I switched over from piano to violin 6 months ago, and I'm progressing reasonably well ! So glad I made the change, by the way.

My teacher really wants me to exagerate my dynamics right now, but I find it really difficult to control dynamics on the violin. I understand that there are more ways to control dynamics on string (bow speed, sounding point, bow pressure, flaten vs tilting the bow etc), but to me, it takes alot of effort to play something in p on the violin, when compared to the piano.

What do you think??

I do appreciate the easier sightreading on violin though.

It will come with time and practice, I personally find dynamics on violin easier, because there's many ways to do it, depending on style etc. Also, on violin you can creascendo through lond notes, but cant on piano.
x

I agree with everything you say...
I started both violin and piano a year and a half ago.
I find the violin a lot harder to control for dynamics and other things and easier on piano, for example try doing a nice spiccato bowing and then a piece in 'staccato' on the piano, even at the easier grades (grade 3 to 4) it is much easier on piano (obviously don't know about higher grades). Took me ages to do a nice spiccato bowing or to do a couple of notes spiccato followed by legato bowing, my bow used to keep bouncing during the legato!
anyway, yes, and the sight reading is a lot easier on violin of course

Well I find it quite easy to play complicated pieces with good dynamic control on piano - yet I can't even make a single pleasant note on a violin. Obviously violin is a much more difficult instrument

I heard Perlman saying this, that with piano you play and a sound comes out whereas on violin before you sound ok you have to fix intonation, bowing, vibrato, all these things, and THEN you can start to "think of a phrase" (inc. dynamics). So for violin it is much harder only because the basic techniques on violin are harder.
RE sightreading...matter of opinion I think!

Ah - but you can CHEAT. You can create the illusion of a swell (just as you can create the illusion of a singing legato)

When you have a sustained base note or chord, with repeated chords or figuration over it in a higher register.

By playing the base moderately strongly (but not too strongly), then a controlled diminuendo in the accompaniment , and it sounds like the bass is swelling, just like a double bass or cello!

Jojo


Oh yeah, talking about bouncing bow...... i haven't even started on spicatto, but even on basic up bow stacatto, when I'm done and go back to legato...it bounces... same with retakes....


it really is driving me nuts. while I'm at it, can someone help me out with the Vivaldi A minor? My teacher is screaming dynamics/phrasing at me every week (well, 2nd week), but when I try to do it, it's becoming a holy mess. If anyone is using the Suzuki book (4), it's the bottom of the first page, the weird bowing ######.

I remember the trouble I had when I first played Beethoven 5 -- and it isn't even spiccato!

'di di di DAH -ah -ah -ah ....'

I know exactly what you mean.
I've been playing violin for 6 months and am just about managing to make differences in dynamics.
I found it a lot easier on the clarinet.

I think the trick is to use pieces you can already play well so that you can just concentrate on the dynamic aspect and don't have to thing too much about all the other stuff.

It's also quite useful to work on your dynamics with scales and just boring long notes.

Hope that helps!

No, it's almost universally accepted that they are harder. Advanced techniques maybe the reverse is true, but to make an acceptably good noise, it is harder on violin.

Yes it is harder to make a single note on a Violin. There is a bigger hurdle to making a tolerably listenable-to sound. No argument.

But on piano simply striking a note any-old-how and thereby making an acceptable sound - in my book that hardly qualifies as "technique" at all.

And anyone that thinks that learning to play a sequence of notes (e.g. a scale) on piano with absolutely precise timing and gradation of tone is comparatively easy has either never tried, or is easily satisified, or has vastly more talent than I can conceive.

What's more some so-called "advanced" techniques on piano are really rather basic.

For example: On piano you can play a four-note chord and make any note stand out. You can play it four times in succession and create the sound of an arpeggio. Is that an "advanced" technique? Not really. It is (a lot) easier than playing a scale in true legato with a nicely graded crescendo and diminuendo.

I'd guess it takes a similar level of control to making a single good sounding tone on a violin.

Lots of variables for fiddle volume:
- side/flat of the hair
- proximity to bridge/fingerboard
- speed of bowing
- pressure applied to bow

and other stuff besides, that I've no doubt forgotten about . Your left hand techniue changes a bt depending on the dynamic sometimes too (the amount of vib, and the amount of pressure).