fancy a tune? (Violins)

Name: yasminhussein

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Product:	Violins
Date:	07/09/02 (531 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relaxation, Rewards, putting smiles on peoples faces!

Disadvantages: Practise!

I saw the violin for the first time at a performance called shipwreck at the Anvil in Basingstoke, then I saw the violin again, the mellow sound tingled through my ears and seemed very relaxing and chilling.

I soon began mimicking the violinist, my mum and dad noticed and asked whether I would like to play, just see how it goes, and if I didn’t like it I could quit.

I went to our nearest music shop, Modern Music, www.modernmusic.co.uk, and asked to look at their list of violin teachers, then they recommended Kim Graham (water-witch is her username) Kim is an amazing music teacher, she has helped me the whole way, and I would definitely recommend her to anyone!

I am now doing grade 6 and I enjoy the violin so much, I am participating in Basingstoke Area Youth Orchestra (BAYO) currently and I audition for the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra and I have been placed on the Reserve!

*Auditions*
At auditions do:

 Dress casually/smartly. This is because you want to present yourself nicely.
 Watch your technique and play to your best. This is because you want to get into what you’ve auditioned for and get a good place if you are auditioning for an Orchestra.
 Make sure your bow is rosined
 Make sure your violin is cleaned.

At auditions don’t:

 Chew chewing gum
 Panic
 Be rude


The Violin has many different parts:

 Tail button -: Is where you tighten the chin rest.
 Strings -: Is the sound source, where the bow string vibrates.
 F holes -: Holes carved into the violin in the shape of f (which stands for forte/loud)
 Nut -: At the top of the violin before the peg box.
 Bridge -: The strings run over the bridge, but don’t play behind the bridge because it sounds disgusting!
 Tail-piece -: Helps hold the strings in place an
d is connected to the chin rest.
 Finger Board -: The strings run up along the finger board and when you press down the strings to produce different notes, you push the strings onto the fingerboard
 Pegs -: Pegs hold the strings, and you can twist the pegs, to tighten the strings, to tune the violin.
 Peg box -: The end of the peg where the strings are attached is in the peg box.
 Scroll -: Is the very top of the violin (very pretty.)
 Shoulder -: The shoulder is part of the body of the violin.
 Chin Rest -: Where you place your chin when playing.
 Neck -: This leads to the Peg box, which leads to the scroll, and the fingerboard is placed on top of the neck.

When you play the violin you need to attach a shoulder rest parallel with the chin rest (under side of violin.) But it is far better and is advised that you buy a proper chin rest not a sponge or cloth.

There are a wide variety of books to start the violin from, one of them is called: Superstart Violin Level 1 by Mary Cohen, this book includes Challenges, Brain Teasers, Technical Tips and Fact Files, it also provides Beginners pieces to get off to a good start on the violin.

As you learn you begin to take Exams.

*Exams*
At Exams Do:

 Be polite
 Once again, play to you max
 Try to stay calm
 Clean your violin
 Rosin your bow
 Practise then rest before your exam
 Thank your Examiner
 Put on a smile!
 Present yourself nicely

At Exams Don’t:

 Rush
 Chew chewing gum
 Panic if you make a mistake

When you are playing the violin, stand with your feet apart by about 15-30 cm to keep balance, don’t slouch and always put your head straight forward, otherwise you might start to get neck pains.

When you start to
become more advance the styles of music become a wider variety, e.g. pop, Irish, Scottish, Classical etc.

*Styles*
With things like pop, you have to be more advanced although there is some beginners tunes, but with things like classical you can play at any grade or level, because Irish and Classical have beginners tunes and advanced tunes etc. for classical there is a book called: classical violinist, there is a couple of books called this but in different grades or levels.
There are many more types of music, e.g. Jazz, Blues, and Baroque etc.
All of these range in Levels and Grades from Beginners to Intermediate to Advance.

The violin produces an amazing sound, mellow and soft and the type sound that could send you to sleep unless you are playing loud, fast and jiggy music.

Since the violin was made; there has been a wide range of looks and styles for it: there is now electrical and even a half violin!

*Size*
There is a range of size’s depending on the length of your arms
1/4 - A very small violin
1/2 - Half size violin
3/4 -three quarter size violin
And finally, a full size violin

As you grow you will need bigger violins, and as they get bigger the prices grow, but the price would never match up to the beautiful pure sound that you gain.
Also you get Bows to go with the violin they also start to cost more, but it’s definitely worth it!

*Makes*
There are different makes of violins:

For beginners:

 Poller and Zeller priced about £280- £300 - from Eastern Europe

More are:

 Normally German or French maybe which cost £300 - £1500 – you have to buy the bow and case separately
 There is also a very nice English Violin called Maidstone for about £400
 Another English one is called Wolff at about £800 - £1200

Eventually you can start spending up to a million on fine Italian
Violins from Cremona

 There is a very good, popular violin called Kloz – from Germany worth about £5k

There are also some very fine French violins

*Bow Makes*

As you buy better violin’s you need better bows

 Tubbs
 Dodd
 Preetzcchener
 paesold

There are many more different bows as well and they are normally priced at 1/4 price of the fiddle

*Lessons*
Lessons cost about £27 per hour with a very good teacher
But with unqualified teacher they cost about £12 per hour

The violin means a lot to me and I wouldn’t trade it for any other musical instrument, its nice when your feeling relaxed to just pick it up and play, when I go on holiday most of the time I take it with me and I just play and it soothes me so much and its fun as well, with the orchestra we travel and do tours, we have been to France and Spain.

The Violin is a dream come true, maybe you should give it a try, if you love relaxing and chilling or you like airy bouncy, fun music the violins for you! Well it’s for anyone, after all it’s the best instrument in the world.

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