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What Chinrest and Shoulder Rest I Use and Why

Now I play the violin comfortably without pain!

How I picked and adjusted my current chinrest and shoulder rest and what you should look for when buying one

A lot of violin players have spend a lot of money on rests and have a collection just catching dust. Around 60 to 80 percent of violin players complains about pain or not being able to play relaxed and comfortably.

How to avoid endlessly buying chinrests and shoulder rests

1) Don’t do as I do!

Choosing the right chinrest and shoulder rest is something very personal. Don’t follow me, your teacher or your favorite soloist blindly! Yes, what others have can inspire you, but always look at the complete picture: How is the shape of their body, their length, the length of their arms? How do they hold and play the violin? Is it the same or very different than your body, posture and hold?

2) 80% of the solution lies in your body posture and violin hold, just 20% in the rests

Of course this is just a rough estimate. After owning a violin shop for over 10 years, I’ve seen so many people struggle endlessly with rests, while the problem was in their body posture and playing technique. Chinrests and shoulder rests can NEVER compensate a bad posture and technique. 

3) Don’t spend a fortune on different rest. Try different adjustments on the one you own.

Another experience from my violin shop: over 90% of players can be very happy and comfortable with a good old Wolf rest. You can adjust them in width and height, tilt them and bend them. There are other brands that offer the same flexibility. Before you buy a new rest, experiment with the adjustment of your current rest first.

How to avoid endlessly buying chinrests and shoulder rests for your #violin Share on X

From sponge to Wolf shoulder rest

sponge as violin shoulder restWhen I started playing the violin at the age of eight, I used a yellow bath sponge with an elastic band

Yup, were spoiled these days. My parents didn’t have the money for a ‘real’ shoulder rest. Also I played with my sheet music on the dinner table by lack of a music stand. However, I learned to play this way, so don’t worry too much about the things you should buy or not.

After some time I got a real shoulder rest, but the guy in the music store made a mistake and I played with a viola rest for years. My English was too limited those days to distinguish viola from violin.

So… it took years before I actually got a fitting normal Wolf violin shoulder rest and I played with that for over ten years.

For the chinrest I think I’ve always sticked to a Guarneri rest. I liked the ‘hump’ that goes behind your jaw bone, so the violin won’t slip away.

Now I play with more freedom of movement

Quite late, in the last years at the conservatory, I finally had a teacher who busted the myth that you have to hold the violin with your chin and shoulder

I learned a whole new left hand technique. It dramatically improved my intonation, my vibrato and made me play way more comfortable. It means that you let the violin rest on your collar bone, balance it between your collar bone and left arm and have an active left hand and fingers.

It completely releases the tension in your neck and shoulders. It makes your violin hold more flexibele and balanced opening up new possibilities of expression. Ok, enough about this as I teach it in Free your Vibrato and this article was meant to be just about my set up.

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

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My Stradivari chinrest

conrad gotz stradivari chinrest boxwood

I discovered that the hump in my Guarneri rest caused tension in my neck

The chinrest pulled my neck and I had to compensate with muscle power. I needed a smaller and flatter chinrest. As I owned a violin shop I could try out any chinrest I want. I did and with all rests I missed the Guarneri shape. What I like best now for years, is the Stradivari chinrest. You don’t see them often, but I find them REALLY comfortable.

However, mind my disclaimer: what’s good for me, isn’t necessarily good for you. Watch this video about adjusting your chinrest and playing comfortably.

My Viva la Musica Diamond shoulder rest

VLM augustin diamond shoulder rest

Now my violin sounds better and I have more freedom of movement

Did you know a shoulder rest mutes the sound of your violin?

You can try it out by playing with and without your shoulder rest. I found the VLM Augustin Diamond shoulder rest, because it’s light and doesn’t mute your violin. The feet have a special design and barely touch your violin.

With my new playing technique I wanted to have contact between the violin and my collar bone. Also I wanted to have a lot of freedom of movement. As I support the violin partially with my left arm, I don’t need so much stability as I have a better balance. The VLM rest allow me to adjust the feet in many ways and also make the rest very low.

What’s your story?

What chinrest and shoulder rest do you use? Or do you play without? Let me know in the comments!

Silver or Gold Mounted Violin Bow: Why does it Matter?

Do you think it’s nonsense to pay for silver or gold mounting?

When looking to buy a violin bow, the information on the internet can be very confusing

silver mounted violin bowOn the picture and in the description the bows look the same, but you seem to pay a lot extra for silver or gold mounting. What’s this about?

For your bowing technique, sound quality and musical expression it’s SO important to have a bow that matches you and helps you. However, buying a violin bow is even more difficult than buying a violin. It’s extremely personal and can all seem different everytime you compare them.

Should you care about silver or gold parts? What’s the advantage?

Does a silver or gold mounted bow play differently?

Technically… the same bow with nickel, silver or gold won’t play differently. Yes, gold is a bit heavier than silver, but this is not why you would want a gold mounted bow.

