11/13/2014

How To Achieve The Right Violin Hand Posture

By Ora Dickson


Perfecting all instruments highly depends on attaining and maintaining the professional posture. All string instruments heavily rely on balance. The basic principle is to ensure that when standing, all your weight is distributed evenly on both feet. Achieving the right violin hand posture affects vibrato, intonation, shifting, tone and bow stroke, among other aspects of instrumentation.

Proper balance ensures that you can practice longer or perform for an extended period of time. When at a standing position, your left foot should be shoulder width away from your right leg. This gives you a feeling of lengthened spine besides allowing you to stand tall. It is this trick that will allow you to play for long hours or have longer practice sessions.

Slouching is dangerous because it will lead to very serious problems. The issues that arise out of slouching affects how you hold the instrument and your bowing position. Students are advised to practice under the instructions of a professional. Where this is not possible, a mirror will do the trick. It is necessary to identify the professional pose before perfecting it with the assistance of a mirror.

Students are encouraged to focus on the desired position before learning to play any instrument. Capturing basic skills is important in the mastery of skills as you seek to become a professional player. The standing position captures the essentials and should precede the sitting position for any instrument. The other aspects of achieving professional level are easy to attain with a proper pose.

A standing position gives you a feeling of a lengthened body. It also makes it easier to achieve necessary balance when playing the instrument. Balance is considered the biggest challenge when students are learning instrumentation. Its importance cannot be over emphasized.

Learners of violas, basses and violins make a common mistake of crossing their legs during practice or performance. It is common to see others overburdening one foot by using the wrong position. The aspects that will suffer due to wrong positioning include the length of bowing, finger movement and duration of practice or performance. You will easily get tired during performance. Slouching is another mistake that mainly affects the upper body. Any skill, and especially instrumentation, is easy to master when the basics are right.

Parents, teachers and students must address playing any instrument as a physical skill. This is should happen during the first month or lessons. This skill is then followed by the centrality of sound to all musical instruments. It is common to see students running to learn the first song and therefore ignoring very crucial aspects.

Some professional violinists advocate for weight shifting if the session is long. It allows the right leg to carry slightly more weight and later shift it to the left. This is done by placing it slightly to the front. The shift happens during breaks to avoid interfering with sound production. You will remain relaxed over the duration of the performance.

Achieving the right position makes it easier to learn the other skills. The maiden songs, that are the primary focus of most parents and teachers, will be easier and rapid to get. This is the easiest way to master advanced skills. It forms part of the basics upon which all the other aspects are built.




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