Holding the violin

Perhaps the biggest problem violinists have is the way the instrument is held. The unnatural way of holding the violin, combined with the difference in physical build of each individual student make the whole issue quite complicated and the solution personal.

There are two issues that need to be addressed: the angle of the violin, which is held by the body and the proportion between supporting the violin with the neck and the hand.

Ideally, the violin should be resting on the collar bone although for many players with a long neck it is simply not an option. What I would make sure, though, is that the violin should be stable. When you lift the head from the chin rest the violin should not slip downwards. This is very important because if the violin is held in a steep angle, the violinist would always clasp the instrument between shoulder and neck without any relief. This is one of the biggest causes of injuries, since the damage to the muscles and even bones is accomulated over time.

Another problem caused by a bad violin hold is that the instrument “falls” into the palm of the left hand, meanning that the support for the violin neck comes from the right side (from the violinist point of view). That makes the violinist clasp the neck and makes vibrato, a movement which demands freedom, a difficult task.

How we support the violin is crucially important. Ergardless of the silly notion that the violin should be only held by our own neck, if you clasp the violin’s neck from the sides, leaving the underneath free, the violin will always drop when you release the grasp. The outcome of such hold is that the violinist never releases the grasp from both sides of the violin’s neck, restrichting vibrato and shifting.

The 4^th position is perhaps the easiest, physically the most comfortable position for holding the violin and why? Because the thumb gives the best support from underneath the neck, so the hand holds the violin from the down and up sides instead of the right and left side of the neck.

Ideally the violin’s neck should be supported from bellow and it is up to you to try to find the best hand position to follow such ideal. Some people prefer using the lower part of the thumb, which curls underneath the neck, others prefer to use the upper part of the thumb as support.

The Four Elements

There are four elements which make up a performance of any piece. I call these elements “building blocks” because they are roughly depending on each other from the most basic form of playing to the performance stage. When practising any part of any piece you should be aware of all four building blocks, perhaps practising each of them separately at first.

The first building block is “Technique”: This encompass intonation, rhythm and “special effects” (such as up bow staccato, for example). Basically all the “nuts and bolts” which make the piece. Mastering this element require slow work for intonation (including no vibrato), careful shifts in “slow to speed” mode, group rhythms and the use of metronome. When working on intonation assume you are playing 100% out of tune and prove to yourself that each note is in tune, and be convinced it can be produced in the future.

The second building block is “sound”: there is no use in playing in tune if you are playing ugly. Working on sound should be roughly divided to vibrato and bow practice. When practising sound you should mainly listen to yourself for any unintentional sound effects you make when beginning a note and in between the notes. I divide sound to three parts “head of the note, body of the note” and “tail of the note”. whenever you make unintentional sounds it will be in one of those three parts. A scratch in the beginning of the note (head) could mean you approached it from the air without control, or use too much arm weight too soon. A swelling mid note (body), or extra string sounds could mean you are in the wrong position with your elbow, use too much bow speed, drop arm weight on the bow unevenly or pressing the string too hard on high positions with your fingers.
You should also work on seamlessly moving from one bow technique to another (for example a detache which turns into spicatto). In short: work to achieve pure sound with the bow and good, free, expressive vibrato.

Once you mastered the first and second building blocks you are “on par” with the piece, at the required to actually do something with it, infuse it with your own ideas.

The third building block is “musicianship”: This element is hard to define on it’s own, because it affects the previous elements. If you practiced the first two building blocks without acknowledgment of the music idea, you probably wasted your time. Style, sound production, amount of vibrato, expressive pauses, loudness and many other musical elements directly effect the first two building blocks and if you practised them without being aware of the musical ideas, you would probably sound like an automated machine.
Yet although musicianship is connected to all the other building blocks I still think it should also stand on it’s own, simply because after conquering the first two elements you should take time and be free to explore your musical ideas and make sure they were not lost in during the long process of conquering the piece technically.

The last element, and the one your paying public will be the most aware of, is “character”: I do not mean “character of the piece” (which belongs to musicianship) but your own character. Many times we lose ourselves when we study a piece for a long time, trying to master the perfect technique and mix it with the “right” musical ideas. Yet no matter how many rules of playing Bach or Mozart are imposed on your playing, the piece should still be distinctly “yours”. Your personality; how you act and react on stage, what ideas and ideals you bring with yourself to the performance and the belief in what you produce, affect the reaction of the public to the performance more than any other element. As part of the practice you should reflect upon what the piece make you feel and what you want to bring to the audience.

We hear so many soloists playing the same pieces, and they all play them in different ways. Regardless of our own, expert opinion about individual performances or style, they all have reached success because they have mastered the four elements.