Naperville Violin Lessons
The violin has a rich tradition of music, styles, and genres for which it is used. My favorite use of the violin that I have seen yet is the hip-hop duo 'Nuttin But Stringz' who really know how to show off the versatility of the violin. During this lesson I'll show you how to produce a relaxed full tone, and how to easily switch between strings. This lesson is geared towards beginners that have played for a few months, but the principles outlined here are invaluable to all violinists.
Getting a great huge tone basically requires you to do the opposite of what you would think. You will not think about pressing your index finger to push the hair of the bow down, but rather you will just think in terms of the weight you want and apply that to the violin strings through the bow. To do this, suspend the bow above the strings about 3-6 inches. Now, slowly lower the bow by lowering your entire arm. You will keep on lowering until the stick is touching the bow hair. Now release enough weight so that there is about half of the starting amount of space between the stick and the hair, and be ready to hear a big crunch to start, but after that you will most likely have a great bold sound that really projects. You'll get better at this as you work on it during lessons.
To switch between strings quickly during this lesson, you will just use smaller muscle groups. When you are on the putting green, you put away the driver and use your putter. So instead of using your entire arm to quickly switch strings, you will instead use your fingers and wrist. If you are jumping one string, you will probably need to add some forearm rotation to reach it. For two strings that are next to each other, practice changing between them by using just your fingers and they buy using just your wrist. Of course you will be using the other groups a little bit, but the idea is to train each movement by itself so that you don't have to think about it and you make the most efficient movement every time.
-Naperville Lessons, August 2010