About the Shoulder Rest of a Violin

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m David Kaynor for expertvillage.com. And the shoulder rest is usually attached to the violin so that the curve of the rest is closes to the shoulder, which means on the base side of the violin. There are generally rubber or plastic protectors on the legs of the shoulder rest, so that there won’t be direct contact between the metal and the wood, and also makes it a little bit less liable to slip around. So then shoulder rest is clamped, different fiddlers and violin players have different preferences for exactly how the shoulder rest is angled, but essentially you can say that it grips the back of the fiddle. And it’s located so that it gives maximal stability and comfort to the instrument. And I can very comfortably just support the instrument with my chin and my shoulder. The other rest has a more pronounced curve. Some players, including me, find this more comfortable and actually more stable, and like other shoulder rest these are somewhat user customizable, so I’ve done some adjusting to make this the most comfortable for me. And it’s real stable, and I can play with the violin in this position for hours and feel real comfortable at the end."