Learning the Violin as an Adult

The violin has its difficulties. First you have to put up with sounding rather awful for quite a while, whereas piano sounds reasonably O.K. from the start. It is worth it to persevere. When you can play a little tune try to find someone to accompany you on the piano. The violin is intended to be played with other instruments. Once you have the harmonies supporting you it makes your melody line glow.
If you can afford lessons have them, but you can still have fun on your own, if you keep practising regularly. Little and often is the best way.
I had a seventy-year-old farmer come to me for lessons. He had made a start as a boy but not continued. Despite his gnarled farmer's hands he made good progress and joined in ensemble playing as an adult.

Follow the pictures below and you will be able to develop good posture of the hands. You should stand with your feet slightly apart with your left leg under the violin, to keep your centre of gravity correct. Place the violin with shoulder pad along the line of your collar bone, turn your head to the left slightly and drop it firmly onto the chin rest. The weight of your head should be sufficient to clamp the violin in place, leaving your left arm free to let go of the violin without dropping it. Now your left hand fingers are free to do their work.

I wish you every success in your playing. If you have anything to ask me ask in the guestbook below.

As an adult beginner on the violin everything is not stacked against you. The child has the advantage of supple fingers but you have the advantage of a life's experience. You will have the discipline to practise, once you set your mind to learn. You will know how to manage your time to fit practice in, whereas a child is reliant on a parent to do this for him. You will also have experience of how a violin should sound, even though you will find it difficult to emulate at first. You will also probably have more chance to play with other people. Your determination to succeed will probably be greater than that of most children who will rely on a parent to keep them enthused. Your progress in reading music and understanding finger patterns will be faster than that of a child. So do not feel that the situation is helpless.

There is nothing quite as inspiring as going to a concert with a world class violin soloist. Study the way they play and make up your mind to do the best you can to imitate them. We forget what vigour needs to be put into playing the violin. I have a friend who says that the violin is a man's instrument. What she means is that to play well you have to put a lot of physical energy into your playing. Watching orchestral players is also very rewarding. If you are tackling quartet playing yourself, by all means watch and listen to a quartet playing. You might think that watching and listening to these wonderful players would make you lose heart, but I have always found it inspiring. Although live performances are the best there is much to be gained by watching good players on You-tube, such as the one below.

Violinists have a tendency to get problems with their neck and shoulders. this is not necessary and is usually caused by tension due to worrying about ones playing and what other people think of it. The following exercises are most helpful. Sit with head up and shoulders back. Slowly drop your head onto your chest, then move upwards and down towards the back. Repeat this about 10 times. Now with your head in the original position move you head sideways so that your ear moves towards the shoulder. Then give an extra little push in that direction. Do this 10 times and then repeat on the other side. Finally with head in original position move the chin around to the shoulder, but above the shoulder, again give that extra little push. Do this 10 times and then repeat on the other side. These exercises were given to me by a physiotherapist and I find them invaluable. The crackling you hear as you do this shows that the tension is breaking up and is a good sign.Now you can enjoy your violin.

It is so much fun to play your violin with other people. At first this should be a pianist. Your efforts will sound so much better if your melody line is supported by the harmony a piano can give you. The violin is not meant to be played on its own except in the case of advanced and gifted players. When you have gained confidence from your sessions with a pianist it is time to join an amateur orchestra. This is great fun and as violins are split into first and second violins you can join the second violins who play a lower part which is easier for you. This is extremely good for your sight reading as you have to keep in the right place on the music and no- one is going to stop if you get lost, you just have to find your way back in again. It can be a bit hair raising at first but very worthwhile if you can keep your cool.It is all part of learning as an adult. The conductor is likely to be sympathetic as string players are always needed. They are much harder to find than wind players.Just be confident and have a go.

When you play your violin in the orchestra you have others with you playing the same part; when you play in chamber music, of which quartet playing is the most popular, you have a part all to yourself and you have to keep in time with the others. It is a good idea to find a fairly competent violinist to take the top part as in the quartets of Haydn and Mozart the top part is the most difficult. You need someone in charge to decide if things are going astray and to take everyone back to the beginning if things have got in a muddle. Learn a piece bit by bit. You will be surprized how things improve as you practise. As with orchestral playing you will most likely be able to take the music away with you to do that all important practice. If the viola player and the cellist are a little better than you and the first violin still more competent you should have hours of fun together.

This means reading a piece of music for the first time and playing it as you go. It is very important to note the time signature and count the beat. For 4/4 time you will need to count 4 in your head, over and over. If you do this when you make a mistake you will know where you should be and then can join in again. Practise on your own being able to play a new piece right away. This skill is necessary if you are to play in quartets. You need to find people who are not too impatient, to play with at first. The more you play with others the more your sight reading skills will improve. If you feel it would help to tap the beat with your foot don't do it, it will annoy the other players. However you can wriggle the end of your toes inside your shoe in time with the beat and no one will know.
If you play with players of your own standard you may breakdown a lot in the music and be unable to sort out what has gone wrong. It is better to play with better players who are tolerant and patient with you. If they see you make progress they will continue to play with you.

When I was fourteen a new music teacher came to our school and asked for volunteers to play various musical instruments. He started with strings, in order to make a good basis for forming an orchestra. I volunteered enthusiasticly. I had a violin at home. When I brought the violin in to school it was rejected by the teacher, but he supplied me with one to borrow from his small collection of instruments. I was so excited to be learning the violin. We practised every day during the dinner hour. My enthusiasm was noted by the teacher and soon he was giving me individual lessons and my progress was rapid. Fourteen,for a starting age is very near to the experience of an adult and so I have written this page from my experience as much as anything. Many people recommend learning the violin at a much earlier age, but that is no help to you if you did not have the opportunity. Whatever age you are, if you are determined, you can succeed sufficiently to have a very enjoyable pastime.

