Violin Forum/Message Board

rightbackatyou · Junior Member Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

I've been playing violin for about 2 months now and it seems I've hit something of a wall in that I'm having trouble with the fingering when switching from notes on the D string to notes on the A string.

I have difficulty smoothly moving from say G or F# note to A, B, C#. I've been practicing on this one exercise in my book (All For Strings) for about a week now and still can't seem to play the song smoothly at all.

Is there some kind of warm up song or exercise that I could do that would give me alot of practice moving between strings? The Meow-Mix song helped me alot in moving my fingers correctly on one string, now I'm looking for a song that could help me practice jumping from one string to the next, something that I could do for like 10-15 minutes each morning before I start doing my exercises out of the book?

Thanks a million.

BARRY S. · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 6:28 pm Post subject:

Hi RightBackAtYou,

Welcome to the forum Smile

Glad youve had loads of help on "FiddleForum", surprised nobody on here has answered you Sad

Im pretty new to it myself. I have lessons, tried for a while on my own, not an easy instrument to learn. I dont find crossing over too much of a problem, depending on what im trying to play & the tempo Cool

_________________
Fiddlers must learn to slur
Like cats must learn to purr
To prove that your no fool
Slur & play it cool!
BARRY S.

Shirley · Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 1:57 pm Post subject:

Hello, BackatYou - This part of the forum has been pretty slow lately, though with your help it might get back it's groove!

I play the viola, but I think that some of these basics are the same for violin - I'm assuming you mean you would like to change strings more smoothly during a slur? On one bow? (Otherwise I don't believe there would be a problem.)

You can try changing strings at the tip of your bow, if you are using a downbow. Or, try staying at the top third or so of your bow if on an upbow. Maybe this will help.

There are a lot more experienced players on this board than I am, so I'm hoping you receive a lot more replies.

Good luck! Smile

Shirley

PS In case you do mean that you are having trouble moving from one string to another using seperate bow strokes, perhaps a few minutes of merely bowing open strings would give your muscles the idea - not a bad exercise to practice anyway!

BARRY S. · Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:43 pm Post subject:

Amalia · Member Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 129

Well, I hate scales, but you can practice a lot of things using scales.

It's been a month since you first posted, are you still having problems? How are things going otherwise?