If you’ve always wanted to learn how to play the violin, you can. Of course, most people think that it’s best to start when you are quite young, but really, you can learn how to play the violin at any age.

You can start by taking private lessons from a professional teacher, but really that’s not entirely necessary at the start. If you have a friend or relative that can play, they can certainly get your started with the basics. That means learning how to hold the instrument correctly. This is important for several reasons. If you hold it wrong you’ll be uncomfortable, which will take the fun out of playing. But if your form is wrong you can also have a stress injury so make sure you get it right from the start. Place your left arm under the instrument’s body and hold on to the neck of the violin with your left hand. As you hold it your fingers should curve over the next so that your hands and fingers are set over the strings. The chin rest should be between your chin and left shoulder. Put the bow in your right hand and you are ready to play.

One thing you’ll notice about the violin is that unlike a guitar, there are no frets on the neck. You’ll essentially be learning the notes by ear until you get to the point where you know exactly where every note is on the fingerboard.

You’ll start by identifying four distinct positions on the instrument. Position one is at the end furthest way from your body. Naturally the low pitched notes are here. Close to your face is the fourth position where the high notes are. The strings will be tuned in lowest to highest fashion. They are G, D, A, and E, meaning that when you play them open (with no fingers on the neck) these are the notes they play. Placing your fingers at different spots on the board will make different notes.

There are two ways to play these notes. Most start out by plucking them. This is called pizzicato. The other way most people are familiar with is by steadily drawing the bow across the strings in a long stroke.

You’re also going to need to learn how to read music. You have several options for this. The easiest would be to get a friend or relative that already knows to teach you. You can also hire a professional, take a class, or just search the Internet for one of many instructional sites.

You should know before you start that it will take years of hard work, dedication and practice before you become an expert and that’s OK. You don’t have to be an expert to have fun playing this wonderful instrument. Just get started and you’ll see what I mean.

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