Here are some cool videos to introduce you to the violin:
The Museum of Music is a great place to visit! It’s practically next door to Legoland in Carlsbad, California. So if you’re headed there on vacation, stop by! This is the first of a series of YouTube videos on the violin with a luthier (violin maker) narrating.
Violinlab.com, fiddlerman.com, violinonline.com are some of the websites available with violin instruction videos. As a violinist, I prefer the instruction on violinlab.com.
Here’s help for tuning the violin:
To learn how to tune a violin, check out videos #3,4 and 8 on violinlab.com. Please always start practicing your violin in tune! This is SO important because you are training your ear to hear whether or not your instrument is in tune. It hurts others’ ears to hear a violin played out of tune! 🙂
Here are some images/video of correct bow hold:
Click on the image to go to a website with detailed instructions.
Go to violinlab.com: Watch video #9, “Bow Hold.” (Watch all of them! :))
Here’s a bow hold exercise, demonstrated in the videos below:
UP like a rocket, down like the rain
Back and forth like a choo-choo train
Round and round like the great big sun
Land on your head, bent pinkie and thumb
Learning to hold your bow properly requires specific muscle exercises that you need to practice, just like learning a sport correctly. You get better at catching the ball at baseball practice; it’s the same with an instrument. Here are some resources to learn how to hold the bow properly and to develop hand and arm strength:
Go to violinlab.com and watch video #13, “Violin Hold.”
To learn how to place fingers on the fingerboard, go to violinlab.com and watch video #1, “Violin Hold.”
There are tutorials available on how to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Go to violinlab.com and watch video #39. Or check out this summary version:
(I would recommend having some space between the hand and the violin than the “Fiddlerman” does.)