Your fiddle and how to hold it.

Some advice about holding your violin.

Step 1: Holding the violin

Don't try to support the violin just with shoulder and jaw. You will almost certainly clamp down rigidly and your entire upper body will be in tension. This can lead to physical problems which may take you years to correct.

Here's a starting position:

Stand facing straight ahead, arms down by sides, violin in left hand, bow in right, feet slightly apart. Relax (take three deep breaths. Hunch your shoulders and drop them - repeat three times).

Comments

[nutsandbolts_64]

I seriously need to upgrade my shoulder support, my current shoulder rest only supports the violin 60% and my arm is in epic tension everytime the support goes wrong. My instructor told me that your nose must be pointing towards the "D" string, that might be of use. You should add more tags for your instructable, as 3 words out of thousands isn't really that "searchable". At least almost a dozen hits come up if you type "violin".

[LDW]

You're absolutely right: the wrong combination of shoulder rest and chin rest can lead to tension - and tension is the enemy. I use a Viva la Musica shoulder rest which works for me.

http://www.thestringzone.co.uk/accessories-violin-shoulder-rests-viva-la-musica-by-augustin-viva-la-musica-original-violin-shoulder-rest

But you should find something that works for you.

I disagree with your teacher: if you twist your neck round to the left (so your nose is pointing at the strings), tension is unavoidable. I think you should be facing forward. But there are as many opinions as there are teachers!

What additional tags would you suggest?

[nutsandbolts_64]

Maybe something related to the specific topic shown. Perhaps "position" or "violin placing", something like that.

[opus1793]

love your violin is it carbon fibre?