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Monday, August 24, 2009

Learn How To Play The Violin

By Ned Dagostino

Do you want to learn how to play the violin? It truly is a beautiful sounding instrument. And if you want to learn, you certainly can. Most people will tell you that to play this difficult instrument you need to start young. That can be beneficial for sure, but the fact is that you can learn to play and play well at any age.

Find a good teacher you can take private lessons from, or you may know of a relative or friend who plays the violin and who could start you out. The first thing you're going to need to learn is how to hold the violin. If you hold it wrong, you'll be very uncomfortable and may even eventually suffer stress injuries from trying to play the violin the wrong way. To hold the violin properly, you position your left arm underneath the body of the violin and then grasp the neck of the instrument with your left hand, curving your fingers over the neck as you do so. Your hand and fingers will be positioned over the strings and the violin's chin rest should be between your left shoulder and your chin. You hold the bow in your right hand and a bow or pluck the strings with that hand.

Once you've learned to hold the violin properly, you can begin to learn how to finger notes on the violin. Unlike guitars, violins do not have frets. Instead, violin players literally play "by ear" until they know exactly where each note falls on the fingerboard.

You'll first be taught the four main positions on the violin. Those first position is at the end of the neck and will give you the low notes. The last of the four positions is close to your face and will give you higher notes. The four strings are tuned to G, D. A, and E. Play the strings "open" (with no fingers pressing on the strings) and these are the notes you will hear. Press you fingers on the strings at different locations and you will hear different notes.

There are two ways to play these notes. Most start out by plucking them. This is called pizzicato. The other way most people are familiar with is by steadily drawing the bow across the strings in a long stroke.

You're also going to need to learn how to read music. You have several options for this. The easiest would be to get a friend or relative that already knows to teach you. You can also hire a professional, take a class, or just search the Internet for one of many instructional sites.

If you want to learn how to play the violin expertly, remember that this is a process that takes many years, but it can be done with plenty of hard work and practice.

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