Growler's Violin - The Preludes...

The violin, sometimes called the fiddle, is a stringed instrument with a voice that can stir your emotions.

I started learning to play the violin (at ELLSO) from scratch at a late age (37).

Here is the continuing story of the gradual journey to a clean sound, articulated notes and playing in tune.

See also, The GrowlersWorld Violin Concertos - Inspirations, GrowlersWorld Symphony No.1 - Links and The GrowlersWorld Violin Sonatas - Free London Recitals

Rawle Austin presents...

A violin book recommendation.

This simple folk tune is a Polka (I'll call it Polka No.1) by Jackie Daly.

It's Irish in origin (although the word has Czech roots).

It feels and sounds nice to play.

I memorised it and have been practising. Not perfect yet but you'll get the general theme of the piece.

Close your eyes, have a listen and see where it takes you...

Click here to check out Violin for Dummies

This tune is called Rowing boat.

A nice basic tune for practising first finger notes.

Again, the purpose of these early recordings is to observe the difficultly a beginner faces when learning the violin.

You can see all the common mistakes and errors that will be ironed out over time.

I only started daily practise at the beginning of the third term of Ellso - The Late Starters Orchestra.

I've definitely noticed a difference and a rise in confidence in playing. I can now read basic music so progress is being made.

The most important thing is to have fun while playing!

I recommend the book 'The Violin: An Illustrated History by Yehudi Menuhin' which I'm enjoying.

I give thanks to my first violin teacher, Piotr Jordan (at Ellso) for helping to nurture my love of the violin.

Looking forward to Stage 2 in September 2009!

Click here to check out The Violin: An Illustrated History  

G major arpeggio. First attempt. Two octaves.

This one was a bit tricky at first but is slowly getting there.

The finger positions (fingering) are a little complex in this pattern. Definitely one of the hardest sequences of notes I've encountered so far.

The key is to get all the notes to sound in tune.

Practise makes perfect.

Scales and Arpeggios should be played daily as warm up exercises before you begin practising actual tunes.

Click here to check out Team Strings - Violin

G major scale. First attempt.

Starts on the open G string.

Two octaves. An octave is eight notes played in a row. Steadily rising and falling.

I love the sound of the violin...

Click here to check out Music Theory for Dummies

D major arpeggio. First attempt.

I'm recording these early rough-edged sessions in order to compare them to my future sound and thus gauge my progress.

Call it a form of accountability.

An arpeggio is a special sequence of rising notes that make a particular sound pattern.

Again, it is essential to master for ease of playing. The only way to perfect these is to play them over and over again until they sound clean and in tune.

Patience is a virtue.

Click here to check out Absolute Beginners Fiddle

D major scale. The first attempt. Aiming to articulate each note.

Starts on the open D string.

More practice required and I must get over my camera nerves! lol.

A scale is a series of successive rising notes that sound in tune.

Practising playing scales is essential for grasping the basics of the violin.

It will help train your ear and get you familiar with the geography of the instrument.

Interlude 2: The wonderful bow of the violin.

This mini movie shows my bow hold.

The bow together with the violin can make the most wonderful sounds when played by a virtuoso (an expert player).

It is said that the violin mimics the human vocal chords. I can believe that.

Bow hold, bow pressure and bow control are essential skills needed to make a clean sound...

Interlude 1: Showing the beauty of the design of the violin.

This is Growler's Violin (named Irene after a close friend who passed away in 2008). A close up mini movie of this amazing piece of musical architecture.

The sound that can come out this instrument is nothing less than stunning...

I actually find it harder to play long slow strokes than fast ones as it's more obvious to hear if it's out of tune.

In this sense the violin is a very honest instrument as you know straight away if the violinist can't play it well.

There's no one to blame but the violinist, so constant practise is the key.

This is the first eight bars of Canon in D by Pachelbel. Sounding a little more confident but still, a long way to go.

I'd like to be able to play the violin the way Orpheus played the lyre...

This is my attempt at the first six bars of Canon in D by Pachelbel. One of my favourite violin tunes.

Again, it's a perfect example of trying to run before I can walk due to it's complex finger positions.

I'm back to perfecting the simple tunes for now which you'll see here in due course.

This piece is called Lazy Cowboy and evokes visions of the old Wild West.

Watching this back I think it would look better if I used longer strokes and stretching my bowing arm out more.

It looks a bit rigid and stiff.

From the violinists I've seen play live it's 65% about that great sound and 35% looking confident and totally at ease.

A version of Twinkle, twinkle little star.

Part of the reason for the poor sound is lack of practise and failure to perfect the basics.

The basics include playing scales and arpeggios.

I tried to 'walk before I could run' by going straight to complex pieces like Edelweiss.

Always master the basics first.

A solo violinist plays standing up but if you're in an orchestra you play sitting down.

I'm wearing a suit as this seems to be the standard dress for performing classical pieces. An open shirt is often worn in warm weather.

In this performance of Edelweiss you'll see the bow pressure I'm using isn't the same during each stroke.

So the sound is very uneven, especially at the tip and the frog (end) of the bow.

I have to work on this.

Edelweiss again.

This time I've tried to use all of the bow in each stroke which I think looks good when I see a virtuoso play.

Still trying to achieve that clean sound.

Another recital of Edelweiss. Again need to improve confidence in bow control.

Tend to hit two strings at once in error sometimes.

The sound isn't yet clean. This will come in time.

The first video recorded, during rehearsals of the second ELLSO end of term concert.

It's called Edelweiss, one of my favourite tunes for the violin.

Need to improve bow hold and bow control. Also, want to learn to use more bow for a more stretched out arm.

Would look better in my opinion.

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