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How to Practice the Violin Effectively

Do you get overwhelmed by all the pieces, etudes, scales and exercises?

How to make fast progress and feel accomplished after your practice session?

You might feel confused when you start your practice session. You feel you’re always out of time and at the end you have the idea you achieved nothing.

Do everything with a clear goal in mind

Why are you playing that particular scale in that key with that bowing technique? What do you want to improve exactly? The more specific you are, the better you can measure your results and the greater your feeling of accomplishment once you’ve achieved it.

Don’t practice that etude, because it follows after the previous one you did in the book. No! Analyze what exactly is the technique or thing you have difficulty with in the piece you play. Search for scales, etudes and exercises that cover exactly in that. This brings focus to your practice session.

A vague goal is ‘I want to play in tune’. A good goal is ‘I want to improve that transition to the high G in that piece’.

Know the steps to achieve that goal

Do you know exactly what’s not working and why? Do you know what exercises, scales and etudes to pick? This is where the expertise of your teacher might come in. 

For example you might not get that high G because your changing positions with the wrong left hand hold. You might pick an etude with similar transitions to practice changing positions the right way. Just practicing a scale that gets you to that G step by step might not be helpful in this case.

Do you get overwhelmed by all the pieces, etudes, scales and exercises? Read this article! #violinist #violin Share on X

FREE Violin Scale Book

Sensational Scales is a 85 page violin scale book that goes from simple beginner scales with finger charts all the way to all three octave scales and arpeggios

Download!

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

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Make a Personal Practice Package

A lot of violin players just play scales, etudes and exercises, because they think that’s the right thing to do. Yes, it is, but you need to understand the system behind it.

How to practice scales?

A scale gets you familiar with the key of the piece your are practicing. Also you can use the scale to practice the bowing techniques necessary in that piece. If you have difficulty with the intonation in that key, you might focus your scale practice on playing in tune. Just play long notes with the whole bow and listen carefully.

What exercises should you pick?

In the above case you might leave the bowing technique to Ševčík exercises. When you’re new to that, you might grab his 40 Variations Opus 3. When you’re more familiar with bowing technique nerding, dive into the School of Bowing Opus 2. There are thousands of exercises and if you want help on which onces to do when and how to practice them exactly, I’m happy to guide you.

Which etude should you study?

Oh, did I mention to practice slowly? Ideally I should mention it a thousand times and print T shirts with it ;).

The big hairy goal: your repertoire, enjoying beautiful music!

Don’t forget we’re doing all this technical stuff to play beautiful music! Never forget that!

Pick pieces that make your heart sing and inspire you to pick up the violin.

Yes, as a classically trained violinist and teacher I know you should pick up repertoire in a sensible order, but…

Why not play that easy Over the Rainbow just because you feel like it today and want to enjoy your own sound without worrying about technique too much?

Why not try to hit some notes in the Brahms concerto even it’s far out of your reach, just to explore your limits?

Thanks to the internet you can download about every piece of sheet music for free.

What do you feel inspired to play today?

Let’s forget about serious practice for a moment. Write down in the comments below the first piece that comes to your mind right now. For me it’s the Debussy sonata. I love exploring the sound colors with my pianist. How about you?

32 Checks to Buy a Violin

You might see a beautiful violin for sale for a good price, but how do you choose the right one for you?

Don’t miss these checks when buying a violin!

Most important when buying a violin:

checks to buy a violinSome violin players dive in right into origin, wood types, makers and all kinds of details. The information online can be very overwhelming and I write this article for you to make the best choise. The most important checks are:

1) How does the violin for sale sound to YOU?

2) How does the violin for sale play when YOU play on it?

Forgive me if this sounds like ‘kicking in an open door’ (as we say here in Holland). You might think you know this already, but so many people get lost in the details or fool themselves by making the wrong choices in brands, materials and other specifics without listening and playing.

