Violin

The violin has no frets and no keys. Where a pianist presses a key and hears the right note, a violinist has to find it, with the ear, and with a left hand trained to land in the same place every time. That is what makes the instrument slower to start on than most, and what makes a violinist's ear so good by the end.

What makes it different

Two things are happening at once, and they are entirely separate skills. The left hand is responsible for pitch. The right arm, through the bow, is responsible for everything else: tone, volume, articulation, phrasing, the whole character of the sound. Beginners tend to worry about the left hand and neglect the right. We spend serious time on bow control early, because tone is the thing an audience actually hears.

What you will learn

• Set-up: posture, instrument hold and bow hold, established before bad habits form
• Bow technique: straight bowing, tone production, legato, détaché, staccato, slurs
• Intonation: finger patterns, position work, and the ear training that supports both
• Left-hand technique: shifting, then vibrato once the hand is genuinely ready
• Reading and rhythm: notation, counting, and playing in time with others
• Repertoire: classical through to folk, jazz and film writing

A note on starting age

We start violinists at seven. It is a physically demanding instrument to hold, and a child who begins before the frame is ready usually spends the first year fighting the set-up rather than learning music. A younger child who is keen on strings is very welcome to begin with singing or keyboard and move across. The musicianship transfers, and nothing is lost.

Examinations

Graded examinations run from initial grades through to diploma level with Trinity College London, ABRSM, London College of Music and MTB. Trinity's violin syllabus spans classical, jazz, world and folk repertoire, original compositions are welcomed at every grade, and duets are permitted up to Grade 3, which makes the early exams a good deal less lonely than they might otherwise be.