Violin Teaching and Learning: The Simple, Often the Most Important
Friends who learn to play violin often make it their first goal to learn how to play familiar tunes. I am often asked this way: “Master, how long will I play melody?”
I always tell them this: "It's easy to play a piece. If you can guarantee an hour of serious practice every day, two months will be enough."
And they often looked wide-eyed, a little incredulously: "No way, I heard that violin is very difficult, and it takes several months to deal with only empty strings!"
Yes. The friends were right. I've been playing piano for 20 or 30 years now and I still play open strings every day.
But my answer is not wrong. Because being able to play a melody is not same as playing a good melody. Two months is really long enough to pull out simple tunes and even pop music that I'm familiar with.
But having said that, it's not so easy to stretch them nicely and make them touch. Let's just talk about Canon in key of D. The melody at beginning is actually a descending scale, which couldn't be easier. But if I want to achieve a musical effect like nature sounds, that's still my lifelong goal. hehe. ashamed. . .
What seems simple is often most important thing. What seems simple is not necessarily easy to do. Let's put it this way, plucking open strings is first step in sounding violin, it doesn't look hard, but it's easy to say. Place bow hairs on strings roughly in middle of fretboard and saddle, and keep bow hairs and strings crisscrossed. Let bow come out in a straight line during bowing process, so that sound can be radiated evenly. When pulling string, don't touch other strings, OK!
Is it easy? not at all.
When you try it, you will understand: bow is like a naughty child who runs along strings, but not in a straight line. The bow and string hairs can be considered too stiff to be perpendicular to each other because they simply don't want to form a positive cross. Gongmao is a complete opportunist and has no position, he slid to neck for a while, ran to piano bridge for a while, and walked to neighbor's door for a while, making super exciting sounds.
How to make a naughty bow obedient? Of course there are good ways. This seemingly simple question is actually first and most important question in learning to play piano! The position of holding piano in left hand must be correct, method of holding bow in right hand must be correct, and five fingers of right hand, wrist, elbow, forearm and forearm must form a dexterous and relaxed system. . .
First you need to find right method, and then training. If method is wrong, training effect can only reinforce your mistakes. The more wrong exercises you do, further down wrong path you go.here.
So, friends, you must use your brain in class, and always remember correct method taught by teacher, and practice correct method!
Some friends don't like to use their brains. Didn't teacher say that you should study for an hour every day? Okay, then I'll just practice for an hour. Isn't it just pulling out an empty string? too easy. Set alarm, ring it, and leave class. As a result, bow almost fell into Pacific Ocean, and sound it made was even worse. . . hehe. This practice is better than none.
At first glance, a simple playing on empty strings is basis of violin pronunciation. These are very important, important things to be taken seriously!
So, I often tell my students that at initial stage, with daily piano lessons, practice of empty strings should not be less than one third! For example, for an hour of practicing empty strings, there should be at least 20 minutes, or even more!
Violin Teaching and Learning: The Simple, Often the Most Important