Your hands and ears are your most important resources when buying a violin

Why do I emphasize YOU? Some players just want to please their teacher. Your teacher is not only an expert, but also a living and breathing human being with personal taste. Your taste can differ from your teacher’s. That’s ok. Just make sure you buy a violin for YOU, not for your teacher. Ask advice, but be confident enough NOT to follow it when it’s not right for you.

Always keep in mind that the dozens of checks in this article are there to make you find the violin that you love to play on and helps you develop your playing and sound quality.

With all that in mind, let’s dive in!

Sound quality

1) General impression

Play a piece you are very familiar with to get a general impression of the violin. How is your first impression of the character of the instrument? Does it feel right instantly or do you feel there are a lot of possibilities, but you don’t really know what?

2) Balance over the strings

Play a piece or scale where you play on all four strings. How does the sound quality compare? Does the violin have one character? Or is it very mellow on the G string and bright on the E string? When you cross strings, does the sound match or do you suddenly get a completely different sound?

Always keep in mind that a violin has a so called ‘soprano break’. The E string will always sound a lot brighter than the G, D and A string. This is normal. In the Russian school they sometimes compensate this a bit by putting a steel A string on their violin, making it sound a bit more like the E string.

3) Response

Maybe you like the sound, but you have to work very hard to ‘get it’ there. Does the violin speak instantly when you play? Or is there a delay in the response?

4) High positions

Some cheaper violins tend to have a good sound in the first position, but sound a bit dull in higher positions. When you are a beginner violinist buying a student violin for a low price, this can be ok. You can upgrade later. However, when you’re looking to buy a violin for the rest of your life or your already playing in high positions, test this on the violin.

How do you like the sound quality and response in high positions? What is the difference in sound vs the lower positions? Is it a smooth transition when you move up and down a scale? Test it all!

5) Volume

Is it a loud or soft sounding violin? What do you prefer? Do you want to stand out in a loud fiddle band or do you want to blend in the second violin section of your orchestra?

6) Dynamics

Can you play loud and soft on the violin? How is the response? Do you have to work hard to play forte? Can you easily play piano without the violin sounding superficial?

7) Future

This is a hard one to decide on yourself, so you might ask your teacher. You might like a very soft and mellow violin right now, if you’re a beginner violinist. However, in the future you might want to have a bit more power as you learn vibrato and make progress in your tone production. How long do you want to play on this violin? Will you still like it in a couple of years?

8) How does the violin sound under your ear?

After running my own violin shop for 12 years, I noticed a lot of violin players are too shy to play in the shop or just trust their teacher to demonstrate it. It’s important that the violin makes YOU happy in the practice room when YOU play on it.

Maybe your vibrato and tone production skills aren’t that far developed as your teacher’s. Is the violin forgiving to you? Or does everything need to be right before the violin sounds good? Try it out yourself. You’re not giving a concert. You’re just trying out if the violin fits YOU as a person and as a player.

9) How does the violin sound to the audience?

Playing and listening yourself is important, but you want others to hear that beautiful sound as well. Did you know a violin can sound VERY different under your ear as from a distance? Have someone else play on the violin in the violin shop. Ask the shop owner or sales person, take along your teacher or a friend from your orchestra.

10) How does the violin sound in different rooms?

At least listen to the violin oustide the violin shop, maybe at home or in a concert hall. How does the violin react to different acoustics? Does it fill a big space? Do you want it to?

11) For what setting is this sound suitable?

When buying a violin it’s SO important that you keep in mind what you use the violin for. It can be very interesting to play on a very solistic instrument, but if you use it only to blend into the second violin section of your local orchestra it can be not such a good idea.

12) For what music styles is the sound suitable?

What music do you play most? Does it sound beautiful with this violin? It’s important to have some repertoire with you when going to the violin shop, whether it’s between your ears or in your sheet music bag. Lots of people forget to bring sheet music and forget everything they learned by heart once they enter the shop.

You might see a beautiful violin for sale for a good price, but how do you choose the right one for you? Don't miss these 32 checks when buying a violin: #violinist #violin Share on X

Violin quality and set up

13) General feel

How do you like playing on this violin? Does it feel right? It is easy to press the strings to the fingerboard? Is it easy to hit the right notes? Does the violin feel slim or a bit chunky? What’s the difference with your current violin? This is already a good indicator of a proper adjustment.

