Lesson Three
Do a few flip flops then a flop with the left hand to create a nest for your fiddle. With your right hand find your violin shelf. It goes from the base of your neck out to your left shoulder. A doctor will tell you this is your clavicle, you may call it your collar bone but it's your violin shelf. We were made to play the violin.
Now liberate that poor little fiddle that has been languishing in it's case all this time and hold it in front of you with the strings facing away from you. Alisa tried to keep a poker face through all of the photo shoot but a happy fiddle just makes you smile.
Now place the violin on your violin shelf using your right hand on the chin rest to settle it comfortably. This is what we will refer to as REST for resting the violin on the violin shelf.
Next, while holding the violin with the right and left hands think of your many chins SPREADING into the chin rest. This is obviously an illusion in Alisa's case but still she can imagine double chins overflowing the chin rest. In reality you just barely touch the chin rest. This move we refer to as SPREAD. If you find you have to bring your head down to touch the chin rest you are holding the violin too high. Lower your left arm so that the chin rest moves up to your chin. Yes, if you are already a violinist it feels funny. It is unfamiliar, of course it feels funny. Be sure to keep your body and head all facing forward. The tendency is to turn toward the fiddle. Pretend someone is standing directly in front of you and you are having a conversation. You wouldn't turn your head or body away. Ok, pretend it is someone you actually LIKE and WANT to have a conversation with that is directly in front of you. In the future this is your audience. You will be addressing your audience with your music.
The next move is SLIDE. That just means to slide into the flop with your left hand. Be sure to hold the body of the violin with the right hand when you do this so that you have the security of knowing that it won't fall.
Now let go with the right hand and poke your left arm. The hoped for result of that poke is your left arm swinging as if just dangling from the shoulder. So this move is referred to as SWING. You are not moving your left arm back and forth but letting it swing as a result of your right hand poke. That is the degree of fluidity we are after for all motion whether we have a violin or not. This is far easier for some than others but everyone gets this swing within a month or two if they work with it with patience and consistency.
So that is the violin no hold. REST -- SPREAD -- SLIDE -- SWING. Do it with a pulse once you get the idea down. 1 REST 2 SPREAD 3 SLIDE 4 SWING.
A word about shoulder rests. There is a lot of space that most of us like to fill between the violin and upper chest. It adds security to the violin no hold. I prefer the original Kun because it stays put, it adjusts to any one and any fiddle and it leaves plenty of air for the violin to breath. On my links page click on "Gear" for the lowest prices I've found yet. No I don't get a kickback but I may look into it. There are plenty of other shoulder rests to choose from. Just make sure they stay where you want them to stay and don't block air from the violin. Anything that touches the fiddle will muffle it's sound to some extent.
In the next lesson we will learn the Bow no hold.
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