start playing violin again

1. I have to practice every day for an hour
2. For first seven days: I have to be able to hold the violin on the right position between my jaw and shoulder. My left hand should be able to freely moving in fingerboard.
3. In a month: I have to be able to do straight bowing technique and play full scale correctly without looking on my left fingers.
4. The next 2 month: I can play every string without touching surround strings. Still playing on full scale.
5. In every session of my lesson, I have to write down my progress and mistakes that need corrections.
6. I have re-write my specific goal in every session of my lesson.

Arm is feeling better with a couple of days rest now, I’m really pleased that no real harm was done and an important lesson to take things slowly and not keep playing too much too soon. I’ve found that I’ve been able to play with the aid of a shoulder rest and I’m not feeling any discomfort or tension, so playing without a shoulder rest is the thing for me! It’s fascinating really because I’ve now become much more sensitive to the instrument with can only serve to make my playing better. I also don’t look at my fingers when finding the notes so I am really working on hearing the sound to play in tune.

I’m finding trying to do vibrato very difficult but I’ve read that it certainly takes time to master a year or more, so I shall not worry :) I feel confident that I’ve certainly started playing the violin again so now I shall move this goal onto learning grade 1 violin :) Learning again is such a JOY!

I think I’ve done my arm in! I’ve been playing way too much today and as my muscles arn’t used to holding the violin now I think I’ve strained them! I had to stop a couple of weeks ago as there were people about that I didn’t want to hear me taking violin up again but now I’m not fussed and am carrying on. Taking a break from practice does show and I felt I’ve lost alot of what I had learnt before but now I’m back into it and really think my playing is improving all the time, I hope though I’ve not done my arm any harm, must give it a rest tomorrow!

This weekend I’ve taken up trying to learn wrist vibrato, another thing I’ve not done before. I’ve found out that you really need to be able to hold the violin with just your head resting on it, without the support of your hand on the neck, which gives the hand the freedom to do the vibrato action.

Well guess what! I tried to do it and I’m in pain again! problem is now that I can’t hold the violin between my head and shoulder on its own. I think this is because I now need a different design shoulder rest, my violin keeps slipping. Choosing one is hard without trying them, I’ve managed to get it down to two that would be most suitable tho, the wolf secondo or a bonmusica, the bonmusica wraps right around the shoulder though, it’s quite a contraption. I’ve also read a few discussions on the shoulder rest vs. holding the instrument naturally without one. Some argue that the rest inhibits playing.

Other than that I’ve organised my weeks work on my violin. practice during the week and research at the weekends to develop further, my lesson time in other words, I’m doing well with getting back into playing again, and I feel this is going to be a solid activity soon :)

Tonight I’ve got myself a bit more organised with my violin learning and have created a practice book to keep a record and get me on track. back to basics I’m learning all the things for grade 1 first, well the scales anyway as I’ve not been able to find much info on techniques and skills learnt for grade1 (just the music pieces that are for the exam). These must be in a book somewhere tho.

I’m so happy to be creating my own learning, and starting with the scales to get me in tune has been great for me so far. I didn’t really learning anything about scales before and it’s so essential I don’t know how I bundled my way though all those year ago without this knowledge.

I’m also slowly learning how to tune my violin with just hearing the a note, and also I’ve taken to working on making straight bows too at the moment, something else that completely bypassed me before but another essential. I’ve got so much more of a feeling for the instrument this time, in the sense that I can really create wonderful music from it and enjoy myself this time. I AM HAPPY!

WOW! my new chin rest arrived a couple of days ago from the US and my goodness it has made such a difference! I can now hold my violin without any tension in my jaw now, and no aches!!! (just those from not being used to holding the instrument, they’ll go once I get used to it!).

I’ve even seen how much better control I have over my playing (especially with my bow, before it used to slide all over the place!). The last couple of days I’ve been practising straight bowing, and the G major scale. I AM OVERJOYED TO BE PLAYING AGAIN! When I think back to those 8 years ago when I had all those problems with it at school. My unsupportive teachers hoping that I would quit, my aching jaw from clamping down on the thing, urgh. And all I needed was a new chinrest :) I’m glad I took a break from it though, I can approach it with much more dedication and maturity in wanting to understand and learn and play

I got out my violin yesterday and practised holding it for a bit, and it didn’t half make me ache! I remember one big problem I had with holding my violin all those years ago, I’d clamp it down really hard with my chin to keep it in position and it would give me such jaw ache afterwards, my teeth would hurt to. I think this was one of the reasons that put me off playing in the end.

I went looking online for more instruction on how to hold the violin properly and found a great website… http://www.violinistinbalance.nl about changing the chin rest and shoulder rest and using the Alexander technique in holding the violin too.

I’ve really found that I need to try a different chin rest and I’m feeling that one more central, the Flesch type Chin Rest is what I need to try! I know I’ve had problems with holding the violin that weren’t addressed years ago, and I’m glad I’ve had a long break to start again with it and approach it properly. i’m going to buy a Flesch Chin Rest before I do anything else :)

Just recently I’m feeling so motivated and excited about getting my violin out and learning again after so many years away, I can’t tell you! I’m going to use it as a treat, if I do my other tasks first in the day I shall reward myself with a practice! I think this will help me a great deal to move forward overall :)

get my violin tuned.

i never did end up selling my violin. i’ve actually been dying to play it since i started dating sam and am constantly surrounded by musicians. i want to get really good so i can jam with them. i think that’d be fun.