April 10, 2008 at 06:40 AM I had teachers when I was a kid, so it's not the same as starting from scratch, but after not playing for 36 years I'm trying to relearn on my own (no money to spare for a teacher right now.) What I've been doing is watching Ben Chan and Professer V videos on youtube, picking up little tidbits from the discussion boards and trying them, and playing through my old Suzuki books (I was in books 3 and 4 when I quit as a child.) I like Suzuki because it helps immensely to listen to the recordings and I can find them on youtube. Plus I love the old classical pieces. I'll check how my fingers and bow hand look in the mirror to see if looks right. When I practice, sometimes I'll work on specific things like scales, and sometimes I'll just experiment with the bow for a while--trying to get the sound to change up from sweet and light to dark or loud, or really smooth to chirpy. Or I'll start at the beginning of book one and play through everything. Often I'll just take a break from the book and figure out tunes by ear just for the fun of it. I also bought the "Viva Vibrato" book and have been working on teaching myself that--it's slow but I am making a little progress.
Some days I think I'm horrible and other days I'm surprised at how well it goes, but it's always fun and I absolutely love the sound of my violin. The hardest thing has been retraining my fingers to land in the right spot, since I played guitar for a long time. I'm not crazy enough to think I'll ever be a professional, but I do want to be good enough to play with a community group. Yeah, I wish I could get a teacher, or even find someone with time to play with me, but for now it'll do. Don't let anyone discourage you--you can do it! Just have fun with it and enjoy the trip. :o)
Suzuki Violin Book 3 Pdf
April 10, 2008 at 01:23 PM I've worked with a number of people who taught themselves in order to play fiddle music, and then came for lessons. What I notice with many is that they come to "logical" conclusions about technique that are very contrary to common practice, and then need lots of extra time to undo before they can play more successfully. As a simple example, a student decides to hold the violin more or less straight, thinking that it is a good thing to be able to look directly at the fingers with both eyes. Or pulls the bow mostly from the shoulder. Watching very good players and READING all the teaching content in books designed for school programs would be some help. Being in Viet Nam with no available teachers is one thing. But there have been many posts here about ways to get some solid instruction via group lessons, joining a community group for "advanced beginners", etc., for someone who feels they can't budget some private lessons. At some point it does come down to what your time is worth, when you have to redo, or plateau out much too soon. Sue
April 11, 2008 at 05:23 AM I've taught myself most of what I know, and I'm an advanced violin student. I know that my level represents a true level of achievement because I go up through a graded system of violin exams (the AMEB - I'm not sure if this system of examinations is available where you live. If not there might be alternatives such as ABRSM or Trinity, etc, based in England).
That's one way to keep an external check on your progress. But you could get by without, though presumably a real affinity (natural understanding for and perhaps to some degree a natural talent for its technique) for the instrument would help. If you struggle obviously you will be in far more danger of picking up bad habits. Even the very talented can pick up such bad habits, so you have to become very knowledgable about the subject of violin technique, how to hold the instrument, what to do and what not to do, and performance style (also what they call taste). This is possible with time, hard work, and love for the instrument and for music.
I can remember once standing talking to some people in the crowd of audience members during intermission of a classical music concert. We were all violinists, or associated with learning violin in some way. The mother of one of the violinists asked me, "and tell me, who do you study with?". I said, "Actually, I'm teaching myself", and smiled at her. She smiled with a sudden worried look on her face and physically backed away from me. That was the end of that conversation. In her eyes, I instantly became a charlatan, or at best an amateur not worth knowing.
In my own case I chose self teaching because I could not find the right kind of teacher. There are no violinists similar to Clayton Haslop around where I live, and he represents the style of playing, musically and technically, that I have realised is the most suitable for me to learn from.
Which book to read? Try to read them all. I tend to favor the older books and methods/technical material, as written by people like Auer and interviews with violinists of years ago. I think I must have gotten reasonably close to checking most of them out. I frequented libraries for many years. I still do when I get the chance. The quiet library is my temple of knowledge, and if you have access to a good one you are fortunate. All the best to you!