14) Wood

What’s the age of the wood? What class of tonewood is the soundbox made of? Is there a nice flame? Where does the wood come from?

15) Maker

Who made the violin? Is it a factory violin, a workshop violin or is it made by an individual violin maker? Did he win prizes? Can you find something about the maker?

16) Origine

Where does the violin come from? Is it made in China or Europe? What kind of workshop built the violin?

17) Varnish

There are many secrets to lacquering the violin. Some say it’s why the Stradivarius violins are so beautiful. Main thing to look for is that the violin is hand varnished with for example spirit varnish. You don’t want the varnish to be similar to your car’s and just as shiny. It’s important that the varnish is like a skin: it should move along with the wood and allow the instrument to ‘breathe’ and resonate.

18) Pegs

It should be easy to tune the violin, even without finetuners. The pegs should fit into the peg box. They shouldn’t stick out, but they should fill the holes to stop the pegs from slipping. The pegs should be made of good quality ebony or another type of hard wood.

19) Bridge

The bridge should stand up straight and be hand cut to fit. This makes it easy to play the violin as the height of the strings above the fingerboard should be right.

20) Tailpiece

As a beginner violinist you might want four finetuners, so it’s easier for you to tune. The Wittner tailpieces are the best for this purpose.

Did you know the tailpiece influences the sound? If you’re a little more advanced and can tune with the pegs, get a wooden tailpiece with one or two integrated finetuners. Click here to get the tailpiece I use and think sounds best.

21) Soundbox

Is the violin nicely flamed? Are there no cracks and holes? Are the soundboards firmly attached to the edges without openings?

22) Soundpost

The soundpost should stand up straight on the inside of the violin right behind the treble foot of the bridge. It’s hard to judge the soundpost if you’re not a violin maker, therefore it’s important that you buy your violin in a reliable shop.

23) Neck

The neck of the violin should feel smooth. The transition to the fingerboard must be seamless. Feel how you like the shape and width. Are you looking for some thickness or do you have small hands and want a slim neck.

24) Endpin and wire

Important is that the endpin fits well and the wire is in a good state, so not an old gut wire that can snap when it dries out too much.

25) Strings!

Yes, strings are very important and they influece the sound and playability (feeling under your fingertips). Some people almost buy a violin thinking they can correct (what they don’t like about) the sound with strings afterwards. Don’t do it, because you’ll search forever. You MUST love the sound of the violin you’re about to buy. Yes, you can color the sound a bit and make it even more beautiful by experimenting with strings. This is a bonus.

Click here to learn all about gut strings vs normal strings and click here for my top 3 warm sounding strings.

Don’t select a violin based on the strings that are on it. If you don’t like the strings, you can always ask the shop owner to replace them with the strings you do like.

26) Chinrest and shoulder rest

Your new violin must be comfortable to you! It’s easy to replace a chinrest and shoulder rest, so pick what fits YOU! Read here what chinrest and shoulder rest I personally use.

27) Straight?

For a general check on adjustment, look at the violin with the scroll against your cheek and check if the line of the tailpiece, bridge, strings and peg box is straight. Don’t be surprised if the bridge is lower at the side of the E string: this is normal!

Hi! I'm Zlata

Let me help you find a great bow for your violin, so you can improve your bowing technique and sound quality:

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Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

Where should you buy a violin?

No matter if you buy your violin offline or online, chose a place where they love and know violins. General music stores sometimes sell violins ‘on the side’ and can’t offer you the quality and service you need. A specialized violin shop doesn’t have to be more expensive, but can deliver you a better instrument.

Some checks for the place you buy your instrument:

28) Service and guarantee

What if something is broken or not working properly? Can they fix things quickly for you? Can you reach the shop by e-mail or phone and do they answer your questions?

29) Returns

If you buy your violin and you don’t like it, is there a possibility to return it or swap it for something else? Do they offer refunds?

