The mystical violin

My new violin teacher, a professional performer, is quite mystical about the instrument: the less you think with the violin, he said, the better.

He found no issues with my left hand, though I still feel I squeeze the neck more than I should. Good intonation, he said, good choice of fingering. Avoid string crossings where possible. But the right hand, the bow hand, definitely is my albatross. The bow takes long-term practice, he said, and I can believe it.

Here’s where it gets mystical: feel connected with the string, he said, be consistently engaged with the string. Engaged with the string. Use the whole bow, moving farther and faster, all the way to the tip and all the way back to the frog. Don’t take the bow off the string!

Too many beginners, he said, don’t go all the way down to the frog and then they lift the bow off the string and set it down again to begin a new upstroke and they crash land with a bounce and a wobble. That’s me.

The hardest part, he said, is the frog, getting to it and getting out of it. As bad as it may sound at first. No kidding, it’s very scratchy down there. He demonstrated playing toneful scales at the frog and insisted I practice that at least five minutes a day until I can get as warm a tone out of it as he can. Hmm. That may take forever.