I remember the first time the orchestra played in public. It was on Speech Day when all the prizes were given out. I was not good enough to be in the orchestra at that stage. The noise was frankly awful. I remember stuffing my fingers in my mouth to stop myself laughing as most of the school was. We had an eminent person come to speak, some sort of relation of the Queen. He managed to produce a benign smile for the orchestra. It was a a poor start for the orchestra but it went on to become rather good in the years ahead.

It is best to keep you violin in a strong case when it is not in use. If you have a quiet household and it is safe to leave your violin out on a piano or a table it can encourage practice as there is not the bother of getting it out, otherwise keep it in a strong case. Always wrap it in a soft cloth to prevent it being marked by the bow which is kept in the lid of the case.

Get your strings renewed after about two years as they will lose their tone and your playing will not be so enjoyable. It is a false economy to make them last much longer.

Prevent build-up of rosin on your violin, near the bridge, by simply removing it with a soft cloth frequently. You need to do this with the bow also. If you do not remove it, it will become black and sticky. The bow hairs can also become dirty. You should wash the hair with soap, not detergent. This will completely remove the rosin and like that your bow will make no sound on the violin! You have to renew the rosin on the bow. To do this take an old broken bit of rosin, place it on newspaper and wrap it up in it. Now take a hammer and strike the rosin in the paper until it is pounded to dust. Now you can easily apply the bow to the crushed rosin and quickly cover the bow hair once more. Apply rosin to the bow every day with just a few strokes and it will grip nicely.

One alarming thing that can happen to your violin is that the tail gut which attaches the tail piece, which holds the strings in place, can snap and it looks as if your violin is done for. Do not panic a violin repairer can soon put this right. It happens less frequently these days because the tail gut is no longer gut, but strong synthetic material. Enjoy playing your violin as an adult learner.

Wow there's an idea. I know learning adult who have succeeded with this. I once started a barn dance band. It was called and still is called "The Lucy Lastic Band." Sounds like "Loose elastic band." You can find its website here < The Lucy Lastic Band If you live in the South West of England you might even like to hire them.But to get back to you and barndance. It is a great advantage to be able to play by ear for this as you can watch the dancers and adjust the rhythm if necessary. I never mastered that. With me the band came from very humble beginnings and has now gone on to greater things. The violin part is very important, so if you want to show off here is your chance. A barn dance lasts about three hours so you will be quite busy. Much of the music is quite fast so you need to practice getting up to speed. If you are one of those clever people who can read music as well as play the violin by ear, you will be able to get used to new music on your own before playing with the others in your band. If you get really good at this you can make a bit of extra money in the evenings. Barn dances often take place at weddings. They go well because everyone is in party mood. It is important to have a really good caller to teach the dances, someone who encourages people to join in without being too pushy. If you think it is your sort of thing have a go. You might need to get together with some musicians who are of your standard and work up from the bottom. All the best.

One good tip which may help you to practise more often, is to leave your violin out of its case. Then it is easy just to pick it up and begin playing. This is only possible if you live in a house with calm adults. Under other circumstances you will need to keep your violin in its case.
When tackling a new piece of music, work at small sections rather than struggling from beginning to end. As the saying goes,"How do you eat an elephant?" and the reply is,"One bite at a time." It's the same with a piece of music, note by note. If you play all through a piece you will make slow progress. Little sections repeated many times can be joined together to make the whole piece. This is definitely the best way and the quickest way to learn a piece.

If you play the piano you have centimetre sized notes to find, you will always be in tune and only hit the wrong notes sometimes. Playing the violin is not so easy, a very tiny spot is the right place to be in tune. To stay in tune you have to listen carefully. Ears get tired and sometimes switch off. You must recognise this and switch them back on. It is better to do just ten minutes practice with concentration than to play along with your thoughts elsewhere.

Be disciplined and set aside some time to practise every day. It is more beneficial to do short practices every day than to do a large practice on one day a week. If you think of a toddler learning to walk it keeps trying over and over, nothing stops it from getting up and trying again. If violin playing was the same as walking some of us would still be crawling!!

You will practise more if you have a goal in mind, a lesson to attend or a concert to play at. If your desire to play is great, you will practise more.

One more important piece of advice. To keep the peace with your neighbours, if you have problems with sound proofing, buy a practice mute like the one in the photo below. It reduces the volume of your playing to a level which will not be heard by your neighbours. Always good to keep the peace, especially as you can relax when you practise, knowing you are annoying no one.

In the photo below the violinst is playing D but the second finger, the one second from the left is C natural. It is easy enough to place the second finger close to the first but when you come to play the D it will feel as if it has to stretch more than usual to get the note in tune. This is because there is stretching between the second and third fingers, whereas when you were playing with C#'s the third finger was supported by the second. Now it has to stand alone. I hope you will find this helpful.

Vibrato is a left hand technique which enhances the sound of each note. It is a little tricky to learn but once mastered becomes an integral part of one's playing. I always teach it in the following way:- Hold the violin in the usual way and then slide the hand up the neck of the violin until your wrist is touching the body of the violin. Imagine that your left wrist is joined to the violin with a hinge. Flap your hand to and fro keeping the wrist attached to the violin. When you are used to this movement, place your second finger on the string and make the hand movement. The finger must not slide along the string but oscillate slightly sharp and slightly flat of the note. Try this whilst drawing a single bow. This is difficult at first because your bow hand will want to imitate the oscillations of the left hand. It is fine at first to do wide, slow movements with the left hand; these can then be speeded up. It is all a matter of determination and practice. Vibrato can also come from the arm, through a movement from the elbow upwards to the hand.
When you have mastered this you will find your playing greatly enhanced.