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A Check List to Develop Excellent Violin Posture and Position
Let me show you how to hold the violin and bow. Got it? Excellent!
Illustration by Jessica Schallock.
It seems like it should be possible to cover "how to hold the violin" in one quick lesson with a teacher, or with a glance at an illustration on the internet or in a book. Somehow, that's not enough - not even close.
Good posture and positioning most often requires years of tweaking, with a long cycle of breaking old habits and forming new ones. Early violin lessons focus on position, but the subject continues long afterwards. I can't count the number of times I've seen teachers raise issues about posture and position in master classes for high-level conservatory students. And beyond the student years, a professional player must also constantly assess his or her playing positions. Good habits can easily go bad -- this is human nature. And unaddressed position problems can lead to injuries. If you don't address them in the practice room, you may find yourself addressing them in physical therapy!
That said, there are a number of things you can check on a regular basis, just to make sure you are staying on the right track. I've come up with a simple quick-hit list to get you started. I've addressed these suggestions to "you," but you can also use this list to check the posture and positioning of a student, or if you are a parent of a young violinist, of a child that you are helping. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!
Violin Position Check List:
- Head and neck: Is your head straight? Make sure it is not tilting to either side. The head will likely be turned slightly to the left, but that is different from being tilted to the left. Keep your neck in good alignment with your spine, and your head atop that. Are you straining your neck muscles? Don't! The weight of the head resting on the chin rest should be sufficient to keep the violin up, without any clenching from the muscles in the neck. (You can tweak your shoulder rest and/or chin rest to achieve this, but that is another blog for another day!)
- Shoulders: Relax both shoulders. As a biofeedback therapist once told me, one of the basic human reactions to stress of any kind is to tense the muscles in the shoulders. So you'll need to keep checking your shoulders as you play, as the shoulders are prone to tensing up again and again. On the left side, check that you are not over-tensing your shoulder in order to "hold" the violin. On the right side, check that your arm is moving freely from the shoulder socket, and that the shoulder is not trying to "help" by tensing. The shoulder should be down - scrunching it upwards does nothing for your bow mechanics.
- Back and Spine: If you are standing, stand erect. If you are sitting, sit erect. Note: Your spine will not be as straight as a rod because spines are not made that way; spines have a natural curve. That said, you know what "straight" means. Do not slouch at the belly or hunch at the shoulders. Sit up, or stand up, and take a deep breath. Also avoid standing "overly" straight - don't arch the back or stand with hips too far forward.
- Violin position: Keep the violin parallel to the ground, or more or less, with the top of the violin relatively flat, like a table. (It will not be literally flat, it will tilt forward, but visualizing the table can help correct a drooping fiddle.) The scroll should point neither to the floor or to the ceiling. The scroll should be somewhat to the left. It should not be completely 90 degrees to the left, nor should it be straight-ahead in front of you, but somewhere in between. No droopy scrolls!
- Left arm: "Elbow over left toe, wrist straight" - a famous teacher described it that way, more as something to visualize rather than to do literally. Here's more detail: If your elbow is pointing backwards, you are probably slouching, and you're likely putting your fingers at a disadvantage because they are too low, causing strain. Bringing the elbow forward puts the hand and fingers into an easier position over the fingerboard, so the fingers can simply drop onto the strings, allowing for more fluidity, easier vibrato, etc. But don't over-do it; if the elbow is too far forward, that also can cause strain. So the elbow should be under the violin and slightly forward. The wrist should be straight; neither collapsing in nor sticking out. Some double-stops and reaches require a slight collapsing of the wrist, and that's okay, but the default position will be straight. The thumb counters the fingers but should not grab the violin. The violin is cradled in the hand but not "held" by the hand.
- Right arm: Again, relax the shoulder. The arm should move freely at the elbow. The upper arm supports, helps with string crossings and getting to the frog, but the forearm does most of the work. The wrist should be flexible, hand relaxed generally below the wrist. A constantly inverted wrist causes tension and limits mobility.
- Balance: If you are standing, balance your weight on both feet, rather than favoring one over the other.
- Movement: No part of your body should be strictly rigid. Violin-playing is fluid by nature, and a good position should allow you to relax and move with the music - without injuring yourself!
In the end, the most important thing is to develop a position (or more accurately, a system of positions) that accommodates the violin while allowing natural movements that keep your body in alignment. It will require a lot of analysis and monitoring of habits, as well as building the muscle strength that allows you to maintain good posture and positioning. Happy (and healthy) playing!
