first steps on the violin

Violin is the instrument where the beginning is genuinely hard, and pretending otherwise does new students no favours. There are no frets to tell you where the note is, the instrument is held in an unnatural position, and you have to learn to produce a decent sound before you can start worrying about which note it is.

The upside is the ear. A student who gets through the first six months has spent half a year listening hard to whether each note is in tune, and it shows in everything they play afterwards. If you are still deciding between instruments, choosing which instrument to start on covers the trade-offs.

get the size right first

Violins come in fractional sizes, and the right one is measured, not guessed. The usual method is to have the student hold the instrument in playing position and reach their left hand around the scroll at the end; if the arm is stretched straight and straining, the violin is too big.

Parents often buy one size up to save money later. It is a false economy. An oversized violin forces the left wrist into a shape that then has to be unlearned, and it makes the whole first year harder than it needs to be. Ask a teacher to check the size before you buy, and expect to change size as the child grows.

holding the instrument

The violin rests on the collarbone, with the jaw settling into the chinrest, and the weight of the head is what holds it there. The shoulder rest fills the gap between your shoulder and the instrument so you are not hunching up to reach it. If your shoulder is lifted, the rest is the wrong height.

The left hand is not holding the violin up. It is there to play, which means the thumb and fingers need to be free to move. Most beginners grip with the left hand because the instrument feels like it is falling, and the cure is a properly fitted shoulder rest rather than a tighter grip.

Practise this in front of a mirror, standing, with no bow. Shoulders level, head relaxed, violin roughly parallel to the floor and pointing slightly to the left.

holding the bow

The bow hold is the fiddliest thing in the first weeks, and it is worth practising on a pencil while watching television. The thumb stays bent and sits in the gap by the frog, the middle fingers curve over the stick, the little finger rests curved on top, and the whole hand stays soft. A locked straight thumb is the first thing a teacher will spot.

Tighten the hair before you play, enough that the stick keeps its curve, and loosen it again before the case closes.

the four open strings

Open strings, which are the four notes you get with no fingers down: G, D, A and E, lowest to highest. Draw the bow slowly from frog to tip and back, staying in the lane between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard, keeping the stick parallel to the bridge.

The sound comes from the weight of your arm hanging through the bow, not from pressing down. Press and you get a crunch; float and you get a whistle. Somewhere between the two is a clear, round note, and finding it reliably is the main job of the first month.

Bow more slowly than feels natural. A slow bow makes every flaw audible, which is exactly what you want while you are learning.

when the left hand joins

Usually after the bow can produce a steady sound. Teachers often put small tapes on the fingerboard as a visual guide for first position, and they come off once the ear takes over.

Add one finger at a time and listen to each note against the open string next to it. Intonation on violin is a listening skill before it is a hand skill, so playing fast is the enemy here. Slow enough to hear, then adjust.

tuning and home practice

Do not try to tune it yourself in the first months. Pegs slip in the rainy season and seize up in dry air-conditioned rooms, and a string over-tightened by an enthusiastic beginner can snap or knock the bridge over. Use the fine tuners for small corrections and ask your teacher, or come in before your lesson and ask at reception.

At home, ten to fifteen minutes most days. Open-string bowing counts as real practice, so does five minutes of holding the instrument correctly, and so does a scale played slowly. Finish by wiping the rosin dust off the strings and the top of the violin.

what three months should sound like

A clean open string most of the time, a recognisable simple tune, a bow that mostly travels straight, and some scratchiness when concentration goes. That is a completely normal three months. Going slowly at the start is what makes year two sound like music.

Violin lessons run at both campuses, BKK1 and Toul Kork. If you are not sure what size to buy, ask for a sizing check at your trial lesson before you spend anything.