Violin Buying Tips For Beginners - Choosing the Best Sounding Violin

Introduction
With so many different violin options out there, I want to put into perspective what you should be looking for when buying a violin. Many violins are available to buy on the Internet as well as many local music stores but how do you know which one is going to work best for you especially if you have never played the violin before? Not every violin is made equally so it is important to choose one that is going to sound the best at the best possible price.

The Importance of Quality of Sound
The number one thing that you should be looking for in buying a violin is the instruments quality of sound. I highly recommend either buying or renting at a local shop so that you can find this out for sure. The reason why this is so important is the better a violin sounds, the better it will make you sound and the more motivated you will be to practice and progress. Not to mention you will impress those you are playing for far greater than if you were to play on an instrument that sounded terrible.

What makes a Violin Sound Good?
There is no way to tell exactly what violin is going to sound the best. You can get a good idea of the quality sound of the instrument by if its hand crafted, who made it and country of origin but none of these will guarantee if an instrument is going to sound better than another. That is why you shouldn't even worry about all of these factors and just try a variety instruments in your price range and pick which one sounds the best. That is all that really matters anyways right?

Choosing the Best Sounding Violin
By either playing the violins yourself that are in your price range or having another violinist play them for you, this will give you a better idea on exactly what violins sound the best in your price range. If you have the ability to play anything at all with the violin it is better to play it yourself regardless how inexperienced you are. Every violin sounds different with different players so that is why playing it yourself is probably the best. Once you have the violins narrowed down to a few you could either take them home for a week to see which one you like or make your decision based on going back and forth between the two. Remember to choose the instrument that sounds the best and not worry about anything else.

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Christmas Recital Invitation!

Can't wait to see all my students there!

Violin Lessons For Beginners - Tips on Proper Posture

Introduction
A very important part of learning the violin correctly deals with mastering the fundamentals of posture. Before you dig deep into further violin lessons on the violin, it is very important to begin each practice session with a few things in mind. Over time posture will just come naturally but until then it will take some effort to remember these lessons each time you play to ensure your greatest potential on the violin. Below we will cover a few of the most important points when it comes to posture as a beginner violin student.

Holding the Violin Correctly
The biggest points with holding the violin correctly are making sure your wrist is straight, thumb stays still in the right spot and your fingers stay up on the tips. It is very easy to forget anyone of these points during a practice session while you are focusing on other things. I would suggest keeping a note by your music on these lessons so that you are reminded often during your practice session. Over time you won't need this but as a beginner it would help to be reminded of these things.

Holding the Bow Correctly
It is very important to hold your violin bow correctly. This is a huge part of posture that many beginners have trouble with at first. The most important points with holding the bow correctly are having the pinky at the button, fingers relaxed on the stick, and thumb curved in the groove.

Having Proper Violin Position
Some people prefer learning the violin sitting down over standing up. This is fine as long as you follow the proper fundamentals of violin position. You always want to keep the violin parallel to the ground by holding the instrument up with your chin and shoulder. It is more comfortable to slouch the violin down by holding it up with your hand but this is an extremely bad habit to get into. If you are sitting down I highly recommend that you sit up in your chair with your back totally straight.

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Something I Found and Want To Pass Along...

 I was visiting some violin blogs around the web, and came across this post referencing some practice tips. I agree with every suggestion. Some things may sound silly to some players, but the truth is...every one of these tips can do nothing but help you play more comfortably and improve faster.

Here is a link to the post: http://www.violinist.com/blog/vlnslr/201011/11855/

Thank you to Thomas Metzler for posting the article, and to Janet Horvath for speaking up!

Play on!

Suzuki Violin Lessons - What Are the Advantages?

Introduction
A great method of learning violin which has been around for quite a while is called the Suzuki Method. This is a method that has become very popular for learning on the violin, especially for kids that start off at a very young age. A Suzuki certified teacher will teach his classes differently than many other teachers being that he or she focuses on learning the violin by ear. Being a student of Suzuki and now a teacher of Suzuki I highly recommend this method to not just children but also adults of all ages.

The Suzuki Violin Book Series
There are ten books that are in the Suzuki Violin Series that starts off with the basics all the way up to advanced level classical music. The way these books are set up are to make the student not just learn how to read music, but also listen to a particular song and try to play it after what they heard. All the books in the Suzuki Series come with a CD that encourages the student to actually listen to the piece before he or she ever even plays it. Over time this really develops the ear for music and this has great advantages down the road.

The Advantages of Suzuki Training
The great thing about Suzuki is that it is a method of learning for all ages. The style of instruction suits very well for young kids but also can fit the style of an adult violin player. Once you develop an ear for music there is so much more you can do down the road as far as playing violin without needing music. If you have the ability to hear something on the radio for example, and someone asks you to play exactly what you heard, this is a great skill that can aid in a lot of different musical jobs that require this type of learning. Different styles of violin don't always have written sheet music that you can follow so by being able to play by ear, it really opens up your musical ability to a new level.

Another huge advantage of the Suzuki Method is that it helps out tremendously when you are trying to do improvisation. When you are performing a certain piece outside of classical music, you have the ability to add your own twist to certain notes to make it your own. With a good ear, you can do this a lot easier by knowing the key that you are in and playing different notes and rhythms but improvisation.

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Which violin song you recommend to be learned as “first song”? And Why? (I want to learn how to play the violin so this will help me very much, thanks!)

Hey there thanks for the great question!

The first song that I teach in my studio, and that other violin teachers teach their students first is "Mary had a little Lamb." Here is the link to how to play this on my You Tube Channel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxltIwwAj6E
I also have a set of "Series 1 Videos" on You Tube, that instruct you how to play basic songs on violin when you are first starting.

The reason these are great songs to learn is that they are confined to just the D string, which limits you from crossing strings when you are first starting.

Hope this helps!

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Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

I drove through a winter wonderland to get to the music studio today! I hope everyone's Christmas season is starting to get magical!

The Rivertown Music Studio's mascot "Lazy" was too excited in the snow to sit for a picture :)

(He's a Siberian Husky)

...Finally, he's supposed to WANT to sit in the snow!