Choose a violin and learn the basics of holding the instrument and playin
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: So You Want to Play the Violin 5
Chapter 1: Introducing the Violin 7
Meeting the String Family 7
Tuning up 8
Holding on 9
Bowing Out Some Sounds 9
Looking closely at the bow 9
Using both your hands 10
Making Music with or without Notation 10
Knowing the notes 11
Getting rhythm 11
Digging Deeper into Music 11
Scales and key signatures 11
Harmony 12
Playing with Style 12
Dazzling technique 12
Multicultural music 13
Having Your Own Violin 13
Chapter 2: Getting Started with the Violin 15
Examining the Violin 16
How Violins Work 19
String vibration and string length 19
Using both hands to make a sound 19
How the bow helps 20
Unpacking Your Violin and Putting It Away Safely 21
Taking the violin out of its case 21
Putting the violin away 22
Protecting your violin 23
Getting Your Violin in Tune 23
Working the pegs and fine tuners 24
Tuning with the piano 28
Using an electronic tuner 29
Getting close with a pitch pipe 31
Finding A with a tuning fork 32
Troubleshooting Guide to Dealing with Pegs and Fine Tuners 33
Peg problems 33
Fine tuner problems 35
Chapter 3: Holding Up Well 37
Understanding the Importance of a Good Violin Hold 37
When standing 38
When sitting 41
Reading from a Music Stand 42
Finding a Good Fit: Chinrests and Shoulder Rests 43
Chinrests 43
Shoulder rests 46
Fixing Common Problems with the Violin Hold 48
Keeping the scroll afloat 48
Watching the horizontal angle 48
Keeping your elbow under 49
Relaxing the shoulder 50
Part 2: Getting Started: The Basics 51
Chapter 4: Taking a Bow 53
Saying Hello to the Bow 54
Treating Your Bow Well 55
Tightening and loosening the horsehair 56
Using rosin on the bow 57
Getting to Grips with Your Bow Hold 59
The famous diva method 59
The hidden treasures method 60
Conquering common problems with the bow hold 62
Putting Bow to Strings 62
Bowing on different strings 63
Understanding bowing symbols 65
Playing Your First Concert 65
Bowing in the Styles of Mr Smooth and Mr Clean 67
Chapter 5: Getting the Left Hand Right 69
Shaping Up Your Arm and Fingers 69
Getting your arm in shape 70
Taking your fingers to tap dancing class 71
Framing your left hand 72
Relaxing your thumb 74
Putting Your Fingers on the Strings 74
Getting groovy fingertips 74
Counting your fingers 75
Knowing which finger to use for what note 76
Lifting and placing your fingers 76
Taping Training Wheels on the Fingerboard 76
Preparing Your Pizzicato 80
Putting Finger 2 to Work 82
Chapter 6: All Together Now 87
All Together Now: Putting Both Hands to Work 87
Getting into playing position 88
Practicing with hands together 88
Crossing Over to a Different String 91
Changing strings with the bow 91
Moving your fingers to different strings 95
Playing Music with Both Hands 98
Warming up to the task 98
Topping the charts: Two simple songs 100
Expanding Your Bow Strokes 101
Using more bow, gradually 102
Preparing to play Pachelbel 102
Part 3: Reading Music for the Violin 105
Chapter 7: Translating Five Lines onto Four Strings 107
Lining Up the Music 107
Setting the pitch with the clef 108
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (and so do girls!) 110
Climbing the ledger lines 110
Naming Your Notes, String by String 111
17 basic notes 112
A string 112
E string 113
D string 114
G string 115
Meeting the Sharps, Flats, and Naturals 116
Identifying sharps, flats, and naturals 116
Playing sharps and flats 117
Playing Music by Reading the Notes 118
Getting Louder or Softer — Dynamite Dynamics! 119
Playing loudly 120
Making soft sounds 121
Adding crescendo and diminuendo 121
Chapter 8: Making Rhythm Count 125
Dissecting a Musical Note 126