30) Swapping in general

When you’re more advanced, you might want to upgrade to a better violin. Is there a possibility to trade in the violin you bought for a better one in the future? What are the conditions?

31) Certificate

Does the violin come with a certificate or value indication you might need for your insurance or for selling it in the future?

32) Reviews and recommendations

Of course buying a violin is very personal. You have a different taste, desire and budget than someone else. However, it’s really useful to check out Google reviews, Facebook reviews and recommendations from other players and your teacher to see if the violin shop you’re about to buy from is legid.

But… How to (and can you?) buy a violin online?

You might have noticed that you can’t do all of these checks when buying online. First of all you probably don’t have the expertise for it except if you’re an experienced well trained violin maker. Second you don’t see all of these things on the pictures in a webshop.

Before running Violin Lounge fulltime, I’ve owned a violin shop in Holland for almost twelve years. I’ve traded violin worldwide and have vast experience in matching beginner to professional players to the violin and bow they love.

I’m asked a lot by you guys where to buy a violin and I can warmly recommend Fiddlershop.com. The BIG difference they make is that they have trained luthiers working for them who set up the instruments. Even their beginner violins below $ 200 are of such surprising good quality I can recommend them to you as a professional and teacher.

I’d love to here your violin love story! Share in the comments below what kind of violin YOU have and where you bought it.

Click here to read all about the old German violin I play and how we found each other.

Do the Work you Love and Make Money as a Violinist

How I make a living as a musician, do the work I love and feel inspired to, service people worldwide, all working from home as a stay at home mother to be

Sounds to good to be true, doesn’t it?

After 25 years of violin playing and 12 years of running my own business I finally achieved this point and I love sharing how I did it

I mostly share practical violin lessons and articles on this website, but I hope you love reading my personal story and get inspired by it

Let’s start with how I fell in love with the violin …

At the age of seven I attended general music education at the music school in Hoorn, the small town in Holland where I’m born. I was bullied in the music group, just like at school. The plastic flutes still hurt my ears. It was terrible… until one day two girls, a bit shy and with straight hair like myself, came to demonstrate the violin. What a beautiful instrument! I was fascinated by the shape of the violin, how it would work and the mother-of-pearl in the bow. I fell in love immediately.

On my eighth birthday I had my first real violin lesson with another girl

I didn’t need to attend that terrible group anymore, I met girls similar to me and finally got to learn to play this beautiful instrument. My teacher played so beautifully, it was like magic! My teacher had long blonde hair and combined with her beautiful violin playing, she looked like an angel. I also wanted to become a violin teacher, I thought.

Becoming a violinist did not occur to me. I came from a teachers’ nest and standing on a stage seemed nothing to me. At home I preferred to draw, write and play violin on my own. No, I wanted to pass on this magic of playing the violin to others.

When my violin teacher asked me at the end of high school if I wanted to go to the music conservatory, I didn’t think that was a good idea. You can’t earn a living with that violin, can you?

Do I have to sit full-time in an orchestra pit? Orchestra playing didn’t really appeal to me in general. Or teach at a music school all week? That would bore me.

Unfortunately, back then had the mindset that you have to look for a steady job and I didn’t think about the possibility of having my own business in music

After high school, I started a very difficult process at Nyenrode University, because business economics seemed like a profession that had a future in it. Moreover, economics was my favorite subject in high school.

The violin kept calling me. I always just wanted to play, but couldn’t

I had a busy job and a master’s degree to complete, but it tickled. Because of all the obligations I had very little time to play. I spent a lot of spare time playing the violin. During the weekend I played many hours a day and in the evenings as much as possible.

Towards the end of my studies, I started a pre-conservatory program. I was sure I’ll never be able to live from my music, but getting my teaching qualification and teaching a few students might be possible.

During my music training, my first violin students quickly presented themselves

I thought teaching was great… passing this magic on to others. I found violin methodology to be more interesting than playing itself. I did discover a problem with students: it was almost impossible to get good quality affordable violins. For violin makers, violins were often good, but expensive. In web shops, violins were cheap, but poorly finished and sometimes even unplayable. This inspired me to trade in violins… purely to solve a practical problem for my students. The idea that other violinists might also have that problem immediately came to me.

