Are you a Vanessa Mae in the making? (Violins)

Member Name: QueenofInsanity

Product:	Violins
Date:	05/12/08 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Teaches you valuable lessons in life, huge achievement at the end :o)

Disadvantages: Can be rather expensive and take up a lot of your time.

Ahh, the good ol' violin. Before I get started, heres a quick intro about the violin if you don't really know much about it already...

The violin is a real family instrument - it has two bigger siblings, the viola and violincello (or the cello as it is more commonly known). There is a fourth instrument , the double bass. Strictly speaking it isn't a 'family' member, but the four instruments get on very well together!

The violin is the soprano member of the family, having the highest pitched strings. The violin is by far the more popular instrument and has perhaps the greatest musical repertoir of any instrument.

The four strings of the violin, G, D, A and E are tuned in intervals of a 5th and give the instrument a range of around 4 octaves. In western culture, violins form a major part of an orchestra, divided into two groups, the 'first' and 'second' violins. The first chair in the first violin section is known as the concertmaster. In the chamber music scene however (otherwise known as a 'string quartet'), you will commonly find the violin in an ensemble consisting of 2 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello.

Now, my experiences with the violin - excuse me if I seem to waffle on at this point. Learning how to play the violin can be a very difficult (and often a huge pain in the rear end!) but rewarding experience. I could go on and on about violins and all of my experiences from the 10 years I played, but I won't bore you with that - instead, I'll list 5 tips instead :o)


- TIP 1 - Get yourself a teacher

Make that a violin teacher. Umm, actually, make that the best violin teacher you can get access to! The thing that will make the single biggest difference in how fast and how well you learn how to play the violin is getting the best teacher you can. A good teacher will get you places much faster than an average teacher.

I started playing violin when I was still in primary school (probably around 8 years old). Word got round that the school was to start introducing music classes, with violin being the first. To be honest, I never really though much about playing the violin beforehand, but I begged my mum asking her whether I could start having lessons. Surprisingly, she agreed, and after a quick visit to the violin teacher, I was put into a small group with 3 of my other school chums and away it went! Month by month, my friends started to drop out of lessons (because they found the practising at home a bit hard, and realised that they didn't have any rhythm - whoops), and before I knew it I was all on my lonesome. Oh well. This was probably the period where I learnt the most and realised that this is what I loved doing the most! Teachers defiantly make or break you - if your teacher isn't enthusiastic and encouraging, then there is no way that they are going to convince you that playing the violin is worth your while.


- TIP 2 - Learn how to hold the violin and bow properly ASAP

Holding the violin properly is very important. If a violinist holds the instrument incorrectly, it will be uncomfortable and more difficult to play. I'm afraid that the saying, "No pain, no gain" applies in this instance. Yes, both your arms will hurt like hell after starting to play the violin on a regular basis (both your bowing arm and the arm holding up the violin), and your fingers will become sore and sensitive after holding them down on the violin strings after a while, but it is worth it in the end. Even after joining my very first and second orchestras ('The Sandwell Youth String Orchestra' and 'The Sandwell Youth Orchestra' in the West Midlands) I still went through a lot of pain - there is defiantly a difference playing songs that last 3 minutes in comparison to ones that last for 15 minutes long! Playing the violin can often be a 'love hate' relationship, as there are often days where you can't bear the though of practising, but yet others where you can't wait to pick it up and blast out a few tunes.


- TIP 3 - Buy yourself a decent violin when possible

I remember the first violin my parents bought me a few years after I had started playing violin properly - basically, once they knew that I was taking my lessons seriously and was getting good results! Before this period, however, I was using and playing violins which were the property of the council (i.e., they weren't the best violins around, but I could play it and take it home to practise for FREE). As I started playing at primary school, I had started using a 2/4 size violin and as I grew older and taller, I then eventually needed a 3/4 violin. Once I joined my first proper orchestra however, my olds decided to treat me to my first (and only) violin. It was a 4/4 (full) size Andreas Zeller violin, a gorgeous dark brown colour and had beautiful tones. I also remember getting very excited at the prospect of owning my own violin, and often dreamt of someday purchasing a black, sleek electric violin and sounding like Vanessa Mae - yeah, as if that was ever going to happen! The difference between a council-owned violin and your own violin was, well, unbelievable. I would fully recommend buying a good quality violin if you can afford it, as it will last you for years and years to come.


- TIP 4 - Gain as much experience with the violin as possible

I can safely say that if I hadn't played violin, I would never had learnt how to work with other people as a group, and it also boosted my confidence right up. Playing in orchestras and quartets made me realise how committed you have to be, and how serious I was about actually being in the orchestra in the first place. I made friends for life playing in concerts and the such likes, and experiencing that sort of atmosphere as well as feeling a huge sense of achievement at the end was worth all the blood, sweat and tears you put into practising! It was possibly the one experience that will continue to be with me for the rest of my life, and made my childhood that little bit more interesting. Talking about experience, violin exams aren't exactly pleasant to go through (in fact, they scared the hell out of me!) but I still say to this day that it was a shock tactic that I needed, and am thankful for.


- TIP 5 - Get acquainted with other instruments (if at all possible!)

Violin or viola? A lot of people ask this, not knowing what the differences between the two actually are. The viola plays a somewhat different role in the orchestra than the violins do, and there is some gentle and sometimes not-so-gentle teasing between the sections. The viola is a somewhat larger (longer, heavier) instrument and it is a fifth lower than the violin (five pitches, in other words). Many string players play both instruments, making their careers more flexible in terms of what they can offer. I would encourage anyone to play viola as well as violin; the music literature is a little different (viola uses an alto clef instead of a treble clef like the violin), but the viola has a deep, gorgeous tone and is quite as wonderful as the violin. In the long run, both violin and viola are perhaps the most difficult of all instruments, and they provide immense advantages in terms of physical and mental training. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to learn how to play viola whilst in a string quartet, and my conductor in the youth orchestra thought that my long arms and other abilities would help. I didn't learn to a certain grade as such (I learnt enough to be able to play quartet tunes and to be able to read alto clef quite easily). The viola is such a beautiful instrument to play, and is a real shame that not many people take it up!

Once I got into high school and became more interesting in rock and indie music, I also decided that I wanted to play bass guitar and electric/acoustic guitar. Playing the violin made life a LOT easier, as the strings on the bass guitar were essentially the same as a violin (G, D, A and E, but in reverse order on the bass from the violin), and playing lead guitar stuff on guitar also became common sense and perhaps even easier than a violin, as a guitar has noticeable frets rather than the violin where you had to learn where certain notes were positioned on the fret board. I still find playing chords rather difficult, but lead and solo stuff are no longer a hassle :o)


I stopped playing violin when I was achieved my Grade 6, and was absolutely gutted, as I could no longer afford lessons due to moving away to university. I still wish that I could join an orchestra, which I may try in the near future once I finish my postgraduate studies (although I would be terrified to join...its been 6 years since I picked up my violin and played properly with a bunch of people!). Although playing the violin made my life for my parents a bit of a pain (i.e., they forever escorted me around the place, took me to endless rehearsals and concerts, listened to my constant screeching and not forgetting to mention paying for my violin lessons and other fees etc), they were glad of the experiences that I went through and realised that it taught me some very valuable lessons in life! Anyway, if you're willing to give yourself a challenge, then the violin is for you. In some respect, it is much easier to start playing the violin at a youngish age as you can 'sap up' more information, so if you have or know any young children interested in music, then suggest it to them! They'll either love it or they will hate it - but they (and you) won't know until they try it out...right?

Summary: A beautiful instrument to play, although it takes up a lot of time and patience!