Journey of a Fiddler

Hi everyone! Today I was focusing on bowing strings A & E, while starting on the fingering too on those strings.

I made a short audio track with me trying out the first two parts of Twinkle Twinkle! My fingering's still not perfect though :(     Could hear some screeching!

Hello everyone! I decided to get new strings today!

The owner of Johann Strings, Swee Kwang, helped me pick a new set of strings earlier, and even spent time teaching me how to tune my violin.

Thank you Swee Kwang! Cannot to try them out tomorrow!

Hi everyone!

I've received feedback from the Fiddlerman forums that I should be concentrating on doing straight full-bows since I can roughly manage short-bows.

I tried doing around two sessions, 10 minutes each, of non-stop full-bows before making this video. What do you guys think?

I found that I needed to actively concentrate on keeping the bow straight when I reach the tip. Also, my bow tends to hop a bit during mid-stroke. Have you encountered problems like these?

Please like my video if you think my progress is good, and share your comments below!

Hope you enjoy it!

There has been a lot of requests asking me to make a video of myself playing... so today I made my first video ever!

Please like the video if you thought it was a good first attempt, and share your experiences below!
Hope you enjoy it!

I tried bowing today by pulling full strokes, from frog to tip. However, I noticed that when the middle of the bow is contacting the string, it tends to wobble sideways. I guess this should be solved with practice. Also been concentrating more on moving my elbow, and not my shoulders when bowing.


And according to FM, you'll need to put more pressure when you're towards the tip of the bow, and less pressure towards the frog, to maintain an equal volume throughout. So I've been working on that as well.


I noticed a fine coat of white dust on my string too - does this mean I'm applying too much rosin?


Have you all encountered this problems before? How did you make sure you were bowing straight?

Day 2 - New Friends

I found out from a few users at the FiddlerMan community (Fiddle4Fun & CatMcCall) that your wrist flexes the most when bowing, and that your fingers merely supports the stick. A bowing video at FiddlerMan also states that the movement comes from the elbow, not your shoulders.


I have created an account on the FiddlerMan forums - BakaKitty. Did a post on the forums too! I hope that I'll be able to get some guidance from the more experienced fiddlers there as well! 


Oh yes, and do visit CatMcCall's blog here, and FiddlerMan's beginner tutorial videos here.


They're both awesome help!


Today I noticed a metallic sharpness on my stock violin strings... Maybe it is time to spend a bit on better chords? Or do you think its just my newbie bowing (open strings) sounding terrible? 


My plan on my 2nd day is to continue on my bow hold, checking in the mirror to see if my finger placements were correct. I noticed a strain on my wrists. (Is this fatigue? Or am I holding the bow wrongly, thus straining said wrists?) 


I then tried bowing a few strokes, and noticed that my thumb kept sliding into the frog. (Does anyone know ways to prevent that? Am I doing something wrongly like too much pressure on the thumb?)


Have you encountered the problems I've highlighted? Share them in the comments below!