Violin Playing Techniques

Violin Playing Tips

The violin is a four-stringed bowed stringed instrument, which is a solo instrument with high playing skills. Here are the violin playing tips I shared with you!

A basic technique for the left hand

1. Holding the violin: adhere to the correct method of holding the violin, the violin in the playing state, will be subjected to three forces from the body, one from the chin down, the second from the clavicle upward, and the third from the left hand upward force. The three forces must be natural, can not be nervous, especially the force of the left hand, to be very relaxed, if the left hand to lift the violin is too high and too tight, will seriously affect the pitch of the left hand, the accuracy of the finger change and fluency.

2. Finger rise and fall: the key to finger rise and fall is the accuracy and independence of the fingers in the movement, to ensure that each finger presses the tone to prepare in advance in the tone of the top, that is, the vertical direction, because the straight line distance is the smallest, the finger rise and fall the time needed and the power of the least, according to the law of adjusting the fingertip to prepare for the height of the fingertips and fingertips press the power of the position, you can ensure that the most energy-saving action to By adjusting the height of the fingertip preparation and the strength of the fingertip press according to this law, we can ensure that each finger landing and taking off can be accomplished with the least amount of effort, and the accuracy will be higher. Fingers need to be accurately relaxed in order to produce accurate sound, which is very important to the sound quality. Do not press the strings too tightly, lift the fingers to relax quickly, fingers in the music beat, and the rise and fall of the fingers should be done in a natural and smooth and elastic way. If the finger presses too tightly, the sound quality in the fast music is very messy.

3. The basic method of changing the handle: changing the handle is the most important basic skill in the left hand technique of the violin, changing the handle to achieve natural consistency and relaxation, from the low handle to the high handle in the performance, the big arm and the small arm should be bent inward, from the high handle to the low handle, the big arm and the small arm outward restoration. There are three ways to change the handle, one is to change the handle by sliding the fingers, the second is to change the handle with the help of empty strings, and the third is to change the handle by stretching the fingers. The root of the index finger of the left hand should not be close to the neck of the instrument, but slightly away from the point, the thumb should enter the new handle by sliding together, when changing the handle, the finger lifts up without leaving the string, and then enters the new handle, there should be the action of lifting, sliding, and pressing, when changing the handle, all the index fingers should give way, so as to make the handle change fluent, keep the hand shape in order to seek for the uniformity and accuracy of each handle change, the excessive tone to the new handle in upward movement should not be higher than the handle sound, the excessive tone to the new handle in downward movement should not be lower than the handle sound, so as to achieve the goal of the new handle, and to achieve the goal of the new hand. The hand shape should be kept in order to achieve uniformity and precision in each change.

4. vibrato three methods: vibrato is one of the most expressive violin playing skills, vibrato is a powerful means of players to express their feelings and emotions, vibrato should be easy to do, arms, wrists, finger joints and muscles are not tense, not stiff. The seven words "wide, narrow, fast, slow, finger, wrist and arm" are the key to vibrato. The four words "wide, narrow, fast, slow" form the basic way of vibrato, i.e. slow and narrow, slow and wide and fast and narrow, fast and wide. The "fingers, wrists and arms" are the three points of vibrato.

(1) arm vibrato: arm vibrato power comes directly from the entire small arm to achieve relaxation and not tension, fingers along the fingerboard and the front and back movement of the strings, and do not sway left and right, before and after the swing can be fast or slow, swinging fast sound wave, swinging slow sound wave, the thumb and forefinger do not grasp the neck of the instrument, the more passionate mood to be in the G-string and the low position of the sound field, arm vibrato more.

(2) wrist vibrato: wrist vibrato its operation should be light and natural, fingertip rolling amplitude on the strings can be wide or narrow, vibrato mainly rely on the wrist vibration, sound stretching euphemistic, wrist vibrato is the most commonly used in the performance.

(3) finger vibrato: finger vibrato refers to the first joints of the fingers to be "light" and "loose" to move up, similar to the erhu pressure string, usually in a very high position will be pressed by the notes with the fingers to grasp, relax, and then pressed tightly, and then relaxed, and up and down the rolling and the effect of vibrato. The effect of vibrato is obtained by rolling up and down.

