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
chevron-down
Follow along practice video:
play
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
{tcb_current_year} The Alpert Studio of Voice and Violin. All rights Reserved | Disclaimer
Insert Image