Short history of violin bow mounting

The first bows with gold or silver has been introduced by French bow makers near 1780

The famous bow maker François Xavier Tourte started to work with gold and silver at the end of the 18th century by adding ferrule on the bow frog. Tourte than introduced tortoise to his work in the first years of the 19th century. Bone, ivory and tortoise have been used in other works for the French royalty (guitars by Voboam or Boule, in fournitures etc) since many years.

The use of tortoise and gold in bow making is generally for the best pieces of wood

Gold adds weight to the bow (gold is 1,5 times heavier than silver) and tortoise is more compact than ebony. Bow makers used lighter and stiffer wood for there top of the line bows. Some of the greastest bows made out of tortoise have been made by Tourte, Peccatte and Sartory. Most bows are made with 18k rose gold, except those by Ouchard made of hand engraved yellow gold. If you want in depth information, read ‘l’Archet’ by Mr Millant and Mr Raffin.

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Hi! I'm Zlata

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

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How to choose between a silver or gold mounted violin bow?

The metal standard (nickel, silver or gold) is a tradition to match the quality of the wood to the mounting of the bow. Nickel for good wood, silver for very good wood and gold for the best bows in the bow maker’s collection. As gold prices have gone up and up, bow makers have changed this a bit. Silver is used for VERY good bows today.

Sometimes it’s true that unscrupulous makers or companies tried to slip a lower bow into a higher price point by upgrading the metal, but overall better bows have more expensive mounting. It also depends on the level of the bow maker. Some great makers are a little modest and use nickel fittings for extremely good bows. Some mediocre bows have gold fittings.

gold mounted violin bowSo what DO I look for when buying a violin bow?

Don’t mind the silver or gold mounting. Just think about what sound and playability you’re looking for and find a bow that matches your playing and your violin.

What kind of violin bow do you have? How did you pick it? I’d LOVE to read your story in the comments below!

Ah, there's much more to silver and gold mounting in violin bows than you might think. Read all about it here: #violinbow Share on X

How to Find Discipline to Practice the Violin

You don’t need to push yourself every day to learn to play the violin

You can get fast progress without discipline! Use this strategy instead:

As a small business owner my to-do list is enormous and my work is never finished. After eleven years of pushing, grinding and hustling I decided to try out something different in the last weeks: I ONLY take inspired action.

What’s inspired action?

Do you sometimes have that soft loving voice in your mind that tells you things to do that are good for you? It can be taking rest, going to the gym, eating something healthy or playing the violin. This voice can inspire you to discover new sound possibilites on the violin, to explore different interpretations of the piece you are playing or to perfect that difficult passage.

Discipline is something entirely different

This comes from a place of forcing yourself, pushing, doing something you don’t REALLY want to do. You are not connected to why you want to do something. You are not connected to the dream you have and how it inspires you every single day to pick up your violin. Discipline is being harsh to yourself.

You don’t need to push yourself every day to learn to play the violin. You can get fast progress without discipline! Use this strategy: #violin #learnviolin Share on X

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

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This works for my business as well as my violin playing

It feels very scary in the beginning. You have to unlearn things you learned at school where MUST do all kinds of things you don’t want. You must let go of planning. You must feel useful even though you’re not frantically rushing through scales and etudes. Maybe you feel inspired to focus on one phrase and really make it sound exactly like you want.

When I tried inspired action vs discipline, I got more done in my business and I got faster progress on the violin

The thing is that you do the things you need to do and MORE! In my business it meant that I did the right things in the right time: when I was most inspired and in the right energy.

For my violin playing it meant that I let go of the planning that I needed to ‘finish’ that scale, etude or piece. My practicing took less energy, but was more precise. I focussed on small things and made them sound really really beautiful. I was more patient.

I practiced longer, because I felt more energized

One day I just practiced a couple of pages of a Bach fugue for hours. Another day I looked at a Paganini caprice and experimented with bowing techniques. Some days I played all repertoire on my music stand.

Why do you play violin? What inspires you right now?

Try this practice strategy out today. Before you start, think about why you’re actually playing the violin. What’s your dream? What or who inspires you? Share this in the comments below. After that, practice! Get back to the comment section and let me know the difference in what you did or felt.

Enjoy playing around with inspiration! Let it fuel your practice every single day!

Why you get Stuck in your Violin Progress

Do you feel your violin playing has reached a plateau?

Are you afraid that ‘this is all’ and that you lack the talent?

It was in the fourth year of conservatory that my playing only seemed to get worse

It was even worse than getting stuck. After spending hours on an etude, it just got worse. I was so frustrated, my teacher put a lot of pressure on me and I thought I could never graduate. If there was an excuse to skip the lesson, I did it. I didn’t have any progress to show anway.

After months of struggling, I finally found the way to get massive progress

I switched teacher and it appeared that the previous teacher who humiliated my had taught me a lot of wrong things. Once these were corrected, my playing skyrockeded and I could play virtuoso stuff I thought I could never play. Two years later I graduated succesfully as a violinist.

