How to Hold the Violin

Video Transcript

"Today, we're going to talk about how to hold the violin.We want to be comfortable, first of all. I use a shoulder rest, because without it, it just makes life difficult for me. Some people are comfortable without it. The majority use a shoulder rest. You'll notice, it makes it so easy to hold the thing. Without the shoulder rest, by itself, the violin wants to sag, and wants to fall down, so I just find the shoulder rest, makes my life a whole lot easier. It keeps the violin in place. One thing I see a lot of people doing, is just putting themselves in unnatural, uncomfortable positions, when they're holding the violin. I mean, I see a lot of people trying to put their chin over, on the chin rest, like this, and that's just not going to work, and trying to tip their head, like this, and that's just not going to work. For me, it's very natural. You put the violin up on your shoulder. You turn about forty five degrees, and there it is. It's nothing unnatural. It's nothing uncomfortable.You don't want to be straining any part of your neck. You want to be relaxed and comfortable, when you hold the instrument ,so you could really be, for me ninety degrees with the body works good, because you parallel to the floor, the physics of the bow. It works good that way. Now, you'll see players anywhere from there, to this, to this, and everything in between, so as long as you've got ninety degrees with your backbone, forty five degrees out from here. If you hunch over at the waist, that doesn't change. You see a lot of fiddle players, different style players, leaning over, hunching over, and playing. They're not doing this, they're doing this, so technically, they're still forty five degrees coming off their backbone, with the violin. That, to me, is the biggest thing to remember, is you've got to have some leverage, and if you're up here, your elbows got to come up higher, to get the tone out of the violin. If you're down here, to be able to come down a little more, but wherever you're comfortable, within reason, I don't recommend this, but you may see it. I think probably up here, in this vicinity is safer to get the principles of the violin, proper, so there you have it. Make it comfortable."