u/lunarmoth_

Hey guys, meeee again. I am very frustrated with my bowing arm and intonation. I’ve been trying so hard to work on my bowing arm and when I watched this video I see how inflexible my wrist is and how high my elbow is. Realistically though I know it’s been a recent thing I’ve been practicing and unfortunately I had to take almost two weeks off of regular practice due to work and some health issues. So I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up too much. I just wonder how long I’ll be stuck like this. I am realizing how difficult progressing on the violin can be and regressing comes so quickly on this instrument if you’re not diligent.

I was so inspired by Solos for Young Violinists Vol. 2 and wanted to get there as quickly as possible but I know I have a long way to go now. I know I need to fix my bowing arm before I progress any more. I am finally seeing my teacher again this week and I’ll get more exercises from him and just make that the bulk of my practice time so I can break through this.

This is a song from Solos for Young Violinists Vol. 1. Maybe it’s too hard for me if my wrist isn’t flexible. I can keep it flexible with easier songs and play them well, but anytime I play something with more difficulty it reverts. I just don’t know how long I’m gonna have to play the easy stuff, it feels like I should be trying to practice keeping a flexible wrist with the harder stuff too. My teacher told me that doing well on exercises doesn’t automatically mean I’ll be able to apply it on songs, and that I have to practice keeping it in the forefront of my mind during songs.

One thing to note is I’ve successfully been able to turn my weird diagonal/sideways-ish vibrato into more of a back and forth one. It’s still really tight but I’ll be getting more instruction on that soon.

I guess I’m expecting progress too quickly, like obviously I post too much haha so really how much progress will I expect between them? I post frequently because I feel like I need a community for this. If anyone knows any good Facebook communities for the violin please let me know. :)

My bridge broke so I brought it into the luthier to fix. They also replaced my strings that I messed up while trying to change them myself, and said if there’s anything else they find they will do.

The associate there also assessed how I hold my violin and suggested a centre-mounted chin rest for me. It’s unbelievable how much more comfortable it is. I took the advice of everyone and decided not to buy a shoulder rest at the same time, and it looks like I won’t need a new one!

I played for a few minutes in the hotel without a mute since the violin shop forgot to put the one I bought in my bag. The hotel management said I was allowed to between certain hours and that there is nobody in the rooms adjacent to me and I’m at the end of the hall. There’s also major construction work happening so there’s the sound of loud, horrible drilling for most hours of the day unfortunately.

But honestly with the adjustments it seems MUCH louder so I decided to just put it away. I can’t make it back to the violin shop so I ordered one on Amazon. It is here Monday and I can start practicing regularly again. :)

Edit: lmao I have no idea what happened to the video part way through. Also still trying not to do vibrato, I played through this unconsciously really just to record the sound. So yes I know my wrist sucks too.

As the title says, so I’m playing it as slow as I can muster!

I’ve been very very stiff so I’m happy to say my fingers flexed a bit during this song! And I tried to keep my shoulder down and my elbow down more.

I think this is the piece I’ll replay in September for my 1 year anniversary of playing again since my 2-3 years of fiddling back when I was 9.

This level of piece my teacher is comfortable with me playing, but he wants me to play everything slowly.

I had to send in two different audition videos and multiple people had to watch them; one of the pieces was an excerpt from Vivaldi in A minor.

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The orchestra finally emailed me today and they want to take me and encouraged me to join. Then they sent an example of what they played in the last season. It is WAY above my level. They said I don't need to be comfortable playing it, just able to play enough to blend in.

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Are community orchestras severely lacking people who want to join or what?

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I don't know what to do honestly. I don't want to butcher this and throw everyone off. I have no orchestra experience, the material is too advanced and it's not even my first year back to playing.

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It seems like a really cool opportunity for me this early but maybe it's a bad idea and will derail my progress as I'm still building my fundamentals.

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Thanks for all the advice on my post yesterday. Here’s my second day of trying to gain some flexibility in my wrist. It looks better already so I know I just need to keep on this path and it’ll keep improving!

I find that when I get to my upper bow that to bend my wrist I really tilt the bow so the hair is facing me. The problem is I do it excessively! I was practicing and literally the bow stick would hit the strings, ack. So I’m trying to find a happy medium.

I’m also trying to relax more, especially my shoulder, and get my weight more onto the bow. My teacher tells me I lift a lot, instead of sinking into the feeling of being relaxed while playing. I feel as though I crackle more this way though. I know it’ll get better with time and confidence.

I just wanted to post this so soon after to show you guys I take this seriously and I want to improve and take advice! :) I’m going to practice my wrist flexibility as much as possible with Suzuki 1 and 2 songs.

I suck, I know haha. I have a lot more work to do on this piece but I want to document my progress here! I’ll post another in a couple or more months to see how I’ve improved.

I posted a version yesterday but got shy so I deleted it. But honestly I’ve been shameless for all my other posts so I thought it was silly of me. :p

I am still playing through Suzuki 1 & 2 songs to practice my bowing and intonation! And a sprinkling of Suzuki 3 for fun. This piece is just to stretch my capacities a little bit too.

Thanks for viewing and for any feedback! I always welcome it even if I have a teacher. I appreciate all the support and this community has done for me thus far.

I asked earlier about tips and tricks for nailing the tricky part in this. Here is how I’m currently doing. Definitely need a lot of work on that part and I’m also not hitting the super high fourth finger on the second half of the second page. Thought I’d share! Lots more work to do.

I know it’s easy for most of you! I might just need to practice it a lot more and that’ll solve my issues. I find my biggest issue is placing my third finger back after playing my fourth finger. The D is always too low or too high and I never usually have problems hitting my third fingers.

I’m going to bring it up to my teacher that I want to work on this song; it’s Seitz Concerto #2 Movement 3. So I’ll get good feedback from him too—I just don’t see him for another week and my mind is fixated on this piece. The rest of the song is relatively easy for me which is why I’m playing it right now at my level. I find I can play with good intonation and bowing for the rest of it except for this part.

Do you guys have any suggestions, tips or tricks to make this sound flawless? I can post a video of myself playing through the whole piece if that helps people see what I‘m struggling with. Thank you!

I’ve wanted to be able to do this so I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far. I find it easier to find places for slides and double stops. Next I want to learn how to add cuts and rolls.

The song is the Lament for Neil Gow’s Second Wife.

I’ll be coming up to a year of playing again since I was a child this September! I played for a couple years as a kid. :)

Short little tune. Still rusty. I look so upset because I tried to film a couple times and my E string kept whistling haha.

I play mainly classical but I’m trying to mix in some more fiddle music!

Still working on this song. I am practicing pushing my arm on the up-bows to reach closer to the frog but as I see in the video it’s not working very well yet haha. I really need to try playing lower still… I can do it easily on songs in Suzuki 1 and 2 so I play those books everyday to try and drill it in.

I have a lot of time to practice these next two weeks so I want to post some videos too. Hopefully this Gavotte is an improvement on my last Gavotte post. I’ll have to go and compare and see.

I also need work on my intonation in sections. I feel that I may not be hitting my fourth fingers high enough. I’ve been working on wrapping my left arm under my violin more to reach my hand, but it is not fixing the problem entirely.

Thanks for looking!

P.s. I reposted since Reddit finally let me upload the video.