Violin Forum/Message Board

[Ode to Tragedy]

I have put the sticky markers to see where I should be putting my fingers but that isn't too helpful cos almost all of the time I spend looking at the sheet music.

I thought it would be much more helpful to be able to feel them so I had the thought of creating something like frets for the guitar but my initial attempt failed. I initially tried using fishing line under the string and where it worked for the closest one I found when I tried to do press down on the next highest note it was distorted by the ridge. Actually if the other one was ridged too this might be negated since I only did one 'fret' and gave up- so I am look into that again.

I next tried putting blobs of silicone which didn't work either as they were too unwieldy.

aha! writing it just gave me an idea. I will try small bits of white tack as they will be most easy to apply!

Hmm, just tried that; too sticky. About to try the fishing line method again.

Any other suggestions welcome.

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Edit: The fishing line trick seems to be working really well. This has a couple of bonuses. What I've found is I have to come down nice and hard to get a proper tone and also if I don't hit the ridge of the fishing line squarely then the note will not hit and sound scratchy. So I think it'll be even better for training to hit the right pitch.

It almost feels like cheating it makes things so much easier . All my notes are suddenly in almost perfect tune (provided I hit them squarely)- I was using the autotuner to test this. This allows me to concentrate on practicing other things (while of course training my fingers and ear at the same time).

[Lemuel]

You are truly unique...that's pretty neat!

What gauge is your fishing line and how are you attaching it?

[Ode to Tragedy]

Gauge, I'm not fisherman but let me check. .45/10kg. I obviously wanted thin as I could whilst still being able to feel it. I've just attached them with stickytape threaded under the strings.

It sounds so crisp when I hit the notes now it's great. It's really gonna increase the hardness of my fingers tho as I noticed holding the strings in relief like seems to make them alot more tough on the fingers.

I was reading up on callouses and not sure if I like the idea of full on ones. I will continue monitoring them.

I'll do another video of the scales just to show this off prob. sometime soon.

I'm going to my mother's in the country for a few days which is really boring otherwise so I'll have plenty time to practice.

[Lemuel]

Whoa...yes, pretty thick.

I play some classical guitar as well. Initially, it was painful, but the pain eventually goes away, and no callouses. Take frequent rests along the way.