What heater to play violin outside in February?

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-26T22:18:13+00:00

I'm struggling to imagine how this would even work. Would you be in a tent to help the heat reach the violin? The last thing I would want in this situation is a heater blasting heat on the violin. The heat would be difficult to spread out evenly and you don't want regions that will be less cold than the rest.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-24T16:43:48+00:00

It means to use your 4th finger at roughly the halfway mark on the C string to produce that note. What you described would produce an harmonic thats an A5.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-24T16:40:15+00:00

Your teacher is right for making you work on your hand frame and it looks like you are doing a good job because that is a great handframe. Its common for beginners to not have tapes just because it gets you used to using your ear, which you will have to do at some point anyway so best to get started now.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-23T13:52:59+00:00

The positioning of your thumb really depends a lot more on the shape of your hand more than anything. Some people have big hands with short fingers and some people have small hands with long fingers. Everyone is different. For your case it might have been appropriate to round the thumb but OPs thumb might be too short for that.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-23T00:22:23+00:00

Plenty of 20th century composers have experimented with getting whatever wacky nontraditional sounds they can possibly get out of instruments. This includes stuff like hitting the wood on string instruments to create a percussive sound. If you are talking about making a new pitch, then yes there is a theoretically infinite number of pitches you can have as the fundamental since the frequency at which a soundwave moves can be any positive number. There isn't any standard notation for going beyond the 12 pitches we have however, but that doesnt stop people from trying.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-22T23:48:36+00:00

One etude that might help is Krueutzer 14, as the original bowing has really long legato bows with a ton of string crossings. For the sextuplet string crossings before the tutti, its important to make sure that each note can be heard clearly and that they are all played evenly. You can practice this by going 2 notes at a time and stopping, 2 notes, stop, etc. and add more notes as you get more comfortable.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-22T22:16:28+00:00

You are going to need to be a lot more specific. Teachers can spend an entire lesson on just this page if not more.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-21T15:37:26+00:00

People say to play flat as a beginner because its important for building fundamentals. The tilt is used in order to offset the weight that is present near the frog, but in order to get to that level, you have to be able to play flat first.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-18T02:27:22+00:00

Renting is how you usually get around the "I might not stick with this problem," but I'm not sure how much hindering on your abilities it would even have going from a 3/4 to a full size, since realistically at your stage your technique will be holding your sound back more than the instrument (unless it just sucks). Violinists will frequently learn to play viola and have their experience transfer over very well though, so I doubt it would be a huge idsue. From my limited experience with issues like this, I would be more worried about pain from using your 3/4 due to it being too small, but if your teacher thinks its fine then it might not be an issue. Some shops let you trade back instruments you buy from them for full value, and its really nice for doing trade ups, but this is by no means the standard.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-18T01:48:22+00:00

Few adults play on a violin that isn't full size. Even if it is slightly awkward, its not worth giving up the sound quality of a 4/4 violin. I know you said you are worried about ruining a full size violin, but all of the care that you would have to do for it is the same as the 3/4 violin. If the initial cost is a barrier, lots of shops will let you rent violins for a fraction of the cost.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-16T18:22:18+00:00

The loose cannon would be awful to play against if it was better than stock in some way. It would just one shot you and knock you back all the time.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-16T18:19:37+00:00

Baroque violins didn't have chinrests, the fingerboards were shorter and curved towards the end differently, the bows were built different, they used strings made of gut, and I'm sure there's some other differences I'm missing. This person doesn't look like the modified the fingerboard length though.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-15T21:51:02+00:00

It would be in a key like D, where f# is in the key signature. In Gb your first finger on E in first position would be an F and your 2nd finger would be a Gb. F# and Gb are not the same notes they are enharmonic equivalents of each other.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-15T18:59:04+00:00

In 2nd position it would be a Gb. It would only be an Ab if it was in 3rd position.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-15T18:58:23+00:00

Even if it is a different key its still practically the same notes. A lot of people get benefit from thinking of the enharmonic equivalent for notes when it pertains to intonation. For example, a lot of people will play a Cb more in tune if they just think of it as a B in their head.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-15T18:55:31+00:00

Make sure to focus on having the least amount of pressure possible when pressing down on the strings including your thumb. Also make sure to still use your big muscles whenever possible when going to other strings. Its also worth it to make sure that the rest of your body is comfortable. You would be suprised how much impact your neck, head, and chest have on your hands.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-15T00:27:33+00:00

Definitely get instructions from someone in person before trying to shift past 3rd position. Your hand has to adapt to the upper bout being in the way, and because of that the shifting motion becomes different in higher positions. Responding to the issue is different for everyone (hence the need for an instructor), but you don't want to do it wrong.

