How to play the violin

How to play the violin

Learning how to play the violin starts with two important steps, the violin hold and the bow hold. It's very important to pay attention to good posture and right technique at your onset before it is too late to correct.

Violin Hold

The violin is held under the chin, supported by the left shoulder as
shown in the picture. The violin player should be able to hold the violin between his left shoulder and the chin even without holding the violin with his/her left palm. Playing the violin by supporting the weight of violin with your left palm limits the range of fingers and does not permit vibrato. The first finger should touch the violin neck at the base knuckle. The thumb touches the other side of neck above the thumb knuckle with the tip of thumb pointing upwards . The elbow should point slightly to the right. The wrist should be comfortably straight and aligned and the forearm should never collapse in or bent out towards the scroll. This ensures correct fingering. When playing notes, the fingers should press the strings vertically.

Bow hold

Before holding the bow here is a detailed drawing of a violin bow. Also refer the figure below where the fingers are numbered.

Step 1 : Hold the bow with your left hand so that your right hand is free .

Step 2 : Start by placing the bent thumb to the bottom of the stick. The tip of thumb touches  near the cutout of frog where the frog and the stick meet.

Step 3 :The middle finger is dropped across the stick, wherein the second joint of middle finger rests on or is very close to the metal wound part of lower bow. For proper balance of bow it is important that the thumb and middle finger are opposite and they form a circle.

Step 4 : Place the ring finger close to the middle finger and dropped over the stick. The tip of the ring finger should be in contact with side of the frog.

Step 5 : Place index finger on bow at 1st joint .The index finger is used to add pressure to the bow strokes or release the pressure .

Step 6 : The little finger also known as the pinkie should rest next to the ring finger and remains rounded and in contact with the bow . In modern style of bowing ( as shown in the figure below), the pinkie should not rest on the screw whereas in russian style, the pinkie rests on the screw .


        Correct bow hold : From Davis wiki

In figure on the right side the thumb is clearly shown resting near the cutout of frog, at the same time touching the leather pad and making a circle with the second finger. The tip of  the ring finger is shown touching the side of the frog and the little  finger is comfortably curved and touching the bow (but not placed on the screw)

Now you have a proper bow hold, it is time to start bowing the strings. Your bow should move perpendicular to the strings and in the space between the bridge and finger board. To develop this in the beginning   stages of study follow this exercise.

1)   Hold the bow with just your bent thumb ( just like in Step 2 ) without placing the other fingers with the bottom most portion of bow placed over E string.

2)   Make a full down bow movement such that the bow never slips off your thumb. If it slips off at any point, then it is not moving at right angles to the string.

3)   Repeat this with each string.

This gives you the angle at which you should move your shoulder when you start bowing with the proper positioning of all your fingers. The Bow-Right is the perfect tool for developing a sound bow technique. Guides encourage straight bowing and correct wrist action.

Bow hold video

Intonation and Rhythm

Two factors that are vital for playing the violin are intonation and rhythm. Intonation is the sense of tone or realization of correct pitch and rhythm can be roughly said as the beat of music .The speed of the beat is the tempo. The tempo is usually measured in 'beats per minute' (bpm); 120 bpm means a speed of two beat per second Many people finds it difficult to memorize the beat mentioned in the violin music while simultaneously working on the correct intonation using their left hand fingers. Metronomes are used to provide a steady beat throughout the music. Earlier metronomes where based on the pendulum clock principle. The pendulum rod swings back and forth like that of a clock and the metronome produce a clicking sound on each swing of the rod. Wittner Wood Metronome Mahogany is a nice pendulum type metronome available for those interested in the mechanical type. Most other metronomes are electronic. Boss DB-30 Dr. Beat Metronome,Sabine Zipbeat-6000 Digital Metronome, Korg MA-30 Digital Metronome, Qwik Time QT-7 Quartz Metronome ( this is good except battery down problems), Korg MM-1   MetroGnome ( so small - can be clipped to the ear) Korg TM-40 Digital Tuner Metronome( this is a tuner and a metronome) are all recommended.


Beginners and students who dont have the sense of perfect tone can use tapes or markings placed on the fingerboard for correct placement of the left hand fingers. More experienced violin players depend on their sense of tone ( intonation) to position the fingers at the exact place. Positions in violin refers to the placement of left hand fingers on the finger board. The following figure shows the First position which is used by most beginners. Intial violin studies would be based on the first position. Further study brings the student to the second and third positions. Second positiion refers to moving the hand up the neck so that first finger takes the place of second finger. Moving the first finger to the position of the third finger in first-position brings the third position. Violin Wall Chart is recommended as a quick reference of finger positions. It provides finger-pattern drawings for all twelve major scales in first position and movable patterns for higher positions.


The following resources are recommended for absolute beginners.

Basics by Simon Fischer is for every type of violinist, a beginner or an intermediate or an advanced. If you have to buy a single book for violin this might be the one.
Great photos and illustration with focussing on specific areas of violin technique.

ABCs of violin for the absolute beginner violin book 1 by Janice Tucker Rhoda.
This book is highly recommended for a beginner, but is complete with the performance and play-along CD from same author (listed above)

"Any one can play violin" by Carol White
This one is exceptional in the way it explains the violin positioning and bowing techniques.

"First Lessons violin book+CD+DVD" set by Craig Duncan This book is also good and it has the compositions by great classical composers .

For intermediate to advanced violinists and teachers the "Art of practicing violin" by Robert Gerle is a valuable book .The author details the important aspects in practicing violin such as intonation, left hand practice, bowing, sight reading in high positions, mind control, memorization etc.

"Introducing The Positions, Volume 1" - Violin is a great book for an intermediate vioinist. This book introduces first, thrid and fifth positions.
"Introducing The Positions, Volume 2" - Introduces Second, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Positions

The Ultimate collection of violin methods and studies CDrom is a collection of studies based on popular method books, such as the Hohmann Practical Violin Method which is a series of exercises and studies to help you become a better violin player. This is a great CD which has 2000 printable pages, is rather inexpensive for the stuff and is highly recommended for any intermediate or advanced violinists.

Scale Studies For The Violin : This book is for intermediate students. It has 1 to 3 octave scales and arpegios in different keys.

Carl Flesch: Scale System If you are an advanced violinist this is one of the few books that you want. It has scales, arpeggios, double stops, and much more. This book is really challenging for any intermediate violinists.