Describing a Location vs. "High" and "Low" for New Violin Players

10/31/2015

Words like "high" and "low" can be confusing to a young student while they are in the process of playing the violin. Consider altering your instruction to be a description location like "closer to the bridge (or nose)" and "closer to the scroll" instead for more efficient results in the initial stages of learning these distinctions.

Tips for learning how to play the violin

4 Comments

Allison Marshall link

1/12/2016 09:21:37 am

I am so glad that you posted this! Just this week I had 2 students tell me that using the words "high" and "low" (in reference to their second finger) was confusing to them. It caught me off guard since this is the only terminology that I've been taught and used for all of my students.
I am going to replace those words with "closer to the scroll" and "closer to the bridge" and see how that works! Thanks again!!

Heather

1/12/2016 02:13:06 pm

Thanks Allison! Using language as a tool is one of my favorite parts of teaching. Please let me know if you have any ideas to add to this. Heather

Maria ABella

1/14/2016 06:30:26 pm

This is to true! I also teach cello in because of my string orchestra class. So using the word "high" to them could be really confusing. They usually move their fingers toward the scroll because that movement is going "up". Not realizing that I am referring to the sound. So I use the term "closer to the scroll" and "closer to the bridge" for my beginner students. Thanks for this! :)

Heather

1/19/2016 07:39:58 am

Hello, Thank you for the feedback. I have a special affinity for exploring the way our minds process language and love thinking about how we communicate to best reach a student. Heather

Describing a Location vs. "High" and "Low" for New Violin Players

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