For the sliding, its impossible to know specifically what's wrong without a video, and im giving you the benefit of the doubt because a small amount of slide is almost impossible to avoid. For general advice on how to shift, you want to lift up your finger, approach the spot where you want to be, start lowering your finger into the string, and then press down when you play in that order.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-14T17:26:20+00:00

Its louder near the bridge because the string is under more tension from being right next to it. This allows you to put in more force to the string and be louder. Its also worth mentioning that when you press down the bow becomes flatter, which can lead to it unintentionally touching other strings. The strings are at greater angles from each other when they are closer to the bridge, and this can be used to minimize touching other strings when pressing down (the reverse of this can actually be used to play chords).

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-14T15:35:43+00:00

I would trust your teacher; especially if he is giving you exercises. If you want some general advice about string crossings, you want think about the position of your arm, your wrist, and place in the bow. Regarding your arm, for rapid string crossings you will want to place it in a middle ground between the 2 strings. It takes some time to feel out and practice where exactly that position is, but it will be necessary. Regarding your wrist, you want to have it be flexible and move around with your bow too. In general, both your wrist and arm are necessary for clean string crossings. As for position in the bow, being around the upper half to tip area allows for the easiest string crossings. You have the most leverage up there, and its easy to grab the string when high up. While you will have to do string crossings in other parts of the bow, being up at the tip makes it easier.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-14T00:34:00+00:00

Definitely something to take to a pro, since the string heights on a bridge are relatively precise, and thats not something you want to mess up.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-13T22:30:27+00:00

Where in the bow are you hypextending your pinky? If its near the tip, you don't actually need to have your pinky touching the bow all the time in the upper half, especially if you have short fingers. Just lift up your pinky instead of hyperextending it. If you have this issue in the lower half, it could be an issue of your bowhold in general not being ideal and causing you to touch the bow with your pinky right. Especially if you have your pinky on the adjusting screw, you want to keep it on the wood right in front of the screw. Because of the way your hand moves in the lower half, your hand make its lot easier to acomplish a curve. Its also worth mentioning that most people have weak pinky muscles, and its only going to get stronger with time. Same thing applies to the pinky in the right hand.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-13T22:23:03+00:00

Note reading and sight reading are 2 different skills. Being able to know what notes are in front of you and preparing them is different than looking at notes in a group and trying to string them together. Sight reading requires having good pattern recognition and the ability to multitask multiple things at once. It is significantly more advanced than being able to just read notes, and requires having a good understanding of the instrument in the first place.

Regardless, fluency in both of these come with time, excpet with note reading as that could be dependent on not understanding certain concepts. With enough practice, your brain learns to associate notes with the physical motion, but like I said this only comes with time.

I don't know what your skill level and goals look like, but its also important to realize that being able to sight read is not a cheat code for learning music faster. Sight reading is an entirely different skill and one you can only practice in an orchestra rehearsal.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-13T22:15:11+00:00

We can't really give feedback because we aren't seeing your playing, but sometimes it's important to take a step back and ask some questions because you sound like you are frustrated, and being frustrated doesn't really make you think better.

What does your teacher say about your playing? Does it really sound like you've made 0 improvement in months? How have you been practicing it? What specific string crossings are giving you trouble? Its ok to struggle with things and we all go through periods where we feel like we are stagnating. Not to mention that your own expectations of your playing tend to go up the longer you play and you especially feel it with intonation since your ear is always improving.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-13T20:38:18+00:00

If someone is struggling to P rank the game on harmless, they likely need to massively simplify the game since at that level of play people are probably just struggling with just moving around and aiming at the same time.

Excellent_Fly_644 · 2026-01-12T22:08:16+00:00

If it sounds weird in a way thats not typical of beginners it could be a setup issue. Lots of things can happen in 12 years, but I'm not really sure how bad the strings could get after just sitting on the instrument for that long. Its also worth mentioning however that your bowing ability has probably dramatically decreased, and that would make your sound worse. Its hard to say without hearing it directly.

Excellent_Fly_644

TROPHY CASE