You might also like:
- Six Bad Habits to Avoid When Beginning Violin + How to Fix Them
- How to Hold a Violin
- Preventing Violin-Related Injuries, with Pamela Frank and Howard Nelson
Replies
Do you mean tilting forward? That is very normal - but tell a beginner that and you run the risk that it will go sloping full sideways! I think the mental idea of a flat table is helpful, but yes it will be tilted forward.
Good point!
I enjoyed reading and will read again more carefully later. I'm having some shoulder issues so I want to try and "reboot" my posture and hold positions.
That whole "flat table" concept is baloney. Level on the long axis of the violin -- fine. But level along the other axis? I don't know any violinists who play that way.
Just noticing that the "Illustration by Jessica Schallock" does not include a shoulder rest. :)
Paul, I concede that the table business is more of a visualization for the person whose violin is sliding down and down. As for the illustration, in the original article that her father Michael Schallock wrote on Violinist.com, he does extensively address the fact that you can hold the violin with or without a shoulder rest and has an illustration with a shoulder rest (and various options) as well.
Very helpful, Laurie! Question: I stand up when I practice, and have since I was a little girl. My lessons were always conducted standing up, which is probably why. To this day, I am more comfortable playing while standing. (You make a good point about keeping the back and spine erect, whether seated or standing.) Do you encourage your students one way or another in terms of practice position? (Clearly, I don't practice more than an hour at a stretch, so standing works for me!)
Diana, I like standing - I think you can get the optimal position that way. That said, it is not always possible. If you are sitting, make sure you have a good chair that is armless, with a fairly flat, minimally cushioned seat that does not throw your spine backwards . (Several companies make orchestra chairs, which are great.)
I take it standing on one foot while playing is completely out...
I have tried all of it, including being relax......
I had to stop playing since November 2013.....
Trigger finger, pinched nerve....etc....
It happened sudden...
But at least I could play some samples of sound and coach.....
As an old violinist, I appreciate this concise review of proper posture. Sometimes age brings on laziness in posture and I've learned doesn't take much to start repetitive injury problems.
The tilt angle; For me, the minimum tilt would be when the bow is horizontal while on the D string. Less than that angle, the bow arm needs to lift too high while on the G string, you lose leverage. The maximum tilt would be when the bow is horizontal while on the G string. More than that angle the bow is almost vertical while playing on the all important E string, you are pushing sideways, losing the assist of gravity. One advantage to not using the conventional shoulder rest (not me) is that you are not locked into one angle, you can vary the tilt to the string level (I don't do this).
Professional violinists are more aware than ever about the need to look after ourselves and our students’ physical health. Sometimes we still lack detailed anatomical information, for example, what exactly is a shoulder ? Are we talking about the shoulder blade, the collar bone, the humerus ? Are we clear where the humerus articulates with the scapula ? Do we have a clear mental image ? The book ‘what every musician needs to know about the body’ by Barbara Conable is a great place to get this information.
I guess I'm the odd-man-out when it comes to my elbow. I move my elbow, not my wrist, to change strings as I have come to learn, moving the elbow while maintaining a wrist in line with the ulna keeps the finger-tips in the same plane and therefore in tune. Also my palm is almost parallel with the fingerboard (compensating for a short fourth finger metacarpal).
The very concepts of "violin hold" and "bow hold" are the source of all problems because those concepts themselves cause tension and rigidity in the body. The correction of those should always be involving the musical aspect, which is lacking when a cure addresses only the physical posture. I found the Havas New Approach, having been created by a musician, much more complete and resolutive. I help violin & viola players play freely, without pain, injuries and stage fright. http://www.monicacuneo.com/musicians-injuries.html
George, I think it depends on the kind of string crossing. The arm/elbow is good for when you are changing from playing on one string to another; the wrist works well for rapid and repeated string-changes (bariolage).
Monica, I agree - physical posture has to allow for constantly changing positioning. There is physical posture that allows it, and physical posture that blocks it!
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October 18, 2019 at 01:27 AM · Laurie, great article, but I have a question. Many players (e.g. Anne Akiko Myers or Janine Jansen) play with a great deal of tilt of the violin. Simon Fischer even suggests adjusting the tilt if one is a first or second violinist. Do you have any pictures that show a “typical” tilt?