Yep, this post goes out to everyone who teaches themselves the violin (or any other instrument for that matter) and would love to have a sneak peak into how others are doing.
Well, I’ve started about 2 weeks ago with my violin self-teaching, but please do hang on! Because this isn’t the first time I’m learning an instrument. As you might have read here I’m also playing the double bass (yes I took lessons but only for three years. There’s going to be a separate post about this. You’ll find the link *here* as soon as it’s up 😉 )
As you might know, the first obstacle to handle when wanting to learn any instrument is to get your hands on one. Now there are plenty of resources out there which will help you to find the perfect instrument for you at this point in your journey, that’s why I won’t go into that here. Suffice to say that I tried a different approach for myself this time around. Firstly I wanted to start out with a better quality violin because honestly I’m relearning the instrument. I played it when I was 2 or 3 for maybe not longer than a year (my memory is a bit blurry) because life happened and I had to give up on the violin.
And secondly, I wanted a left hand instrument because a) I’m a left hander and b) I know from experience with my double bass the strong effect that playing with your strong hand has, no matter what anybody else says. For me, it took my double bass playing to a completely different level. So if anyone out there is thinking about getting themselves a left hand instrument, go for it if you can! It’s worth it!
And after some querying and finding out I found that, because of my current life situation, I had to settle with a student violin, right hand version. I’ve also found a website for left hand violin/fiddle players where it was mentioned that it is indeed possible to play a right hand violin left handed (you cannot really say that about a double bass for instance). Unfortunately I’ve forgotten the website’s name and I’ve even forgotten to bookmark it. If I find it again I’ll link it *here*.
The point is, I tried out playing a right hand violin left handed and it worked! I swapped the chin rest with one for left handers of course, but so far I’m making wonderful progress! 🙂 My right hand knows where to move on the fingerboard to ‘find’ the right notes and my bowing gets steadily better, also thanks to a video on bowing technique which I will add at the bottom of this post, along with other videos which helped me start out. It’s not an exhaustive list, I therefore recommend to check out this post regularly 😉
Also, I’ve been playing double bass for a few years now, and because of the mirror tuning between double bass and violin (I explain it here), I got to think head over heals so to speak, especially when I play one of my favourite songs on violin which I enjoy playing on the double bass. Truth to be told, I am fluent in reading sheet music in the bass clef, but reading sheet music in the treble clef is still something I got to improve…
One thing that does come up for me in my violin playing is an issue I was already faced with in my double bass playing: my body does tense up shortly after I start playing each time I practise. Because the ascension of my soul was triggered in summer 2014 when I ran into a story that helped me face my true self, and I’m constantly in the Now, (also thanks to Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now,) I realised that it is the energies that I still got within myself that keep me tensing up whenever I do stuff I enjoy or simply everyday stuff (like brushing my teeth). Thanks to that realisation and my efforts to clear out those energies it got a lot better 🙂
Still it keeps me from playing as long as I’d love to and it also influences my bowing abilities, even more so with the violin. Despite it all I’m thinking about playing along to songs I like; probably start out with one and then see how I feel about it. If it goes well you’ll be watching videos of me playing my beautiful violin along to a song shortly 😉
Here’s the videos I was talking about earlier:
Beginner’s violin lessons which helped me a lot
A channel I generally recommend for those of you who’d like to learn how to play violin, whether you’re self-taught or not
A video on bowing technique (which I talked about earlier) – I discovered it some years back when I tried to improve my double bass bowing and it has helped me back then, now it helps me even more with my violin bowing 🙂 Even if the presentation irks you I recommend you watch it anyway because the tips in this video are well worth the watch!
What’s your story so far? Are you learning the violin or any other instrument? I’d love to hear from you!
Again, if you have any questions or insights, feel free to drop a comment 😉
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Disclaimer: Linking to people, blogs and websites in this post does not mean that I share all their views and opinions. I placed those links in this post for others to see the sources of parts of my knowledge and use this knowledge to their own liking.
Marianne Walker 