Adding Up the Value of Notes 127
Whole notes 127
Half notes 128
Quarter notes 129
Eighth notes 130
Sixteenth notes 131
Triplets 131
Counting In-Between Notes 132
Dotted half notes 133
Dotted quarter notes 133
Taking a Rest 134
You’ve Got Rhythm: Pieces to Play! 135
Chapter 9: Measuring Up: A Guide to Meter 139
Keeping Measure of the Beats 140
Counting Beats: Time Signatures 141
Tapping into the beat 142
Counting rests 143
Emphasizing the right beat 144
Regulating Your Speed with a Metronome 145
Mechanical metronomes 145
Electronic metronomes 147
Making friends with your metronome 148
Making Music in 4/4 Meter 150
Counting and Playing in Threes 151
Doing (Just About) Everything Else from Fours and Threes 153
2/4 time 153
6/8 time 155
Getting Up to Speed: What Those Tempo Markings Mean 156
Time for Some Songs 157
Part 4: Musicianship and Harmony 161
Chapter 10: Weighing In on Scales 163
Climbing Up and Down 163
Marching through the Major Scales 164
Building major scales 165
Major scales you need to know 166
A major scale 167
G major scale, upper octave 170
G major scale, two octaves 171
E major scale 172
A major scale, two octaves 175
F major scale 176
Casting Light on Those Minor Scales 177
Building a minor scale 177
Playing A melodic minor scale 178
Playing A harmonic minor scale 179
Meeting Other Scales in Brief 180
Natural minor scales 181
Pentatonic scales 181
Chromatic scales 181
Harping On about Arpeggios 183
A major arpeggio 183
A minor arpeggio 184
Major (and Minor) Achievements 184
Chapter 11: Cracking Key Signatures 187
The Keys to Reading Music 187
Getting keyed up about key signatures 187
Reading the key signatures for major keys 188
Keeping order 190
Unlocking the Music with the Right Key 190
Finding the Minor Key for Each Major 191
Forming the relative minor 191
Recognizing minor keys when reading music 192
Having the Last Dance 192
Chapter 12: Making Sweet Music Together: Harmony 195
Combining Notes with Chords and Harmony 196
Playing in the Big Leagues: Major Chords 197
Finding the primary triads 197
Breaking out in chords 198
Unearthing the Minor Chords 200
Making the Most of Major and Minor Chords 201
Meeting the Bossy Chords: Dominant 7ths 202
Harmonizing in Thirds and Sixths 203
Part 5: Taking It Up a Notch: Techniques and Styles 205
Chapter 13: Becoming Fluent in the Language of Bowing 207
Fitting Two or More Notes into One Stroke: Slurred legato 208
Changing bow direction smoothly 209
Starting to slur two notes 210
Slurring across strings 214
Playing three notes in a bow stroke 217
Fitting four notes in a bow stroke 220
Planning Bow Division 221
Deciding how much bow to use on a note or measure 222
Doing the math: Dividing the bow by note values 223
Dividing the bow strokes in anticipation of the next note 224
Adjusting the amounts of bow for dynamics 224
Mais Oui, Maestro: Taking On Ze Accents 225
Accenting the positive 226
Hammering it out: Martelé 227
Meeting the Fanciest Bowings 230
Slurred staccato 230
Meet the off-the-string family 231
Chapter 14: Putting Your Finger on It 237
Two Notes Are Better Than One: Easy Double Stops 237
Preparing your bow for double stops 238
Going from one string to two and back again 240
Ballet dancing with your fingers on the lower string 243
Playing double stops where both notes use fingers 244
Playing double stops galore 245
Pulling Out All the Stops: Three- and Four-Note Chords 246
Three-note chords 247
Four-note chords 248
A grand finale with chords 249
Getting into the First Four Positions 250
Finding first position 250
Smoothing out the second position 251
Putting second position to work 252
Playing in third position 254
Venturing forth in fourth position 256
Knowing what position you’re in 259
