How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound
Are you frustrated that you can’t get rid of the beginner’s sound on the violin?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Let’s get into how you can mature your beginner sound to sounding better.
Check the foundation of your left hand
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 1
The first place you want to investigate why you sound like a beginner is your foundation. Make sure that you have a good violin hold, good left hand, good right hand. If you have followed me for a while you may think, Heather you talk a lot about foundation. Yes, I do because it is super important. It’s always the first place to check out before anything else. I don’t want you to waste your time and learn incorrectly.
Investigate your left hand that you do have a little bit of space between your thumb and where your index finger connects. I see a lot of violinists that play without any space in that area. No space is a sign of tension. Vibrato is super difficult if you do not have space.
You’re also not going to be able to shift easily. So, do make sure you have a relaxed left hand.
You also want a little bit of space between the left-hand knuckle and the neck of the violin. Again, without this space, vibrato will be very difficult. You’ll be able to vibrate a lot easier than if you’re stuck up against the neck of the violin. Also, investigate that your thumb is relaxed.
How many times have you been dissatisfied with your tone on the violin?
You want to sound better but you don’t know where to start. You are serious about transforming your violin tone and know deep down all you are missing is proper training.
There is one simple commonality in all levels of violinists from newbie to professional – Gorgeous Tone. Improve your violin tone today and beyond with Gorgeous Violin Tone Academy. 12 weeks of tonal study bliss.
Check the foundation of your right hand
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 2
With the right hand, you also want to make sure you relax. A lot of times, I see straight pinkies and high elbows. That’s one thing you want to not have for sure. You want to relax your pinky and relax your elbow. This is one of the most common problems I see with beginner violinists,a straight pinky and a high elbow. Your shoulder, elbow and pinky are all connected.
If you allow your pinky to relax and curve a little bit, you will find that your elbow and shoulder will automatically relax. You don’t need to play with a straight pinky. A straight fourth finger in the bow hold makes it really hard for good bow changes at the frog.
Bad intonation, bad sound
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 3
Good Intonation – the quest for the holy grail. You want to play in tune. It’s a good thing right from the start to investigate every single pitch.
How to practice good intonation?
Play with a tuner. Play with drones. What are drones? Drones, you can find videos on youtube with specific pitches. Play the video while you play the violin, in order to make sure that you’re matching up with that pitch.
For example, if you’re playing in the key of D, go ahead and find a video with the drone D. Play that drone video while you’re playing your piece. This helps you double-check that everything is sitting nicely within the key of D.
Beautiful bow strokes
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 4
The next place we want to investigate how to get rid of the beginners sound are your bow strokes. We want to be able to have beautiful bow strokes because the bow is what actually creates that gorgeous tone, right?
The beginner sound sounds kind of pinched and we want to make sure that we have a nice beautiful sound.
It’s like you’re singing. you want to think about how would you sing that piece. You wouldn’t sing it eee, eee, eee through the nose right?
Emulate how you would sing it or how you would imagine somebody to sing it.
This expression is created by a long beautiful bow. I want you to challenge yourself to play nice long whole bows, frog to tip and tip to frog. Many violinists stay in the middle because that is where they feel most comfortable and are able to play with straight bows. It is now time to step out of that comfort zone into longer and straighter bows.
Continuous bow changes
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 5
Another technique to improve upon to get rid of the beginners sound is to practice continuous bow changes. Many violinists stop in the middle of the bow change their bow which in turn stops the sound. A great way to describe this phenomenon is to compare to a lap swimmer. Lap swimmers go to the wall for a flip turn. They don’t stop when they reach the wall and then do a flip turn. They go right to the wall, turn and without stopping, start the next lap. Our bow changes are the same.
We don’t want to stop the flow of the sound and stop the tone when we make a bow change. We want that to be as connected as possible as long as it’s what it’s called for in the piece.
A great way to practice this is with scales. In order to practice here at the tip, you can just take any scale your favorite scale, any position and just work on connecting your bow changes.
You want your bow changes to be effortless and connected.
The next place that I want you to investigate is your bow changes at the frog. The frog is not necessarily the most comfortable place to play. People like to avoid the frog and make their bow changes above the frog.
If you’re a beginner violinist you want to work out your bow changes at the frog and feeling comfortable. The first place is making sure you have a nice curved pinky, nice relaxed elbow, a nice relaxed shoulder. Now you can practice scales just at the frog. Allow your fingers to be relaxed and flexible. If they’re not flexible, they’re going to stop that gorgeous bow change.
Your fingers are your shock absorbers. Allow them be responsive to the motion of the bow.
Don’t hesitate
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 7
Another way to get rid of the beginner sound is not to hesitate. A lot of beginners hesitate in their playing or stop in their pieces. You don’t want to stop. Just keep on going. Imagine that you’re just hopping on that train and the train is going, going, going and it’s not going to stop. In your practice sessions, practice not stopping. Just keep going, stay in the flow and keep playing.
Continuous vibrato
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 8
The icing on the cake to help you get rid of the beginners sound is developing a healthy vibrato. A great way to help your tone sound more mature is by incorporating vibrato.
Vibrato adds another layer of beauty.
Don’t be afraid to make a mistake
How to Get Rid of the Beginner’s Sound – Tip 9
Approach the violin with love in your heart, a nice beautiful stance and play with confidence. Don’t be afraid of making those mistakes. Yes, mistakes help us grow. So, it’s okay to make mistakes, I see a lot of violinists so afraid to make mistakes, that it’s actually stopping their progress for years.
Allow yourself to make a mistake because you can learn from that mistake. Once you make the mistake, just analyze it, figure out what happened so you can not make that mistake again.
If you like this blog post and want more gorgeous tone tips, be sure to check out my blog post how to get the best tone from the violin. See you there.
Excellent vibrato, posture, and relaxation. Heather’s suggestions fit my present style and goals
Thank you so much for commenting Ronald. Glad to hear that it is working well for you. Keep us posted on your progress.