Playing Position (General)

            Playing position is the hardest part of playing the violin by far. Once you get past holding it, things get steadily easier. I often tell people that the difference between the piano and the violin is that the piano is very easy in the beginning, and gets steadily harder as you go along, whereas the hardest part about the violin is holding it, and it gets easier and easier from there on. It's not completely true, but it's a good way of looking at it.

            Either way, the manner in which you hold the violin has everything to do with your success as a violinist. There are three main reasons for this, and (contrary to what some people believe) NONE of them have anything to do with "looking good." Sometimes a teacher will tell a student to hold the violin up high and "look good," but that's just another way to try and convince you to do it.

The three main reasons for correct playing position are these:

1. Avoiding muscular tension to prevent future injury

2. Good position allows you to learn more advanced skills in the future

3. Good position allows you to play the best in the present

            As far as I'm concerned, these three things are equally important. I put them this way, though, because it's the opposite of the way in which people usually think about them. The balance that we always have to strike is between a position that's effective and a position that's relaxed. If you're too tense, you can't be effective, because you're likely to squeak--and get tired. If what you're doing isn't effective, then you can't really be relaxed, because you're going to have to try harder than necessary to get the result you want, and that's what creates tension.

            What makes talking about "playing position" even harder is that playing the violin is a motion, and so everything that we talk about is actually a motion, not a "position." Holding the bow is part of a motion, operating the fingers on the fingerboard is part of a motion, and even holding the violin is a motion, too, of a sort, in that your body is changing around it. So, when we talk about a bow hold, we usually talk about how the hand looks in the middle of the bow, and when we talk about left hand position, we usually talk about how the hand looks on the A string. But it's more of a feeling than anything else, and as long as the right balance is struck, everything will work correctly. And if everything works well, it will look good.

            Everything in our technique should look natural, with this in mind: you have to look natural playing the violin. Turning your left hand so far to the side isn't natural per se, but since we have to do it, we therefore have to find the most natural way of doing it. The way we hold our bow doesn't seem natural at first, but it is the most natural way to do staccato, legato, spiccato, martelé, sautillé, and flautando without having to change your fingers around. And the list goes on.

FEET AND BALANCE

           First, we have to talk about the feet, since everything we do must be correct from the ground up. (Blame gravity.) The feet have to be in a position that comfortably balances the body underneath the violin. Start from a standing position, with feet shoulder width apart, and hold your left arm out to support an "invisible" violin. Then, step your left foot out and turn it slightly, until your body feels normal and balanced. That's where the foot should be all the time. We have to learn to put it there first, from rest position, and then lift up the arm.

            The reason we have to turn this foot is because we hold the violin out to the side, therefore the hip and shoulder have to agree with each other. If your left foot is straight, you'll end up with an awkward twist somewhere in your midsection.

            Everything from there up, basically, should be relaxed. Don't lock your knees, don't stick your tummy out, and don't twist your hips in a way that seems unnatural. Keeping the knees relaxed is good for two reasons: first, locking them can throw the weight of your upper body forward in an ungainly way; second, muscles that are relaxed can counterbalance what's happening in other parts of the body.

VIOLIN HOLD - SHOULDER

            The violin must be held on the shoulder in a way that is effective and relaxed. "Effective," in this case, means that the violin is straight and relatively flat (it will always have some tilt), and that it is far enough to the side that the bow has room to move freely and expressively. The head should turn far enough that the neck and spine remain straight rather than bending down ("putting your cheek on the violin," or some such thing), without doing anything unnatural. I am personally AGAINST putting too much pressure on the violin with the chin/jaw area, because I myself was screwed up for a long time because of way too much tension there. The shoulder-jaw clamping action is the first and biggest source of tension in violin playing, and if it can be avoided, it always should be. It can affect everything else you do.

            Therefore, I'm a proponent of the idea that the weight of the violin should be shared between the head and the hand. Since the back of the violin is the heaviest part of the instrument, and gravity pulls it down onto the shoulder anyway, all we really have to do is balance on (to quote Marilyn MacDonald) "an imaginary fulcrum under the violin." Whether the sharing is 50/50, 70/30 - it doesn't matter. What's important is that it's relaxed and balanced.

            Shoulder pads are a very personal thing. If it helps you, use it. If it doesn't help you, don't use it. The particular kind of shoulder pad you use can also be extremely important, depending on how your body is shaped. The only two rules are these: 1) Don't use a shoulder pad just because you see everyone else using it, and 2) Don't use a shoulder pad if your teacher said not to.

            The left hand is also a very personal thing, and there are thousands of different ways to use it effectively. I teach my students to touch the thumb to the neck of the violin on the upper joint, without sticking up too far and without sliding underneath. The thumb should be straight and uninvolved. The other side of the neck should be touched somewhere around the base knuckle of the first finger, not so low in the hand that the fingers come up too high, and not so high in the hand that the first finger becomes trapped and immobile. All the fingers should operate from the base knuckle, rather than the middle knuckle.

            The fingers should touch the string on the pad of the tip, meaning the fleshy area behind the exact "tip" of the finger. Usually, this is where we always tap our fingers, although it might have to be slightly moved. Using the side of the pad closest to the thumb ("inside corner") helps the fingers stand up straight and prevents them from rolling around clumsily. In most situations, the fingers should be square. When first learning the violin, the first finger is the one that most often cripples the hand; however, as violinists get more advanced, the balance of the fourth finger becomes the most important for the shape of the left hand.

            The bow hold should, above all, be relaxed - limp, if possible. Nowhere in violin technique is the idea of "relaxed" followed more absolutely than in the bow hold. There are two bow holds that I teach my students to use, and the only difference is where you put your thumb underneath the bow: beginners put it outside on the silver square, and more advanced people put it inside against the stick. Either way, the thumb should be as relaxed as possible, without bending inwards, which is a very bad habit to get into.

            The little finger should be on its tip and relaxed enough to be bent in every knuckle. The little finger carries the most weight of all the fingers, and it has to be bent to do this with flexibility. It is more convenient for us to lock our knuckles and let our bones take the weight of the bow, but this takes away our control.

            All the other fingers should be limp and happy. The middle two fingers generally touch, and the index finger sits a little farther away, but it should stay in line with the bones in the hand. In general, all the fingers on the bow should be right in line with the bones that they came from. If they pull to one side or another, it takes energy to keep them there, and that energy is wasted.

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