New Chin Rest

Woo hoo! My new chin rest arrived and it's awesome!

The initial chin rest was fairly uncomfortable even after I made postural adjustments, so I decided to buy a different style: guarneri. It isn't perfect, but much better; I no longer struggle to hold the violin. I think this style works [for me] because it lies over the tailpiece (center-mounted) and allows me to 'hook' onto the chin rest. I may try the ohrenform style if the guarneri doesn't hold to my expectations. My jaw margin is a bit bony too, so I'll continue to use a soft cloth over the chin rest as well.

Next 2 Weeks

Though I'm anxious to begin playing a song, I prefer to spend the next couple of weeks correcting some handling issues I've seen. I'm also learning left hand positioning and there's a lot of minor but very important details I need to work on. ...My left hand has a mind of its own... I swear it's primitive. So I'll spend the next couple of weeks working to liberate my left hand from the right and training it. Libre mi mano!

Tune in next week for my first intonation video!

First Bow Strokes

A bit overdue... but here's a vid of my "first bow strokes". The clips are from Feb 7th to Feb 20th.

There was great amount of improvement over 2 weeks - much more than I would have anticipated. I practice about 30 minutes/day and it's actually paying off - it's nice to now see my bow hand relaxed and extension with my elbow [instead of moving my upper arm]. At times, I'd rest my left arm against my body for support, but I stopped doing that very early from what I just watched... My posture was also off a bit initially - I'd tilt my head instead of turning my neck to hold the violin. So yeah, there's been a lot of improvement and much more to come!

I've learned to bow at the frog and tip, so I'll work on whole bow strokes this week. Hopefully I'll have enough time to get to left-hand placement over the weekend.

Ah, Posture

This is my second week of actually bowing the violin and I must say I've learned loads... some by accident and some with reading n such.

My tone seems to have improved and I've gained more control of the bow, thus there's not nearly as much "bouncing" and "scrapping" when I practice. Of course there's still A LOT - just not as bad. A few major things that I've been trying to focus on this week: better control while bowing at the tip, unintentionally touching other strings, and posture... good ole posture.

While browsing the net for info on muscles involved in playing the violin I came across a book on posture: How Muscles Learn: Teaching Violin With The Body In Mind by Susan Kempter. It's a brief read (96 pgs) and it seemed pretty informative, from the few pages that I've read. I tried to change a few things in my stance and the angle of my neck - boy did that help! ...My current chinrest isn't as uncomfortable as I thought... it was me the whole time. : )