How Can I Get Over The Fear Of Playing Violin If Its Been More Than 10 Yrs Since I Played? Cant Afford Lessons?
I have a very new violin that was given to me. I need to put what skills I do have to play it once again. I don’t have the $ for lessons. I am rusty & have a practice book.. I am tired of hearing a screechy sound. I have not played violin in almost 10 years, but still remember all the notes & strings.
Any suggestions.
Tags: Been, Cant, Fear, More, Over, Played, Playing, Since, Than, Violin
October 30th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
just keep on playing. sometimes through your town or city they have free community lessons, or for a low fee.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I went through that about 4 years ago. I agree with the answer above me that you just need to keep playing & the sound will improve. But to prevent you from playing the same things over & over then getting frustrated, here’s the approach I used:
1. Practice very slowly & deliberately. Even though you can still read music & remember the strings, you want to be careful not to reinforce any bad habits.
2. Get some easy etude books. Depending on your level, you might even start with Suzuki books, like #3 or #4. Or Wolfhart, or Don’t or Kreutzer, etc. Start working on these pieces, again very slowly & deliberately – take your time.
3. Sight read some easy material every day. It’s good to develop this discipline.
4. Read up on bowing – this is where your tone comes from & it is a real challenge, even for experienced players.
Lessons are still a good idea, even if you can only afford one a month. Explain to the teacher what your goals are & that you can only see him/her once in a while. The teacher will give you material & ideas to work on. The reason this is important is again so that you don’t pickup & and cement any bad habits.
Be patient with yourself – this will take time but it will be worth the effort. Then, once you are feeling more comfortable playing, think about joining a community orchestra – having friends who also play certainly helps.