With a bottle of wine behind the computer, the domain www.vioolspelen.nl was registered and a simple webshop was created

When an IT friend visited me, he said, “you should have a webshop for those violins.” The same evening my violin shop went “in the air”. My first baby steps as an entrepreneur. I started advertising more, optimizing the website and buying more violins. In January 2008 my first sea container arrived from China. Yes, that actually went pretty fast.

A room in my house was set up as an extremely low budget violin store

I had an Ikea Billy bookcase with a horrible motif, because it was on sale. I thought it was about the violins and it didn’t matter what my store, or actually my spare room in my house, looked like. Outside of this little violin room you stumbled across the violins, violas, cellos and double basses all over my house.

Later I had a beautifully decorated shop and violin studio, so I hardly dare to share this with you.

However, I think you should see it, how I started small and how you might also put something beautiful in the world:

Soon my violin business was impossible to combine with my job and studies

More students presented themselves, I imported more and more violins and my violin shop started to become well known

The great violin dream that someday I could make ends meet from my teaching practice and the violin trade started to become reality

I often calculated whether I could live off my violin income (almost), but the combination with my job and studies was almost impossible to handle. I was burned out.

The story came to an ultimatum: I had to quit my violin shop or take a leap of faith and quit my job. I saved some money and decided to take the leap.

My friends and family thought I wasted my talents on “that weird fuss with those fiddles”

I had a good education at Nyenrode University and a good job. I was a so-called “high potential”. Before I was 30 I would become CFO of a large company. Why did I decide to lose all that just to trade a little in violins from my hobby room? My environment was not very understanding. They thought it was a lack of ambition… just hobbying around with fiddles. Others thought it was a ridiculous decision to live off the violin. That is not possible at all!

At that time I did not know that people would project their missed opportunities, their hidden dreams and their fears onto me

Once I was able to focus 100% on my company, it grew exponentially

A few months after leaving my job, I made it to the finals of the Student Entrepreneur Award. This has accelerated everything. Soon I was able to rent my very own shop in Hilversum, the village in Holland where I still live now.

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce named me Entrepreneur of the Year 2011

entrepreneur of the year

Quality instruments, far-reaching service, expert advice and all of it was affordable and accessible through many free articles and videos on the internet, this in combination with a real shop… it proved to be a successful formula, with which I gained my place in the closed violin market.

I opened the world of the violin to a larger audience.

This did not go unnoticed outside of the music world. As an entrepreneur I was often mentioned in the media and in January 2012 I was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.

Shortly thereafter I almost went bankrupt…

The company grew too fast. Growth requires money and I had no investors. I had trouble purchasing stock. Nowhere near enough instruments could be bought to supply the many tenants. It was very busy. I hired an office manager to take care of the hassle. She was a student and I barely had time to guide her.

If I had to choose between doing administration and helping a customer, I would help a customer

At a certain point the “back office” caught up with me. The tax returns were incorrect, which meant that I had to pay huge amounts of money. Suddenly many rental instruments returned, of which I had to pay back the deposit. The number of customers declined, also because I could hardly buy instruments and had little choice in my shop. My assistant had incorrectly archived thousands of euros in invoices, so they were not paid. In the summer of 2013 all the bad things suddenly came together. I looked at a huge backlog that was almost impossible to catch up with.

Did I have to close my beautiful violin shop and look for a ‘real job’ again?

It would have been safer to stop. I worked my way around everything, everything seemed to be going against me and the situation was hopeless. No, it just doesn’t work. All those people were right all the time: it was a stupid idea to make money with the violin. Or was there still a small possibility?

With no budget I started a new business: Violin Lounge

Yup, the thing you’re looking at right now ;).

To make up for all the misery, I needed extra income, but I didn’t have the money to invest in a new project. In the summer of 2013 I found the power to record more than 100 video lessons for the violin in my best English (which wasn’t that good, you can tell if you watch my older videos, haha!). My YouTube channel and this website (a very old verison I tinkered myself) were launched.

