<p>Oooh, auditions are scary. My (suckish) school lacks any actual orchestra program lol, so I play in a regional youth orchestra, and that’s it so far. I was actually thinking about All-State Orchestra, though, except that I know next to nothing about it. And is there an All-Country or All-Nation Orchestra too?</p>
<p>Do you guys ever have any issues with warming up? Sometimes I feel like it takes me two or three hours just to feel ready for actual playing.</p>
<p>It takes me 1 hour to reach my peak level when I practice. </p>
<p>There’s districts, regionals, states, and all eastern (not sure about west coast).</p>
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It happened during my recital, ha ha. I kept wishing for another hour to get something right. Unfortunately, like I said before, the nerves killed whatever prior practice I had to begin with.</p>
<p>I think that people feel most unprepared when they have to play in front of other people. When it’s just me by myself I can do a pretty good job, but when I have to play that same piece or exercise in front of my teacher or a crowd, I get racked with nerves because there’s somebody there to judge my performance and then I’m forced into that mindset of, “DO NOT mess this up, DO NOT mess this up, DO NOT mess this up.”</p>
<p>Whereas when you’re by yourself, a slip or two won’t lead to another six or eighteen slip ups because you don’t think, “Oh! They heard that, crap!”.</p>
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<p>Ah, that and what ^ is talking about exactly. I feel like I can play pretty well, in terms of smooth (inaudible) shifting, more flexible and speedy fingers, technique, etc., but it never seems to come out immediately. It’s almost frustrating sometimes, really. But whenever I get into one of my random violin-playing inspiration bursts, I’ll suddenly pick up the violin for the first time in two weeks and play all the hours of the day away lol. I find that usually I’m amazing myself with my skillz then haha. 
Then afterwards I kind of just suck again.</p>
<p>How do you guys, also, pluck up the motivation for daily practice lol? I’m one of those people who actually needs to practice, and yet when confronted with the choice to practice it just seems so…unpleasant? :(</p>
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Ditto… unfortunately</p>
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I’ll be the first to admit that I never understood why people are so adverse to practicing on the violin. I’ve always loved doing it and I find myself practicing for hours at a time.</p>
<p>I can, however, understand the aversion to practicing on the piano. God knows that I love the instrument, but I really can’t stand to play it sometimes.</p>
<p>I’m learning how to play Schindler’s List :D.</p>
<p>I got a violin for a birthday present (I wanted an electric guitar D:<) but ohhh well. I still haven’t gotten lessons for them, and I don’t know how to bow correctly but I can do vibrato (because I play classical guitar) :D.</p>
<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t guitar vibrato differ drastically from violin vibrato? Even if they were similar, the way you hold the two instruments would present some difficulty in transferring the skill from guitar to violin.</p>
<p>Also, glad to hear that you’re looking for a violin teacher. The people who think that they can self teach themselves the violin are deluded. Too many people, unfortunately, believe that they have the potential and skill to learn it without any proper aid. The egomaniacs always continue to astound me.</p>
<p>Imagine their surprise, and my eye rolling, when they exclaim that they thought they were doing it right.</p>
<p>Well, actually I don’t know if it’s a true violin vibrato but it sounds nice :P. And thank you! I considered learning myself but then I decided that violin is NOT the type of instrument you’d want to learn by yourself, so I’m thinking about taking lessons at the local CC, though my parents want me to go to the conservatory, which is more expensive and farther. I still haven’t found any openings though.</p>
<p>Here’s a hardy good luck to you. The violin is an instrument that requires a lot of willpower to even partially master, but it’s an extremely rewarding one nevertheless. I hope you find a teacher soon!</p>
<p>I actually need to go back to school because my A-string is a smidge away from being in tune and I suck at turning pegs.</p>
<p>Oh that. I started violin really late (for someone who plays seriously, that is…or tries to and is supposed to, at least?) at nine, and I’m wondering if that affects tuning ability lol. Tuning is always kind of…eh. Every string may be fine relative to each other, but whenever I check on a tuner or the piano, every string will be too high.</p>
<p>I mean, maybe I just naturally suck, but if starting late does contribute, then I’ll at least have a valid excuse. :D</p>
<p>Eh. I can tune without a tuner and they will be more or less correct… not perfect. At home I just use a mechanical tuner. I should really practice to get spot on.</p>
<p>I really want to learn how to play the violin. Do you guys think it’s too late for me (I’m 18)?</p>
<p>To be honest, the violin is NOT an instrument to be self-taught. Nor is it an instrument to learn as a hobby, as you won’t get very good (it’s just highly unlikely). It takes a ton of work… practicing… the right teacher… approach… etc. It’ll probably be at least 2 years before you can play a decent song… decently. But then again, it depends on what you want to do with it. </p>
<p>If you want to be good enough to play at your school’s orchestra, it won’t take too much time (1-2 years?).</p>
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Quite right!</p>
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And not at all! There are students in my violin class that are in their 60s and 70s that just started to play! It’s never too late, never too late at all.</p>
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I think that tuning is one of those aspects of the violin that takes a VERY long time to perfect. You have to develop a good ear to be able to tune your strings to fifths without the aid of a tuner.</p>
<p>My piano teacher told me to sing the notes out loud as I play a piece on the violin. It doesn’t matter if your voice is horrible. If you can match the tone of the note on your violin (as long as it’s correct) with the tone of your voice, your brain will be begin to recognize whether or not you’re playing a particular note too high or too flat.</p>
<p>I’m sure that you’ve heard of that singing thing that goes: Do, re, me, fa, so, la, te, do. You can sing that phrase for any key you want: C major, F major, G major, etc, etc. If you’re singing a C major scale, it would go: C (do), D (re), E (me), F (fa), G (so), A (la), B (te), C (do). The last do is the first do but an octave higher.</p>
<p>It’ll help you remember what a particular note should sound like so you don’t have to refer to a tuner every time you’re not sure whether something is in tune or if you’re questioning your intonation.</p>
<p>There are other methods to training your ear, but that’s a pretty good one.</p>
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<p>Depends. Do you play another instrument already? One of the key things in playing the violin is being able to listen for precise differences in pitch. Which is tricky unless you have tons of natural talent that hasn’t withered away from lack of application yet.</p>
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I disagree. It doesn’t matter, in my opinion, whether or not s/he’s played another instrument before. So long as a serious attempt is made, I think anyone would be a fine candidate to learn how to play the violin. The good ear and differentiating between pitches will come with the learning process.</p>
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<p>Oh that’s not really the problem. It’s recognizing how perfect fifths sound which troubles me. Not perfect at it - always seems to be a little high or low. </p>
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<p>To become a real good violinist, you must start at a young age. At least I think so. But depends on how good you want to get…</p>
<p>Hilary Hahn…amazing <3</p>