Name's Joshua Brumley, aka "Sweeper" most places online. I'm a 36-year old Army Vet who has gone back to college full time and have decided to learn how to play the violin. I'm starting up this blog as a way to keep myself honest as I learn and to share what I've learned with the internet at large. I've taken advantage of the music department at Cochise College where I go to school to learn how to play and I'll get to that in a bit.
First, allow me to introduce you to my violin; my 'hatchet' as it were.
This is a Palantino VN-450 that I picked for around $130 brand new. It is what is known as a "Student's Violin". It's called that due to the heavy lacquer on the body. A student's violin is heavily lacquered so it can take abuse from new students that haven't quite gotten in their heads yet that they need to be careful with their instruments. It, unfortunately, dulls the sound when played (not that I can really tell with my crappy playing yet). It's something of a compromise between value and quality, which suits me just fine as I'm just starting out.
Lesson #1: "Just where the heck do you place your fingers on the violin?"
Unlike guitars, violins don't have frets on the neck. So learning where to place your fingers requires a bit of guesswork. Back in the day, this entailed working with someone who already knew where to place them and a lot of frustrating moments of finger moving.
These days, most, (if not all), music teachers mark the neck with tape to show where to place your fingers. Me, I bought a special sticker that covers the entire First Position, (closest to the tuning pegs and where you usually start most pieces of music), with where you place your fingers:
Kind of looks like neck of a guitar controller from Guitar Hero or Rock Band, doesn't it? My music instructor mentioned that as she got a big chuckle out of it. It aids in the placement of fingering when you're just learning and, (so I've been told), "incapacitated" and need a bit of help when playing in front of an audience.
The yellow band is for your index finger and it's where your thumb hangs out on the other side of the finger, (not fret), board. This actually important in the placement of the rest of your fingers; the thumb acts as an anchor of sorts that aids in placement of the rest of your fingers:
Where your thumb goes, the rest of the hand follows. This becomes important when changing strings, or even positions, (more on that in a future post). Middle finger goes on the red-line, ring finger on blue, and pinky (which thankfully isn't often used) on the orange line.
Placing the fingers correctly is something of a skill that requires practice. This mostly because one's fingers aren't used to placing them in what is actually a pretty odd position, exacerbated by the fact that you are twisting your forearm around. I learned the hard way not to push it, had a sore arm for a few days from not taking a break.
Lesson #2: What notes are where?
The name of each string going from left to right(Low string-to-High string) when looking at the front are:
G-D-A-E
Left-handed violins just go in the opposite order.
The notes are set up in relation to each string. In the First position, we have:
G-string: G (open string), A (yellow band), B (red band), C (blue band)*
D-string: D (open string), E (yellow band), F (red band), G (blue band)
A-string: A (open string), B (yellow band), C (red band), D (blue band)
E-string: E (open string), F (yellow band), G (red band), A (blue band)
*fun fact: The First-Position C on the G-string is also known as Middle C to pianists, it's the note right in the middle of the keyboard of the piano.*
The real trick isn't figuring out where each note is, that comes with a bit of practice. It's getting your fingers to move and place themselves in the right spot to play the notes you want. This is why my teacher insisted on picking up a scales book.
Lesson #3: What are scales and why you should care.
You've noticed that notes go in alphabetical order from A to G and repeats, right? Well, a scale is simply a series of notes that start from one particular note and goes up to the same note, but in the next, higher, octave (where it has the same tone, but a higher pitch where it sounds lighter), you then go back down to the note you started with. For example: if you started on the open D-string and played each note up to the next time you came to D, then went back down, you have something like this:
(1)
This is the D Major Scale in the First position of fingering. This goes from the open D-string to the blue band on the A-string right next it and back down to the open D. The '#' are called sharps in music notation and simply means the note sounds a little sharper than it normally would. I wont go into what that actually means right now, because it really wont help the beginner just yet.
Incidentally, this is the scale the piece of music we are practicing in class is set in. It is called Concerto for Strings in D Major written by Antonio Vivaldi back in the early 1700s. the piece is from and era called Baroque, which makes heavy use of scales. This and other pieces like it make it a popular choice of music teachers to instruct new students, like myself, in. Scales are very handy in practicing your fingering as you are simply going up and back down the fingerboard. so they are highly recommended.
Well, that's about all I can think of relaying in this post. I purposely avoided bow handling as there are other places online that can do a much better job than I can with explaining how to use one. Hopefully, this helps demystify the violin a bit for you, the reader.
Thanks for reading,
Josh "Sweeper" Brumley
(1) Image is the property of Fretless Finger guides Copyright 2011 and used without permission. Original source found at: Fretless Finger Guides Scales
Check them out.
Another good source for violin playing: Violin online
They have tons of good stuff, including bow handling.
