Many beginner violinists wonder “is it hard to learn violin?” While learning violin can be challenging, it’s definitely NOT an unattainable goal. Here Brooklyn, NY music teacher Julie P. explains why learning violin is hard and what you can do to be successful…
Have you been told that it’s hard to learn violin? We’re not going to lie to you, it can be challenging at times, but that’s no reason to be intimidated or discouraged. With a good teacher, practice, and perseverance, you can learn violin!
So if you’re struggling, don’t worry, you’re not alone! Everyone has a hard time with some aspect(s) of the instrument, but there are ways to work through your struggles and become a better player. Here are six reasons learning violin is hard, and what you can do to be successful.
Posture
When it comes to violin, there are several different things to coordinate with your posture. It’s hard for beginners to figure out how to hold everything correctly.
If you’re just starting out, take it one step at a time…
How to Improve
Practice each part of your posture separately. Practice your bow grip five times in a row, and take a break between each round.
Practice holding the violin between your chin and shoulder, without supporting it with your left hand. From there, practice bringing your left hand to the playing position, and try to relax your body.
Need more posture practice? Try these 10 wacky ways to improve your posture!
Left- and Right-Hand Coordination
Many violinists struggle to match their bowing with the notes being fingered with the left hand.
How to Improve
To improve your coordination, practice bowing slowly, back and forth between two notes that are next to each other on one string. Once you master this, try bowing slowly, back and forth between two notes on different strings.
If the bows aren’t matching up with the changing notes, determine which hand is getting to the new note first, and then adjust your other hand to match.
Tone Quality
You produce tone quality on the violin with your bow, so if you want a more beautiful sound, you need to work on your bowing technique.
How to Improve
Great tone depends on bow speed, bow pressure, and bowing angle. Use a mirror to check if your bow is moving parallel to the bridge, and to see if it’s in the middle between the bridge and fingerboard.
Try experimenting with bow speed and pressure. The more pressure you use, the faster your bow has to move to prevent a scratchy sound. If you use light pressure on the bow, you’ll have to move your bow slower, or else the tone will sound light and whispery.
When you’re working on your bow technique, play something simple so you can put all your focus on your bow. Make sure to start out with open strings and slow scales.
Playing in Tune
To play in tune, you have to put your fingers in the right place on the strings. You need to develop muscle memory for this, as well as the ability to hear when you’re playing out of tune so you can adjust on the spot.
How to Improve
If you’re just starting out, you can put tape on your fingerboard as a reference for where your fingers will go.
It takes time to develop muscle memory, but this exercise can help: Practice going between B (1st finger) and C# (2nd finger) on the A string. Listen to see if all of your C#’s sound exactly the same.
To develop a good ear for intonation, play with others, or along with recordings. The more you hear yourself play with someone else, the more you’ll start to hear when your pitches are out of tune.
Keeping Your Violin In Tune
It’s a lot easier to play in tune if you make sure your instrument stays in tune! Keeping your violin in tune takes some work, but it’s not that difficult if you keep up with it.
How to Improve
Tune your violin every time you practice. That’s right, EVERY time.
Violins are made of wood, so they respond to changes in humidity. It’s especially important to tune your instrument daily when there are sudden changes in the weather/humidity.
Use a tuner or tuning app. If you don’t have fine tuners on your violin, have a teacher help you or find someone at a music store who can install fine tuners for you.
Where to Look
Do you look at your bow or your fingers when you play violin? Looking down at your instrument or fingers while you play may cause problems when you learn to read music since you won’t be able to look at your violin and the music at the same time.
How to Improve
You can do more than you think without looking at your instrument!
Try playing a piece without looking, just to see how you do. Then, look at your bow and fingers and play an easy measure. Try to memorize how everything feels.
Now, try to play the piece without looking. Notice what improved, and where you struggled. Try the whole thing again and make adjustments where appropriate.
Learning Violin is Hard, but You Can Do it!
If you’re struggling with any aspect(s) of learning violin, don’t be discouraged! All violinists, including the professionals, have had to work on these things.
The important thing is that you don’t give up. There are tons of different ways to practice and improve, and with some time and effort, you will get better at the violin.
Have fun!
Post Author: Julie P.Julie P. teaches flute, clarinet, music theory, and saxophone lessons in Brooklyn, NY. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Ithaca College and her Masters in Music Performance from New Jersey City University. Learn more about Julie here!
Maile Proctor