Benefits of Learning Violin: Hearing, Discipline and Orchestra
The violin wants patience but returns a great deal: a trained ear, discipline and door to orchestras and groups. We tell you what to expect.
The great benefit of the violin is the ear: as it has no scattering or keys, each note depends on where you put your finger and how well you listen. That trains a very fine listening and a way to study patient and tidy and opens the door to orchestras, quartetes and groupings with a repertoire that goes from Baroque to Colombian music.
It's also an instrument that wants time before it sounds good. That's why we have both sides here: what you get and what you're gonna demand.
To sum up
- The violin trains his ear as few instruments: tuning is built by you with every finger.
- He teaches how to study: small advances, slow practice and attention to detail.
- It's an instrument with more jobs in an orchestra, so it's an opportunity to play as a group.
- His repertoire is huge: classical music, mariachi, tango, pop, Caucasian violins and Andean music.
- The honest challenge: the first few months the sound costs, and that's what she wants patience with you and with your family.
A much more thin ear
At the piano, the note do's already been tuned. At the violin, no: the diapason is smooth and the do goes out a little high or a little low depending on where you support the finger with differences of millimetres. That's why the violinist learns to listen while playing and to correct as they go.
That training can be noted outside the instrument: you start to perceive when a singer's low, to distinguish intervals and to recognize the color of different instruments. It's not a gift that you have or do not have. It's a skill that violin forces you to develop week by week.
How you train in class
- Air rods and long notes compared with a [violin tuner]](/herramientas/afinador/violin) or with a sustained reference note.
- Slow steps listening to the resonance: When the note is tuned, the violin vibrates more strongly.
- Singing the melody before you touch it, to have the sound on your head before looking with your fingers.
Discipline and study habits
The violin does not leave shortcuts. To hold the instrument without tension, to manage the arch with just weight and to place exact fingers are tasks that are built with frequent and slow practice. That routine forms habits that many students and families value:
- Divide a big problem into small steps: first the arch alone, then the left hand, then together.
- To tolerate frustration when something doesn't come out and try again the other day.
- To listen with honesty and with no exaggeration of good and bad.
- To hold a short but constant practice, that yields more than a long once and for a while.
Eye: discipline isn't rigidity. A good teacher denotes the demand according to age and puts repertoire that motivates, so that constancy doesn't feel as a punishment.
Youth Orchestra and Groups To Play
A symphonic orchestra has more violins than any other instrument, divided into first and second. That means more jobs available to those who are learning.
In Colombia there's a strong tradition of child and youth orchestras: programs such as Batuta's, school orchestras, houses of culture and Conservatoriums, and university groupings. To play in one of them changes the violin's experience: you learn how to follow the director, how to breathe with your line and how to sound as part of something bigger. Besides the symphony format, the violin takes place at:
- Retirement and triesThat they play at weddings, grades and ceremonies.
- Mariachiand with a great presence at the Colombian serenatas, where the violins wear their melody.
- Colombian Andean Music GroupsThat they add up the violin in hallways and bambucos.
- Males, an Afro-Colombian tradition from North Cauca that's been heard at traditional parties and Pacific music festivals.
- Fusing or pounding bands, where an electrical violin brings a different color.
A Repertoire That's Unending
Few instruments have so much written music. Here are some routes that a student can explore with time:
| Ruta | What's his touch? | What's she asking you about? |
|---|---|---|
| Classic | Minute and studio concerts, Baroque sonatas and later great concerts. | Ark technique, place changes and solid reading. |
| Colombian music | Baits, bambucos, guabines and arrangements for Andean groups. | To feel the rhythm of every air and its style ornaments. |
| Mariachi and ranchera | Rancheras and steamballs and boleros. | Bright sound, Section work and memory play. |
| Tango and Latin American music | Tango, pawns and boulder arrangements. | Marked interprints and arch effects. |
| Pop, cinema and fusion | Sound bands, song versions and electrical violin. | Play with clues and sometimes improvise. |
| Folk | Celtic, national or bluegrass music. | Play with an ear and decorate the melody. |
And if with time you get a more serious sound, what you have learned will be useful to move onto the viola. We tell you how they differ in [violin or viola]](/blog/violin-o-viola-diferencias).
To whom does the violin usually fit?
- To whoever enjoys the detail and doesn't care to repeat anything till it goes well.
- To children with a willingness to practice and a family that can be with them for the first few years, with more ideas in [children's violin]](/blog/violin-para-ninos-guia-para-padres).
- To whoever dreams of playing in an orchestra or a group, more than just.
- A person who likes to sing: a violin sings his melody and his head helps a great deal.
- To adult patients, who value the process as much as the result.
If what you're after is with you while singing, or playing alone and sound complete, perhaps you'll have better piano or guitar. That's no better or worse: it's another musical feature.
The real challenges of violin
- The sound of the first few months. To coordinate the weight, velocity and contact point of the arch takes time and at first they appear cheeks. It's part of the process.
- The tuning's never been completely determined. Even the professionals work with her every day.
- The posture. To hold the violin between the jaw and shoulder without tension requires to tighten the pad and to check a lot.
- The volume at home. A practice satico helps to live with its neighbours.
- The right size. A violin too big for a child generates bad habits and looks at how to measure it in how to choose your first violin.
Frequently asked questions
Is violin more difficult than other instruments?
At first they are more picky than piano or guitar, because you produce sound with the arch and build tuning. Over time every instrument has its challenges. That of violin is that first results take a little more to sound good.
Can you play at an orchestra without being a professional?
That's right. There are school orchestras, youth orchestras, cultural houses, university and adult amateurs. They usually ask for some reading and a basic level of tuning and some have an audition. Your teacher can tell you when you're ready to come forward.
Learning violin helps in other areas of life?
Many students and families note habits that move to other spaces: organizing their practice time, tolerating frustration and listening with care. They are effects of constant work, and they depend on how they are studied.
Acoustic or electrical violin to start with?
To learn, the usual thing is an acoustic: it gives you an actual response from the arch and instrument. The electrical serves to practice with hearing aids or to play with a band, but it should be added later, when you have a base.