How to hold a violin properly
Are you holding your violin with tension? You just don’t feel comfortable holding the violin? In this blog post, discover how to hold a violin properly without tension.
Before we get into the four steps of holding the violin properly, I want you to be aware of is where exactly is your violin pointing when you are holding it?
One thing absolutely not to do, is to have your scroll pointing off to the side. If you can look at yourself facing the mirror while you are holding the violin and your scroll is going off to the left side perpendicular to your head. That is not how you hold the violin ever.
If you do this in any remoteness, stop right now and retrain yourself to hold the violin properly. Because what’s going to happen is if you hold the violin off to the side, after many years you’re going to have a lot of problems and a lot of pain.
Where you do want the scroll pointing is in front of us and to the left a bit. Ideally, you want your scroll to be over the left foot while standing in a naturally balanced stance.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s go ahead and get into the four steps of holding the violin properly.
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1. Bring the violin to you
To set up a violin hold properly, you want to bring the violin to you without you reaching for the violin. We don’t want to have the chin go for the violin. Many years teaching young violinists, the first thing when they get the violin, is like “Oh, I gotta reach over. I gotta grab it with my chin.” But that’s not the case.
- Stand tall and straight like a tree, completely in a natural alignment, shoulders square, straight and square with the hips. Everything is in balance then bring the violin to you. Think about a tree completely firmly rooted in the ground.
- While standing in rest position, make a V for violin with the left hand. Bring your left hand to the violin. Tip the violin upside down and your elbow will go naturally into position. Now see what happened to my elbow? My elbow is put into position.
- Place the violin under your jaw without reaching. All of us humans have this little jawbone right? Use your jaw to help you hold up the violin. The name, chin rest is quite deceiving the chin does not rest on the chin rest, the jaw does.
- Feel like you have to raise your shoulder up or you have a tall neck? I would really suggest a shoulder rest. Personally, I use a KUN shoulder rest.
- Don’t change the angle of the neck in order to look at the violin. This will cause neck pain. Ideally, you will be looking down the violin out of the corner of your eye a little bit.
You may think, “Oh you know what does the violin hold really have to do with anything,” but it’s super important because you’re positioning yourself for success right away. We want to set you up properly for a relaxed beautiful playing right from the beginning.
2. The role of the left elbow in a proper violin hold
The left elbow naturally hangs from the instrument. down here. The elbow should not be forced to be held out to the left of the violin. If you do not allow the left elbow to hang down from the violin, you will most likely develop pain running down the back of your arm. You’ll also probably have a little bit of pain here and you’ll probably have a little bit of pain here.
As you use your fourth finger for an extension or are wokring on the G string, your elbow will come under the instrument even more.
As we work up the instrument, the elbow comes under the violin even more.
3. The role of the left hand in a proper violin hold
Number three
In a proper violin hold the perfect left hand is a relaxed left hand. If you find that you have tension in your left hand give it a shake, to remind your hand how it feels in a super relaxed state. While holding the violin up with your shoulder and jaw shake out your left hand then bring your hand to the violin super relaxed.
Be sure your wrist is naturally straight and not kicked out or gripping the violin. Also be sure to have a nice relaxed thumb that is nice and straight. Your thumb should be relaxed enough in your violin hold to tap the neck with the fleshy part. The left thumb should never be bent or hyperextended. That’s all a sign of tension. Your thumb just hangs out.
A good violin hold between the shoulder and jaw allows for the left hand to be free to do what it needs to do without gripping or being stuck.
4. Keeping the palm facing the fingerboard
Number four.
When violinists first learn, they typically start with the first finger. When the first finger is the first finger to be learned what happens is that the hand naturally flips out. With our left hand, we have to have our palm facing the fingerboard at all times.
This is the main reason, I suggest starting with the second finger if you’re first learning the violin. If you’ve been playing the violin for a while you can actually find out the natural form of your left hand by checking your fourth finger.
A lot of violinists are very weak in the fourth finger because the left hand isn’t set up in such a way that supports the fourth finger.
- Place your fourth finger on the A string
- Be sure the fourth finger is nice and rounded. Plus the base knuckle is close to the neck of the violin.
- Without lifting your fourth finger, set up your other fingers.
- Play a descending scale starting with the fourth finger to your open string.
Putting it all together
- Set up a great violin hold
- Check where your scroll is pointing
- Bring your relaxed left hand to the violin with a relaxed thumb
- Be sure to have the palm face the fingerboard
- Beginners set down your second finger. More advanced players set down your fourth finger.
- Play a descending scale starting with the fourth finger
Now that you’re set with an amazing violin hold. I’d love to invite you to receive my beginner violin scales book for free. Register to get your copy here.
I’d love to hear from you. Please share with us in the comments below, what was your biggest breakthrough with this blog post. Happy magical practices. Ciao.
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