Find Your Perfect Violin Tone

Find Your Perfect Violin Tone

  • Short description and purpose of activity: • Learn the five discrete playing lanes of the violin string.• Train your ear and bow arm to produce a full, pure andround tone.Time required: 10 MinutesFrequency of Practice: Use as a daily warm-up or as needed to establish healthy shoulder action.Category: Warm-ups and Routines

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Follow along practice video:

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SEQUENCE OF STEPS:

Find Your Perfect Violin Tone:

– View the video which introduces the concept of five playing lanes

– Identify your default/typical playing lane on your violin, usually 2 or 3

– This lane offers a robust tone and versatile playing condidtions

– This lane position may differ slightly on each of the 4 strings

– The most important tool in your toolbox is learning to adjust the speed of the bow as needed

– Use arm weight and finger flexion to fine-tune bow pressure.

Activity #1: Play on lane 2 on the A string

– Confirm straight bow and play a full bow (or the longest bow that you can control with ease.

– Find the bow speed that produces the richest tone

– Adjust Speed and Pressure for the most pure and steady tone quality

– Pay special attention to the change of bow direction, make it as seamless as possible

– When you have achieved your best result, play a few extra sets of up/down and optionally you can add vibrato at this point.

Activity #2: Repeat the above activity for lanes 3, 4 and 5 on the A string in turn

– Adjust speed and pressure as necessary for each new lane.

– Notice that for every lane, there is an optimal speed

Activity #3 Three: Playing at the Bridge

– This is the stiffest part of the string, and it cant tolerate the faster bow speeds

– Find the optimal speed for playing at the bridge

– Experiment with more or less pressure and see how that impacts speed

Activity #4: Repeat all (or part of) these activities on the D, G and E string. Save E for last.

– Pay attention to how lanes and speeds may vary from string to string.

Practice Tips for Excellence:

  • checkWhenever you are playing, as yourself: Am I producing a beautiful round tone?
  • checkFor any given musical passage, choose your lane for the desired character of tone and the ideal bow speed

 

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