Hey guys,
I have been thinking of playing the violin for couple of years now however I was always uncertain as I believed that only children were capable of learning the instrument.
I'm about to turn 24 on the 27th of February, and honestly picking and instruments of such caliber scares me a little, violin is known to be the hardest of the instruments to play - perhaps as difficult as the french horn. I know there are plenty of people who start learning instruments in their 30s, 40s or even 50s although its difficult for me to evaluate their success and by that I mean then actually being able to play with a beautiful tone. There are also those who have been playing all their life, meaning that they are 20 years ahead of me and no amount of practice will allow me to catch up to them. I do not aspire to be a professional soloist or anything such as that, its unrealistic. Although if possible, I would like to play with semi-professional/community orchestra or perhaps playing gigs in jazz restaurants someday?
For few weeks now I'm checking progress videos on youtube ranging from 1-6 year of playing and something that I have noticed is that a lot of people struggle with intonation and even after 6 years of playing they still don't have it down, you can hear that they are either too flat or sharp throughout their pieces(not trying to critique here, its just an observation). Is being young perhaps a predisposition to good intonation? Are adults able to develop similar skills lets say after 10 years of hard work?
Another thought that's out there is that violin is perhaps not a great instrument for adults and perhaps I should look at something else. I would love it to be violin but I am interested in opinions of others. Perhaps a qualified teacher could answer this one.
Last but not least, here are some things that I have noted about starting a violin before beginning my journey.
Some key points that I have noted on forums/reddit/youtube: * Get a teacher * Practice with a metronome * Practice with a tuner * Do not use fret tapes, train your ear instead * Practice daily rather than every other day * Split your day into sections such as having 1 hours session in which you focus 30 minutes on your technique and then 30 minutes to play difficult sections of the piece you are trying to play.
Hope you guys could help out by shining some light on this topic.
Cheers
Submitted February 12, 2019 at 10:31PM by Ethre https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/aq10h8/questions_about_learning_violin_uncertainties/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Tuesday, February 12, 2019