5. vibrato: vibrato, also known as the sound, often found in musical works, vibrato finger to pay attention to the speed of the finger can not hit too tight, not to hit the finger is good, but to have elasticity, granular strong, be sure to even out the speed of the music according to the requirements of the play, 1, 2, 3, 4 fingers can be trembling, but 2, 3 fingers to be easier, 1, 4 fingers some difficulties, as long as more practice to achieve the best results. The best result can be achieved by practicing more.

6. Overtone: Natural overtones are sounds produced by vibrations on a single string, and these overtones require only one finger, which is straight and gently pressed on the string to make the sound. Artificial overtones are on the same string, with the index finger pressed on the string and the little finger stretched out and lightly touched on the string. Artificial overtones require a high degree of accuracy and are very difficult to achieve, as both fingers are pressed on a string at the same time, and if one of them is not in the right position, it will not sound right.

7. Diatonic and chords: The violin can play two notes at the same time, or even three notes, and can also be divided into four notes of chords, diatonic is the two fingers at the same time, press down, at the same time, lift, in order to achieve the effect of diatonic. Violin three, six, eight, ten diatonic scales are the basis of playing, but also a violinist must be practiced for life a basic skill.

8. Left hand plucking: Although left hand plucking is not considered a basic skill of the left hand, it is also an important part of violin practice and performance, and cannot be ignored. Left hand pizzicato starts from the E string, and the direction of pizzicato is the direction in which the fingers contract freely. When two fingers are required to move at the same time, the finger that presses the string should be careful to use more pressure, in addition to ensuring intonation, so as to ensure the clarity of the sound. The volume and speed of plucking, the volume is determined by the little finger, the purpose of the exercise is to make the control of the four fingers to get a balanced development, so you can not be in a hurry, difficult to abandon the easy, the speed should be controlled freely.

The right hand on the smoothness of the music.

1. The influence of the basic bow: the right hand bow control ability is good or bad, is the key to maintain accurate string touch, the touch point remains unchanged, can make the bow with a straight line, the tone has a fullness, solidity, in addition to the string change when the bow to reduce the stagnation of the melody and the uneven bow, in order to strengthen the coherence and fluency of the music. Violin playing can only be completed with the coordination of the right and left hands, in which the right hand bowing mainly involves the quality of tone, and the quality of tone directly affects the expressiveness and infectiousness of the music. There are 3 main articulations in right hand bowing, i.e. bow speed, strength and string contact point. Therefore, whether a violin performance can impress the audience, in addition to intonation and rhythm, the right hand bowing plays a crucial role in the success or failure of the performance. The smooth bowing technique is the shoulder, arm, arm, wrist, palm, finger joints in the brain under the unified command of each part of the joints to cooperate with each other to complete.

2. The influence of other special bowing: violin playing requirements are very fine, the control of muscle movement has quite high requirements, so good bow control is the basis. Special bowing techniques include: continuous bowing, split bowing, staccato bowing, jump bowing, wave bowing, stroke bowing, broken bowing, mixed bowing and so on. Special bowing is like a painting palette, when to light, when to heavy, when to hurry, when to slow, when to light, when to light, all need to be correctly expressed according to the requirements of the piece, to be able to freehand, the special bowing into the music to go.

3. Impact on the emotion of the music: When playing the violin, the emotional expression of the music depends largely on the strength of the changes or contrasts, violin playing is dependent on the right hand bowing different techniques and muscle control of the arm on the weight of the bow to achieve. For example, the virtuoso Monty's "Chardonnay", first by the violin in the bass region to play a free rhythm, full of passion for the introduction, and then played a deep and slightly sad theme, and from this theme composed of the Chardonnay's unique "Rasho paragraph", in the G-string performance, from weak to strong, the bow is getting wider and wider, more and more intense, faster and faster. It is played on the G-string, with the bow getting wider, stronger and faster. When the G string is played, the bow becomes wider, stronger, and faster. When the bow falls suddenly from the peak, the bow becomes slower and lighter. This technique of bow strength fully expresses the expressive and emotional impact of strength in music.

