Anyone play the violin?

[galanie]

Agree with the bow! This is how I'm doing so far: When the dog sees me pick up the violin, she slinks into the next room. LOL!

 

[m.kitchengirl]

When I played fiddle we had neighbors behind us who walked by the house with looks of horror on their faces.
I switched to mandolin.
And now Bass, which I love.

My fiddle teacher always had me practice looking at my bow in the mirror.

 

[KBlue]

I started the violin when I was three. I came home from day care one day and told my mom that I wanted to play a guitar with a stick. Took them a while to figure out what I meant. My parents think I saw it on Sesame Street, but who knows.

I played up until college and did a couple quarters in the orchestra. I think I went into book 5 (I never put a lot of time into it, so it took me a while to progress), but it opened up windows to other instraments. In high school, I taught myself the flute, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, and dabbled a bit with a trombone and the piano, but not much.

I grew up with the Suzuki method and your teacher makes all the difference. If personalities don't match, then learning will be a drag.

For learning third position, it may help to put a small dot sticker where your third finger goes on A in the first position. You can use that as a visual guide to where your first finger needs to go in the third position until your fingers/wrist know what they are supposed to do.

 

[farmerinKC]

I started violin lessons again in January and I am almost at the end of Suzuki Book One. I first tried violin lesson about 14 years ago and I had to quit because I had a bad sledding accident and fractured my spine. I guess it was the right time for me to start again because I found a wonderful teacher who had just moved to Kansas City and was starting her studio.

I really enjoy it-but my cat doesn't!

Hopefully, someday he will stop leaving the room when I start practicing.

I just ordered a beginners book on playing the fiddle as well. It has different system of teaching and I thought it might help me to learn to read music.

Anyway, it is harder, I think starting as an adult-but I think with enough practice and a good teacher, it will happen.

 

[CrystalWho]

I love playing fiddle! I played a local song at a recital and when I was done everyone had big smiles on their faces because they all new the song. I was terrified. I had to play a song before that and my bridge got knocked out of place!!!!!!!