I read everything about online business and online courses that I could read. Fortunately, a lot of free information is available on the internet. I even acquired the technical skills to build an entire online learning environment and started selling video courses. Fortunately I had the dream of starting an international online business for years and this emergency forced me to do so.

After hard work and a frugal life, I crawled back up

Everything started to rise. Suddenly it flowed again. In 2015 I finished my violin studies the conservatory that I always attended alongside my many activities. My teaching practice grew so fast that I hired three teachers that same year. It was a wonderful team!

In the years after, everything was in a healthy, thoughtful growth

I learned a lot from the bad years. I built a wonderful team of support in the form of my teachers, an accountant, a designer, a technical virtual assistant, administrative virtual assistants and a phone service. Everyone has their specialty and the various tasks are under control. The company was too big to do everything myself. My website was getting better, I used the latest marketing knowledge, and the articles and videos about violin playing increased in number and quality. All processes are streamlined and the assortment and supply were well thought out. Everything was becoming more and more professional, which means that I could serve my customers better and better and that way I put my mission in the world better and better. My brick and mortar violin shop, my violin studio and Violin Lounge grew, but in an organic and thoughtful way. Everything was under control again, also on the background.

I celebrated the 10 year birthday of my violin shop

Only 4% of business are still running after 10 years. This was a very special day for me: my business was meant to last! Here’s how it looked like back then in 2018:

violinist in violin shop
violins in violin shop
violin bows in violin shop
violins in violin shop 2
violin shop 2
violins in violin shop 3
violin bows in violin shop 2
violinist in violin shop 2

FREE Violin Scale Book

Sensational Scales is a 85 page violin scale book that goes from simple beginner scales with finger charts all the way to all three octave scales and arpeggios

Download!

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

Bow like a Pro, the course that REALLY changed my life…

What I noticed in those 10 years from the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of clients and students I helped and taught is that they often lose themselves in the technique of playing the violin and miss the feels

They do progress and play increasingly difficult pieces, but they don’t really enjoy their own playing and are often ashamed of it. This is because bowing technique, vibrato and creating a beautiful sound on the violin are underexposed topics. In many practice sessions and lessons it’s mainly about hitting the right notes in the right rhythm. That’s very logical, but the bow technique and tone creation, or expression and making music in general, are left behind. There were almost no teachers teaching these topics in a structured way. They either ignored it or demonstrated and said ‘do like I do’. I saw lots of violin players struggle with this and I wanted to find a solution.

Bow like a ProIn January 2018, after a year of research, testing in my violin studio and work, I launched my online program Bow like a Pro, in which I teach violinists of all levels everything about bowing technique, tone production, vibrato and musical expression. It starts with how you hold the bow and ends with advanced bowing techniques in the big concerto’s with examples of top soloists. It teaches everything in between step by step.

I found my mission in life: helping violin players, who are lost in the technique, to express themselves in beautiful music. I firmly believe it’s a set of learnable skills and my work is to teach them step by step…

So… that’s the happy end? Not yet…

To be very fair I didn’t like the work in my violin shop. It was a lot of the same and a lot of paperwork. I dreamt of doing Violin Lounge fulltime, having the focus on helping violin players worldwide play the music they love beautifully. Working was all I did. I had absolutely no personal life and felt depleated. I was only of service to others, being busy, had nothing to fuel myself.

A magical chain of events started when I visisted a church in Amsterdam for a lecture

I was diving into the source of beautiful things: the violin, classical music, architecture, painting and more. What is the source of this? It seems impossible that ‘simple human beings’ make such refined things and in the Western culture this is developed to a level that’s known nowhere else.

The books ‘Real Presences’ by George Steiner and ‘Scholastic Metafysics‘ by Edward Feser brought be closer to this source and to causality in general.

On this resarch I started attending lectures, catachesis and Mass every Sunday and made new friends. Back then I had no idea that one of them would be my husband half a year later.