Violin playing is a technique that requires the coordination of the left and right hands. The left hand is responsible for intonation, and the right hand is responsible for the music, so in order to play beautiful music, both hands need to be precisely controlled and coordinated.

1. Body Posture

The true meaning of posture is a changing movement. Posture arises from movement: movement is necessary to play, and posture arises from the need for movement; posture serves movement; good posture facilitates movement and makes playing effective. Correct posture is one of the foundations of a high level of development of the student's playing.

Learning to play the violin, in the initial stage, must master the correct posture, if the posture is not correct, will directly affect the bow articulation, tone, and playing skills of the normal play. The violin can be played in both sitting and standing positions.

The sitting posture is the posture used in repertoire and ensemble playing. Requirements to sit upright, waist straight, the body can not lean on the back of the chair (preferably sitting in the chair in front of the part). To choose a higher chair, so that the right knee can be slightly extended, so that the E string half-bow will not touch the right thigh.

The standing posture is the posture used for soloing and practicing. It requires the body to be naturally upright and relaxed, with the feet spread apart (shoulder-width apart)

into a figure-eight shape, and the center of gravity of the whole body resting on the feet. When playing, you can swing your body naturally and appropriately in response to the mood of the piece and the resulting inner excitement. But avoid excessive body movement, because excessive movement not only looks uncomfortable, but also has to constantly adjust the relationship between the bow and the instrument, which will bring a lot of unfavorable factors in the performance.

2. Clamping

①Pick up the instrument with your right hand (thumb on the top of the instrument, the other four fingers on the back).

② Pick it up and place it on your left shoulder (hand still holding the instrument, head in natural position, with the instrument's cheek pads and left cheek close together).

③ Hold the instrument with your jaw and left shoulder (the body of the instrument forms a 45-degree angle with your shoulder, the surface of the instrument is slightly tilted to the right, and the direction of the instrument is slightly to the left). The angle of clamping the instrument (moving slightly to the left or right) depends on the length of the left and right arms, and it is generally better to have the bow tip portion of the bow on the strings in a position parallel to the horse and in a cross with the strings.

④ The left hand alone is made to hold the violin with a bend (the violin can be put aside at this time).

⑤ The root of the index finger of the left hand is in contact with the neck of the instrument, and the thumb is in contact with the neck of the instrument (you can do this by holding the instrument with the right hand first, and then placing it on the shoulder).

⑥ The palm of the left hand is bent inward in a semi-garden shape. (so that the fingers are aligned front to back and in the same direction as the fingerboard, and the wrist and lower arm remain basically straight).

⑦ The four fingers of the left hand are placed in a four-degree position.

3. Bow Holding and Carrying

First of all, it is not a bow, but a pencil.

1. Place your right hand, palm up, naturally flat on the table.

2. Place a pencil in your hand with one end at the top of your little finger and one end at the second level of your index finger.

3. Bend your thumb slightly and place the tip of the thumb (slightly to the right) over the middle finger where the pencil touches.

4. Bend all four fingers together and gently cradle the pencil while arching your thumb a bit.

5. Hand as above has been done, and then turned over the palm down, finger joints move freely up and down.

6. The little finger should not be stiff, but loose and naturally curved to stand on the shaft of the bow to counteract the weight of the bow at the other end of the pivot point.

If each of these movements is done accurately, when flipped over we find that we have a beautiful bow grip (with a pencil in our hand, of course). The same procedure can then be practiced on the violin bow, starting with other parts of the bow (e.g. in the middle of the bow) in order to minimize mental tension and sudden overloading of the little finger.

The correct holding of the bow in the hand is of great significance, the correctness of the bow and the method of holding the bow have a lot to do with it. A good bow holding does not seem to have any of the joints protruding or hard, but rather soft and comfortable, and if you find that one of the knuckles is tense or the fingers are stiff, it will greatly affect the freedom of articulation and the development of the bowing technique and bowing technique.

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