Changing Position 259
Easing into shifting positions 260
Getting to know the four kinds of shifts 262
Changing position to go to a different string 268
Playing a shifty song 269
All Aquiver: Vibrato 270
Getting started with vibrato 271
Good vibrations: Using your vibrato in a real song 275
Tapping into Trills 276
Building speed of repetition 276
Speeding from finger to finger 277
Trilling techniques 278
Chapter 15: Playing with Style 281
Fiddling Around with Country Music 281
Familiarizing yourself with fiddle music 282
Sounding like a fiddler 285
Fiddling your way to songs 288
Grooving to Jazz 290
Getting the jazz sound 290
Listening to some jazz violin 293
Jazzing up your violin 294
Enchanting with Gypsy Violin 296
Romancing the violin 296
Listening to some great gypsy violin 301
Playing in the gypsy style 302
Part 6: Getting Into Gear, Staying In Gear 305
Chapter 16: Finding the Right Violin and Bow for You 307
Picking a Violin That’s Right for You 308
The price is right 308
Tip-top condition 310
Old news 311
Sound advice 312
All about appearance 313
Sizing Up the Violin 314
Buying the Best Bow 315
What bows are made of 316
How the bow feels 316
Buying or Renting Your Violin 318
Buying 318
Renting 320
Renting to buy 321
Finding Your Violin 321
Getting Plugged into Electric Violins 323
Acoustic pickups 324
Electric violins 325
Chapter 17: Protecting Your Assets: Violin Care and Maintenance 327
Cleaning Up 328
Daily dusting 328
Cleaning the strings 329
Polishing the wood 330
Changing Strings 331
Taking off the old strings 332
Prepping the pegs and string 334
Putting on strings attached at the tailpiece 335
Putting on strings attached to fine tuners 336
Tightening the strings 337
Protecting Your Violin 338
Practicing safety at rehearsals 339
Traveling with your violin 339
Upgrading Your Case 341
The makings of a good case 341
Testing a case 344
Looking at extra features 344
Changing Chinrests 345
Taking off the old chinrest 345
Attaching the new chinrest 346
Rehairing the Bow 347
Finding Useful Accessories 348
Necessities 348
Extras 349
Part 7: The Part of Tens 353
Chapter 18: Ten Top Performers — and Their Recordings 355
Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) 355
Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) 356
Jascha Heifetz (1899–1987) 357
Stéphane Grappelli (1908–1997) 357
David Oistrakh (1908–1974) 358
Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999) 358
Itzhak Perlman (1945–) 359
Nigel Kennedy (1956–) 360
Natalie MacMaster (1973–) 360
Rachel Barton Pine (1974–) 360
Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Go Beyond This Book 363
Subscribing to a Magazine 363
Attending Concerts 364
Joining a Community Orchestra 365
Going to Summer Camps 366
Playing in Small Groups 367
Participating in Festivals 368
Local music festivals (competitive and noncompetitive) 368
International music festivals 369
Building a Music Collection 369
Watching and Collecting Videos and DVDs 370
Visiting Competitions 371
Performing at Hospitals and Seniors’ Homes 372
Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Tips on Finding a Teacher 373
Networking 373
Calling the Local Orchestra 375
Inquiring at Music Schools 375
Checking Out Community Colleges 376
Asking at the University 377
Hearing Students Play 378
Asking at the Music Store 379
Mentioning Your Quest Everywhere 379
Checking Out Violin Lessons on the Internet 380
Looking for a Good Gut Feeling before You Start 380
Meeting a Teacher for the First Time 382
Auditioning 382
Planning lessons 382
Making business arrangements 383
Appendix: Audio Tracks and Video Clips 385
What You Find on the Audio Tracks 385
Looking at What’s in the Video Clips 391
Customer Care 394
Index 395