Everything felt good, went smooth without even thinking and in February 2019 I converted to catholisism and married. Shortly after I was pregnant with twins… a boy and a girl.

The courage of three souls in my body inspired me to follow my path

On my own I never could have made the choice to shut down my succesfull violin studio and violin shop. I knew it wasn’t my path anymore for years, but I couldn’t take the leap. The idea of putting my newborn babies in a daycare and keep working in my shop and studio like crazy, gave me the chills. Why would I leave my kids in the hands of a stranger to do work that I don’t want to do?

I was affraid I wouldn’t earn enough money, but I had been in that situation before and I knew that everything you focus on grows, so I decided to quit my violin shop and violin studio to focus my work fully on Violin Lounge. Since I made that decision, so many beautiful opportunities for Violin Lounge and it’s audience started coming in to my life. When you keep following me, you’ll discover what they are and how they can benefit your violin playing and musical expression. And the money? I discovered I didn’t have the numbers right and Bow like a Pro was already making enough money for a good living for months already… Yup, your fears and doubts can really blur your vision.

While I’m writing this it’s just a couple of days before the close of my brick and mortar violin shop. The babies are kicking happily in my belly. I’m there for them to give them the best care, while doing the work I love from home as a stay at home mom with a laptop lifestyle and a succesful business. All this while serving violin players worldwide with my free weekly video lessons and my online program Bow like a Pro. I’m curious to what magic will follow on my path…

And what about the violin?

This all started when I, as a seven-year-old girl, got hold of a violin for the first time. That magic of discovery. I still play for hours a day and perform in various settings. I also study concerto’s, Bach sonatas and partitas, Paganini caprices and I regularly visit my teacher to keep improving. I play together with a wonderful pianist and make recordings of beautiful pieces. Five years ago I was lucky enough to bump into a beautiful German 19th-century violin and this is my musical friend. Two years ago I bought a wonderful Arcus S9 round violin bow, with which I have developed my bowing technique and expression even more.

With this story I hope to inspire you and change the way we think about ‘work’ and ‘business’

I want you to hear what I should have heard back then. You don’t have to follow the beaten track. You can create your own work and lifestyle. Yes, it’s hard work. No, it’s not always fun. You’ll go through deep lows and you’ll have to deal with your own limitations. This is not the easy path. You’ll be critized. People project their own fears and uncertainties on you and don’t want to see you succeed where they failed. This can come form a good intention: perhaps they want to protect your from danger. Make sure that you prove them wrong. Do whatever it takes. There’s no right timing and no right circumstances. You have to do it despite of everything. There will ALWAYS be reasons (excuses) to smother your dreams.

The best marketing is used for things that are bad for us: distracting technology, pounding superficial music, fast food, the most horrible perversity and meaningless trends in fashion and lifestyle

I am committed to be the best possible marketeer… for the violin, for classical music, for Western culture, for beauty and good.

Do you want to support me in my mission and make a good living for yourself in music (even if you’re an amateur), perhaps you’re interested in becoming a Violin Lounge Ambassador.

Do you think this article can inspire others? Please share it with the world and leave a comment what changes YOU are inspired to make!
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Top 3 Violin Strings for a Warm Sound

You can color the tone of your violin by choosing a different set of violin strings

Try out these strings for a warmer sound

Strings are one of the factors that influence the sound quality of your violin. Others are the violin itself, it’s adjustments, your bow and of course your playing technique. Click here to learn more about how your violin technique can influence your tone quality. In this article, let’s talk strings…

1) Pirastro Obligato – most popular

The most popular warm sounding string. A lot of violin players are very enthusiastic about this type of strings. They create a beautiful deep warm and full tone. Certainly when you have a bright and large sounding violin, these strings could be a good match. Their tuning stability is very good, they break in easily and quickly and they last long.

Buy Pirastro Obligato violin strings!

