So, you’ve picked up your violin. What was once a dream has become a reality! For most new players, there are some pretty immediate surprises. The sound is nothing like what you thought it’d be, your fingers refuse to cooperate and you’re making no visible progress. It’s common for students to feel overwhelmed after their first lesson and struggle to practice at home on their own. But don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong! This is perfectly normal when dealing with the violin.
The violin is an unusual instrument, in that it requires your left and right hand to perform quite different and unfamiliar tasks to produce a single note. The left hand places the fingers in specific places on the strings with a lot of precision and control, while the right hand moves the bow across the strings. Plus, there are the other aspects, like body posture, body balance, and small individual muscle movements that are all involved in violin playing. These all come naturally when we play the piano, but the violin requires a high level of coordination that we are not accustomed to doing. When something feels new and unfamiliar, every muscle movement requires attention. This is why it feels like a lot of work, even if you are playing an easy song.
The sound produced by the violin when first learning is quite challenging. The bow can be pushed too far down into the string, pressed down too lightly, be played at an incorrect angle, or be moved too quickly or too slowly, resulting in a scratchy sound. This happens to everyone, it is completely normal! The quality of the sound we make as violinists gradually improves. This is achieved as our playing improves. We don’t produce a clear sound instantly and trying to force the sound to be clear often creates more tension, instead we focus on playing a straight, even bow stroke.
As the student plays the new sounds for the first time, it takes effort to play the sound cleanly. Tension is normal. Our body tenses up and is tight when a new task is unfamiliar. When we feel the violin under our chin, our body may not know where to place their arms or where to sit. As a result our body naturally compensates for the feeling of the violin with too tight of a chin rest grip or our shoulders are held too high. These are the first adjustments a student will have to become accustomed to and the sooner a student learns to relax their body, the more progress can be made.
Progress can be slow in the beginning and not easily visible. There are no visible improvements from one lesson to the next as there is for some other instruments. However, we are getting more coordination for our body. Our muscles are adjusting. We are learning what specific movements need to be made to achieve specific outcomes. All of these take time to adjust. Consistency of practice is very important. A short practice is better than none at all. Long practices should be avoided and the more time that passes without playing, the slower your progress will be. It takes practice to build connections in the brain to the body and the body to the strings of the instrument.
Finally, patience is required. We cannot expect instant progress from this instrument. It will take time to gain our footing and the sooner we do that the sooner we can make good progress moving forward. Rushing to learn too much too soon will only cause us to get frustrated.
Eventually, after a long period of practice, playing the violin becomes more like something that is “natural” to you and your body. The sound becomes more controlled and playing becomes something that you enjoy expressing yourself with. This is the moment that makes learning this instrument worth it for most of us!
So, if you are just starting to learn the violin, or thinking about learning the instrument, the first weeks will not be easy. This is a very common struggle for all beginners! The only way to learn the violin is to learn with consistency, patience and calmness. If you take the right steps and learn gradually, once your feet find your footing, the rest will easily follow!