TUTORIAL: How to hold a violin/viola
Well well well! I see you’ve stumbled across this little tutorial. I’ve been looking at some pictures of bad posture of people cosplaying and pretending to play the violin/ viola, and as a musician, it’s irked my nerves. Thus, this baby has been created! I may also make one with the piano, and guitar as well, possibly a few other instruments than those but ah well. Anyway! Let’s get to business. And the first thing to learn with any instrument is the parts of it!
Now, when dealing with the bow. I just want to stress this. Not every bow is made of wood, not all bows have mother of peal, not all of them have leather grips. It depends on the bow itself. I once played with a fiberglass bow with a rubber grip and plastic frog (before I became a serious player). Also, a key part to a bow is to NEVER TOUCH THE BOW HAIR. There are oils on everyone’s hand that can highly damage this part of a bow, eventually causing bad sound, you’ll have to eventually replace hair, etc. And let me tell you: replacing bow hair is expensive, whether it’s synthetic or horse hair. I got my cello bow rehaired and it set me back a good $75. Continuing on…let’s start on how to properly at least hold the bow since I’m on that tangent.
I would like to state, as a cellist and not a violinist, I can’t say too much about this with my knowledge; I haven’t played the violin/viola since the fifth grade. ANYWAY. A key to holding the bow is with your thumb. It is the main point of holding and keeping grip to it, as your other fingers almost drape (though there is a slight grip there as well). As you also see, the pinky finger rests on the top of the bow, and the middle two sort of fall off to the side. Your index finger also is on the grip to help for control.
Now, I couldn’t find a picture of a person bowing, but there are two key things. For one thing. When you bow with your arm, bow from your elbow rather than your shoulder. With your shoulder, it tires you out and such, but with the elbow, you basically use it as a pivot, which provides less friction and of course, more energy. Another key point is where to bow on the violin. I made a little diagram for you to show you.
As I stated in my horribly done on MS Paint diagram, bowing too high up on the fingerboard can cause problems. This would be with shifting (yes, people actually play notes that high up on the violin. Or on any stringed instrument), along with damage of strings. Bowing on the part of the violin past the bridge is not as bad, but it’s not like playing in the designated area. It does not come out with a variety of notes, but rather kind of creates a squeak.
Now, on to actually holding the violin!
See, obviously the chin rest rests…under your chin. Generally there’s also a small little thing people use to put on your shoulder, as a shoulder rest, but it’s not always needed. I mean it helps with comfort but still.
I also want to point out with this diagram, notice the instrument is basically parallel to the shoulder, and does not face down. This is basically for better playing. Besides, who wants to stare at the ground as they play?
Notice her hand? How it has this nice curve and is not flat? Let me put more reasoning into this. It’s harder to shift with a flattened hand, rather than with a curved hand.
Finally, let’s get some fingering in! (no you perverts, NOT LIKE THAT.)
LIVE LONG A PROSPER. That’s right kids. Star Trek is going to save your ass. Make that hand first. Then instead, switch those two middle fingers and put them together, rather than having the space in between. You then have your fingering position for a violin! Now let’s put that sucker on the violin/viola!
Bam! That’s how it goes! It’s also key to have the thumb on the side, once more for optimal shifting. Also, those lines just are the beginner’s way of showing you where to put your fingers.
Now, I do want to finally cover one last thing. I’m sure you’ve been wondering “why is this violin and viola? Is there really a difference?” My children, there is so much of a difference you wouldn’t even believe. Let’s first cover something interesting; Size! (God, what is with all the bad sexual jokes I can make out of this?)
On the top is the violin. The bottom is Viola. Now, it’s kind of hard to tell, but the violin, is actually of a smaller thickness than the viola. It’s part of the way to tell, as it helps with the deepness of the sound. One other major difference is string names.
Now, if you remember, the violin strings were E, A, D, and G. Viola differs though, as it has a deeper sound, meaning different strings. The Viola actually goes from left to right (on the instrument that is) A, D, G, and C. It’s basically like a tinier cello string wise.
Congratulations though! You have now just graduated and become an official master of how to properly hold a violin or viola! Go get some celebratory photos at a photoshoot in cosplay or something!
Cheers from Horatio!