2) Warchal Amber – my personal favorite

Not so well known as the Obligato’s, these strings are inspired by gut strings. They sound velvet like, smooth and warm. The low tension and thickness of the strings gives a nice soft feeling under your fingertips. These strings have been my favorite for years, until I started using Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Gold for a bit more power. It depends on your playing setting what you like best. I’d say that for solistic work and chamber music, use the Golds. For orchestra playing, use the Ambers.

Buy Warchal Amber violin strings!
Top 3 Violin Strings for a Warm Sound #violinstring #violinstrings #violinist #violin Share on X

Improve your violin bowing technique

Enjoy my FREE mini Masterclass 5 Bowing Secrets to Create a Professional Sound on the Violin

Go to Mini Masterclass

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

3) D’Addario Pro Arte – affordable option

 These strings produce a warm mellow tone. For violin players in their first years of playing and students, I always recommend these as an alternative to the Thomastik Dominants. It’s quite easy to produce an acceptable sound on them as a beginner violinist. They are very forgiving and extremely affordable.

When you bought a factory violin with horrible steel strings and you want a better sound, this is a cheap way to upgrade your gear.

Buy D'Addario Pro Arte violin strings!

Doubting between gut strings and synthetic strings?

You’ve probably heard that gut strings tend to sound warmer than the synthetic core strings mentioned above. I’ve made a comparison between to warm sounding string types, one is gut and one is synethic. Click here and discover if you can hear the difference!

Guide to buying violin strings

If you’d like to read a lot more about violin strings, what they’re made of and see a lot more string reviews, check out this violin string buying guide.

What type of strings do you use?

Let me know in the comments!

How to Bow Straight on the Violin (without looking)

A lot of violin players think improving their sound quality lies in advanced techniques, while the solution for most of them lies in the basics

Bowing straight means that your bow and string are in a ninety degree angle throughout the whole bow stroke

You can ’round’ this a bit at the tip, but in general your bow must be straight during the whole bow stroke.

Many violin players who have years of experience, think they bow straight, but in fact they don’t

When you’re not bowing straight, your bow moves over various contact points and you are making different types of sound without wanting that. In this way you don’t have control over your sound quality. Also you can get weird noises like peeps, whistles, scratches or no sound at all.

You can check if you’re bowing straight by playing in front of a mirror

If you’re not, you can correct it by playing on open strings with whole bow. Do this from the extreme frog to the extreme tip and on each string. The position of your arm and the feeling will be different for every string. When you practice this for eight bow strokes a string right in the beginning of your practice session, you can solve many problems in tone production. It only costs you a couple of minutes.

Don’t feel like you’re ‘starting all over again’ by bowing on open strings: this is something even conservatory students have to do to perfect their basic technique.

A lot of #violin players think improving their sound quality lies in advanced techniques, while the solution for most of them lies in the basics: #violinist #violinbow #learnviolin Share on X

Improve your violin bowing technique

Enjoy my FREE mini Masterclass 5 Bowing Secrets to Create a Professional Sound on the Violin

Go to Mini Masterclass

Hi! I'm Zlata

Classical violinist helping you overcome technical struggles and play with feeling by improving your bow technique.

READ MORE

A couple of tips to bow straight:

When bowing your upper arm should be almost still

Only when bowing to the frog you slightly move it to the front and back at the bow change.

Don’t bow with just your lower arm, but mainly move your wrist and fingers

This will not only make it easier to bow straight, but will smoothen your bow changes and improve your sound quality in general. You might want to do the Thibaud exercise to practice the movement in your fingers and your bow control in general.

Your bow hold should be relaxed and flexible

Don’t think your bow hold just as to look like it’s correct. The way you move is so much more important than the way you hold it. Different violinists hold their bows in different ways, but the fluency and control is something you see in all great players.  Your bow hand (fingers and wrist) should move along the straight movement of the bow maintaining the resonance in your violin and bow and smoothening the bow changes.

I’d love to teach more in my free videos

Check out my free beginner course to polish up your basics, like your bow hold and movement. Even for people who play for years, this course has been helpful. Also check out my free video lessons about bowing technique.

Let me know in the comments below which tip or insight from this article was most useful to you!