Motivation, goal and expectation for playing the violin ultimately shape the scope as to how much efforts we put in and how far we will go. Teaching yourself the violin without any guidance from a qualified teacher can be like going to a very remote foreign country without knowing the language, the culture and money. You can grow as a person and learn a lot by doing either or both. However, while migrating can be a somewhat a traumatic means to a rewarding (or not so rewarding) end, but with the violin is something entirely different.
April 18, 2008 at 08:13 AM Hey Juda, Violinmasterclass.com is an excellent site, I've used that myself. I got this new book recently called "Basics" by Simon Fischer, it's extremely detailed and very helpful. Also, he wrote a book called "Practice" which is very helpful, I recommend it strongly. There are pictures and step by step guides for every technique on the violin. VERY helpful. Learn more than you would from most teacher, really.
There is more than enough tehcnical materila on this site for ten lifetimes. As Oshawa pointed out in his book on macrobiotic cooking- if the food is financially beyond you or not available then learn to wait. Its actually a more useful learning process than having everything handed to one on a plate (as it were)
April 22, 2008 at 07:28 AM There is nothing wrong with freebie sheet music or books as long as it is in the public domain or licensed under license that permits sharing. Mind you, all of Bach's music is in the public domain. It's only wrong when the works in question are neither in the PD and the rights holders don't permit sharing.
April 22, 2008 at 09:36 AM It's not because of 150$ that I asked for pdf version of those book,I just don't want to lose 3 month waiting(even when I have enough money,I will still have to wait until my aunt visit her daughter in Switzerland to ask her to buy it for me,because there is no Ebook mall or online library(like Questia) have those book).
May 13, 2008 at 09:03 AM You would like to read Suzuki violin .. I don't have a violin teacher too .. because it's too expensive ...since I really wanted to learn I learned to play the violin in such a short time ..
May 13, 2008 at 11:41 AM Well I do have a friend that knows how to play the violin .. she doesn't teach me but tells me the do's and donts in playing the violin .. she visits me once a week to see me practice .. since she is very busy she doesn't have time to teach me .. btw thnk u 4 d advice :]
My own experience of self-teaching on the violin may be pertinent. I've been a cellist since my early teens, taught by an excellent teacher who played in one of the BBC orchestras. Under him I passed grade 8 (distinction) at age 18, and have played in orchestras ever since.
When I took early retirement I became interested in folk music, especially Irish and English, and decided this would be a good opportunity to wake up my Mother's old violin that hadn't been played for half a century. A local luthier did a good job of putting it back into playing condition.
And so into playing Irish fiddle. My experience as a cellist indeed did give me a useful head start, as did observing the violinists in my orchestra. But that was not enough. After a few years I found myself stranded on a plateau with an impenetrable wall at the end. I was making no progress, and there were certain technical areas that weren't working properly no matter what I did (although, thankfully, my intonation was always sound).
So I started looking around for a teacher. My local violin shop was very helpful and provided me with a shortlist of teachers whom they believed would suit my purposes. The one I chose had been trained under Shinichi Suzuki in Japan as a classical professional and is currently very active in the folk world, both on stage and in the recording studio. She analyzed my technique thoroughly over the first two lessons and completely reconstructed it. What I hadn't appreciated earlier was that being a cellist would only take me so far, but beyond that level there is a great deal of essential detail in playing the violin that cannot be learned from cello playing and is not all that obvious from observation of other players, unless you already know exactly what you're looking for (which I didn't). Face-to-face teaching is essential to sort it out.
My teacher did indeed sort out my problems and after a couple of years my progress was such that I started wondering seriously about changing from cello to violin in my orchestra. I mentioned this to my teacher and she considered I would be ready to make the switch in a few weeks. So at the first rehearsal of the new year I turned up with violin instead of cello and took up a place in the seconds (the orchestra secretary, the concert master, and leader of the seconds knew, but no-one else). That was three years ago, and they haven't suggested that I return to the cello section :). 2ff7e9595c
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