Tips to break through your plateau and get fast progress

1 Get back to the basics

In my fourth year at the conservatory, I had to get back to the basics. I changed my violin hold, the way I place my left hand fingers and the weight in my bow. This allowed me to learn very advanced techniques.

No matter your level, if you get stuck, look on how you can improve your basic technique. Even if you’re not a beginner, my free beginner course for the violin could be helpful to you. Ask yourself:

  • Do I hold my violin and bow in a way that supports my playing? Lots of people get stuck, because their hold gets them to a certain level, but not beyond.
  • Is my left hand moving efficiently or are there movements that can be smaller or more effective and secure?
  • Are my bowing basics right: bowing straight, movement in your wrist and fingers and creating a sustained full sound?

A true master shows in the basics. Don’t feel ‘too good’ to go back to them and refine them further. This is something you will do in many stages of your playing.

Why you get stuck in your violin progress and how to break through: #musiclesson #violin #learnviolin Share on X

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

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2. Practice consistently

When I was stuck on the violin, it was very hard to find motivation to practice. I kept going. I kept practicing for hours every day despite of seeing NO results for months. Accept that this is also part of your learning progress. The results will come. Don’t give up.

A lot of people never learn a certain technique, because they try and stop when they don’t master it instantly. This happens a lot with vibrato. A lot of violin players can do ‘sort of’ vibrato, but they aren’t happy with it. However, they think they don’t have to do those vibrato exercises anymore, because they ‘know them already’.

To stay with this example: vibrato needs a step by step plan of specific exercises done a couple of minutes daily. Those who just try out stuff once in a while, don’t get the results. If you want to learn more about this, sign up for my free mini masterclass ‘Learn a Beautiful Vibrato on the Violin’.

Be very honest to yourself and ask yourself: Do I really do what it takes? Or do I do what’s convenient?

3. Check out different resources

I’ve had lots of different teachers in the decades I play violin. I learned different things from all of them. Take the best things with you and leave the rest. See what works for YOU. When learning the violin, you shouldn’t use one source of information. Have a lesson with a different teacher once in a while, watch a YouTube video, read a book, look what your favorite soloist does and try out different things yourself.

Have you been stuck in your violin progress?

Share your experiences in the comments below!

Technique vs Musicality: Which One is Learnable?

We often think that technique is just a trick you learn, while musicality is the artistry that can’t be taught

I think it’s exactly the other way around

Playing technique is sometimes looked down upon

As musicians should be artists and not mechanics, we like to focus on expression and musicality. Which is good, because this should be the end goal and too many players get lost in the technique. However, the technique sets you free: it gives you the tools to make music.

Over the last years in my violin shop and violin studio I’ve seen a lot of players struggle with technique and admiring my ‘talent’ or that of child prodigies. However, is this talent? Did they put in the same hours, dedication and lessons as the soloist they admire? Did they do the same technical exercises? It can seem like that 7 years old playing Paganini is ‘born with it’, but people don’t realize that at that age they might have had thousands of hours experience on their instrument.

However, not everybody putting in the same amount of hours or exercises gets the same results. We all have different talents: fine motor skills, lean muscles, a good ear, a good memory, a good feeling of rhythm and so on. Putting in the work gets you results, but there are components you can’t control and all of our journeys are different.

Musicality is seen as the magic that can’t be learned… is it?

What’s musicality anyway?

Musicality is something that is part of everything you do on the violin: your bowing technique, tone production, vibrato, dynamics and choice of bowing and fingering. Developing each of these areas and learning a big palette of sound colors, gives you infinite possibilities to make music your own. There are three aspects to musicality: tone, phrasing and affect. I talk about this in depth with Emily Williams, who wrote an entire book series on musicality.

I loved doing that interview, because what I preech almost daily is that music is part of being human and musical expression is something that is natural for all of us.

Can you be moved by music? Congrats, because you have the sensitivity to express yourself on a musical instrument!

Sadly not all teachers know how to teach this or don’t have time for it in the lesson. That’s one of the reasons I coach my Bow like a Pro students on creating a beautiful sound, telling a musical story and expressing themselves. Too many violin learners get lost in the technique and think they have to master all of it before they can play expressively. No, even beginners can play simple songs with expression.

Technique vs Musicality: Which One is Learnable? #musiclesson #music 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.

READ MORE

What’s the first step for more musical playing?

Stop seeing musicality as ‘magic and talent’ and start seeing it as a skill that you need to develop. When you don’t speak any language, you can’t express your feelings in a text or poem. You need to learn to speak the language of music to be able to express what lives deep inside you. Trust that you can learn this and be patient.

In your practice session you need to practice deliberately on musicality. The first step is to focus on it. Listen to how you play or record yourself. Think about the phrases (musical sentenses). Where does the phrase begin and where does it end? How are you going to express that? What is the mood of the song you play? Sad, happy, romantic? Feel into that before you start playing. Notice what you do differently now.

Are there skills you need to develop in bowing technique, tone creation or vibrato? Find some exercises. If you don’t know where to start, search around this website: I’ve made hundreds of free tutorials.

Let me know in the comments what you will change in your practice session to play more expressively!