forum Violin Players, What Is It Like Playing The Violin?

Started August 12, 2019 by @Leiko

tune

I'm writing a book, and the first scene is Vanya playing Avril laviges, girlfriend, on violin. What would playing a violin be like?

Uhm…how in depth do you want to go? Because really, you could probably just get away with describing the sound

Oh god… um… how do you explain playing an instrument?

like, how does it feel? What are your emotions playing it? does it come with it's struggles or challenges?

It's super frustrating to learn a new song because… oof. Personally, I tend to space out when I'm playing and I'll accidentally go on autopilot and not be paying attention. Playing definitely calms me down, though.

If you're playing really fast, your fingers will definitely start to cramp up, but other than that, it's pretty chill.

Feel: I'm not sure what you mean? Like it's physical feel or what it feels like to play
Emotions: depends on the song. If it's a difficult piece, definitely focus, sometimes joy. Melancholy if it's sad
Challenges: that really depends on your level of playing. So like…how old/good is this character?

Vanya is 21 and she is in an orchastra. thats the only way i really know how to explain it. She's also 2nd chair.

Okay. Second chair what section? First or second or even third?

And how long has she been playing?

I have no idea what sections mean and and about five years.

Okay.
Firsts: typically melody, more advanced players
Seconds: harmony
Thirds: not every orchestra has them, but they play with the violas

Five years? She's probably a second, then

hey i just saw this lol so um i agree with emmy and also if I play first finger too much it starts to cramp up and that really holy hecking is just so annoying and then tuning - so there are two ways to tune a violin. first there are the pegs those are the large black thingies at the top of the violin in a photo and they change the pitch of a string dramatically, and the small black thingies at the bottom change the pitch of a string in small amounts, like less than a pitch per turn. and you almost always tune the A string first and tune the other strings to the A, since a violin is tuned in relative pitch, not perfect pitch.

Oh god I forgot that there are people who don't know what second violins and third violins are. Ackkk my brain is confused. But. Your seating doesn't always depend on how advanced you are, though it generally does. My orchestra teacher tends to sprinkle a few more advanced players into the second violins just so that the harmony won't get lost, but for the most part, the strongest players have the most important parts. I feel like I'm not explaining this well, but like. That's ok. This is why I will never write about someone playing an instrument that I've never played, because research is just - too stressful for me XD

80% of my thoughts while playing the violin are how bad my violin playing is right in that moment. Bonus if it's sight reading.
At some point if I've practiced a piece enough I'll know what's coming and I'll be sort of anticipating the difficult passages I guess?
Violin is a lot about learning to hear yourself and adjusting really fast. Most of the time I'll be thinking about stuff like my bowing, fingering, shifting, whether I'm playing in tune (or how much my back and wrist hurt lol)

Oh yeah that reminds me really the only thing that keeps me going during long concerts is the heat of the moment.

Honestly what keeps me going is when I'm trying not to laugh because I can just hear my orchestra teacher yelling REST! REST! REST! or SUPER QUIET!

If you press to hard on the strings with your fingers you get red marks. When I'm playing I mainly think about what's happening around me and the more difficult parts of the song. Also if your violin has different brands of strings on them it will sound really weird. I have dominant strings (which are good quality) but my A string broke and I have a cheap replacement on it so it sounds like a kazoo compared to my other strings.

I legit broke my E string TWICE last year. My orchestra teacher deserves mad props for being way too patient with me XD I'm the clumsiest bitch ever.

Oh lol funny story actually my dad tried to tune my violin after we first rented the violin cause then it was out of tune again and then he broke my E-string XD so we had to get it replaced.