top, (Sir is collecting my medicines now....), and failing to catch you all up. Double stopping? Already?

Well, the book I am now working on (fast forward) has ONE piece with double stopping and I am soon (in next week) starting on pieces on another book (shooting stars) which has a lot more double stopping and the spiccato-lifted thingy.

About new smileys....I like this one a lot:

Yeah, I like that one too - just right for me just now! I've escaped my bed for a few mins play on-line before Ifall off the seat!!!

Latest...

I am happy that I have learnt my grade one scales before my teacher actually introduced the subject as I have found that these have helped me tremendously in doing my new pieces in the book I am working on now...now when I do a piece I look at the key signature and from there I know immediately what finger positioning I should be using without having to think...'which note is this? where is it again that I play it?' hehe
I don't know how to explain this but at the moment I find that scales are actually helping me a lot more in my violin playing than in my piano playing!

how are you elizabeth? fully recovered and enjoyed the bank holiday weekend?

next friday I have a lesson (after a 3 week break as my teacher went away for the easter holidays).
will let you know if any news...

Good going, Jojo!

No, I'm still unwell and haven't been able to practise since a week last Friday! I picekd Vicki up on Saturday afti and played with her a bit, but only for about 3 minutes and just some gentle plucking. I noticed the lack of practise at once! Daresay I won't have a lesson this week either. Not much point as I wouldn't be ready for anything new yet and will be lucky to get any prac time before Thurs anyway unless I wake up AOK in the morning. As it's now 2.30am adn I can't sleep, I doubt this somehow!!!!!

Ugh, pah

Glad to see the emoticons have gone down to a reasonable number again. It was getting a bit mad with them all in. Or are they all in if you select full reply and this smaller selection if you reply to a specific posting??

I think if you select 'show all' then they all come up!

So have you been able to practise yet Elisabeth?

I can now play Ode to Joy (badly, but hey)! Am still finding the scales hard though. I've tried singing them but I can only get down to about middle C (imagine if I'd started learning the double bass then ) I can get up quite high but that's not always useful...

Hmm...

'Ode to Joy' is in the next section, but it's 4th finger. Eeek!

No, I still haven't been able to practise and have had to cancel 2 lessons. However, I think things may improve, but it would help if I could sleep at the right time of day!!!

Not much news from my lesson on friday (yesterday), I played pieces from the grade one book to my teacher, as usual he is very happy with my technique and he's still pushing me on expression! But wait for it......
he actually said that (according to him) I have improved a little with the 'expression' side since he started teaching to me (after 3 months of just polite 'telling off' on his behalf I have actually got out of him I have improved slightly but need to go for it way more!).
anyway...
talked briefly about learning to play without a shoulder rest, he said he thinks I have a 'relatively short neck' (there was me thinking I had a long one) so it should not be 'as difficult' but he left it up to me to see if I want to do it.
Well, the closing date for applying for june's exams is next week and he has not mentioned about exams at all, I have not asked him, he has not said, so it could be that he thinks I am not ready for grade one or it could be that as I am an adult, he is waiting for me to say to him I want to enter? too late now as I don't see him until next friday when it is actually the closing date (and I see him at the end of the day not the morning). Not a problem as I am not running for a competition or anything so can always do one in november or even next year. But I guess I was looking forward to the 'experience' of eating bananas and 'shaking bow syndrome' on the day