Thursday, March 23, 2006

"The sound of your violin is miserable...

Thats the statement which any violinist cannot bear and any learner gets demotivated easily.

Following these easy steps may result in good finer sound,

1. give more pressure to the bow ( using a full bow )
2. press the string on the note location distinctly
3. Donot feel shy and lessen the volume thereby ( If you think your neighbours would hear you and mock you for anything, that could just be the silliest assumption you could make )
everytime you play, feel as if you want to listen to the best sound from your violin and feel as if "You, Yourself and her, the Violin"

Last but not the least, as always, concentrate on the ThAlA ( maintaining the tempo) and be distinct on the note ( follow the rules of rAgA and LakshAnA)

The finer the sound, the finer the artist you become!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Shruthi MAthA Laya PithA

Shruthi - Pitch of the note is the mother of music and the father is Laya, which is the 'ThAla' or the tempo.

Thala is very important for any kind of music. In classical carnatic style of playing violin, the thala is put with the legs as the hands play the instrument.

As you sit on the floor/chair in a squat position, with your right leg stretched before to place the instrument, each tap should be put with the left knee, with a slight tap on the floor movement and the countings are done using right toes tapping floor again..

It takes a lot of practise to get this synchronised!

Careful, not to miss a tap...

Monday, March 20, 2006

Voila, the Violin...

Violin is known to be the Queen of Instruments.

She is indeed the queen, a great beauty with her shrill pleasant music can take you to eternity, forgetting thy self, feeling humble and bowing to the spell she can cast.

Going to her history,
Violin is said to have originated in Italy roughly around 13B.C. Violin itself is an Itailian word, when the french had called it 'Violon' and german calling it 'Gaige' and 'Fiddle' in English.
The Violin family has her big sister Viola, aunts Viola Pamposa, violon cello, cousins lira-da-braccio, bass viol, Lyra viol and granma violetta Marina and the little sister Viola d'amore...

Mr. Andrea Amati of Italy had made first few violins in 1525AD , followed by his grandson Nicolo Amati who made the first few violin masterpieces.
We salut them for their wonderful contribution to the mankind!

Then on, it had continued to take several phenomenal growth and modifications to the models, She became what she is now with GDAE strings from left to right.

In India, we have Violin tuned for Carnatic style which is far different from the western way of playing it. Violin is tuned for sa- pa- Sa- Pa.

It is very difficult to learn and master violin as it has no reeds that separates out the notes distinctly. It has a smooth fingerboard where the notes are differentiated by pressing the strings at different levels and running the bow along the string.

It is definitely very interesting to make music out of this instrument!