Learn to Play Online from Scratch to your First Concerto
Hi, I'm Zlata!
Classical Violinist & your Online Violin Teacher
You're NOT too old and it's NOT too late!
You can learn to play the violin beautifully as an adult beginner
I'll help you every step along the way. On this page you'll learn to buy your first violin, tune your violin, hold the violin and bow properly, play scales and beginner songs. You can learn all online by yourself at your own pace.
What do you need to start playing the violin?
You need a violin (duh) with a chinrest and shoulder rest, violin bow, rosin, violin case and music stand.
Best cheap beginner violins to buy online
Most violins you buy online come with a chinrest, case, bow and rosin. You need to buy the shoulder rest and music stand separately (or play without).
As an adult beginner, look for a 4/4 size violin
From my experience working in a violin shop for over 12 years and teaching the violin for over 15 years, I've selected the best beginner violins:
No worries! First tighten your violin bow, rosin it and tune your violin:
As a beginner violinist tuning might seem a bit intimidating, but it doesn't have to be.
With my free online violin tuner you can learn to tune your violin easily. As it has a microphone, it recognizes the string and tells you if it's too high or too low. You can tune small increments with the fine tuners and if your violin is very out of tune you can use the pegs.
On this page I explain exactly how to do it. Also you can read all about other ways of tuning like with tuning notes or with a tuning fork and what the pros and cons are of each.
At first the violin might feel a little uncomfortable, but it shouldn't hurt. The violin hold is different for every body. However there are some general points:
The endpin of the violin should point to your throat
The violin should rest on your collar bone
The violin shouldn't point too much to the the middle, but also not too much to the left
Hold the violin with the strings parallel to the floor, not with the scroll pointing to the ceiling or to the floor. It will be easier to bow straight
Pick a chinrest and shoulder rest that fit your body and adjust them accordingly
Holding the violin bow properly has a great impact on the sound you make. If you have a scratchy squeaky sound as a beginner violinist, this might just be because your bow hold is too tense.
The bow hold is very personal and there are different ways to hold the bow, like the Franco Belgian bow hold and the Russian bow hold.
For every bow hold it's important that you keep your fingers a bit curved and very flexible and relaxed. The wrist and fingers should be able to move along with the bow strokes. In that way it's easy to bow straight, bow smoothly and get a good sound out of your violin.
Bowing smoothly on the violin will give you a great resonant sound. Without bowing smoothly you'll get screeching and scratching sounds: the typical beginner sound. You want to get rid of that as soon as possible to be able to enjoy making music.
Train the movements of bowing on the violin separately with a pencil or a stick: keep your fingers nicely curved and relaxed. On the up-bow (the bow stroke from tip to frog) you curve your fingers and bend your thumb. On the down-bow (the bow stroke from frog to tip) your stretch your fingers again. Never overstretch your fingers, because this will give a jerky sound.
I've made a complete beginner violin course that teaches you step by step from scratch to your first concerto including video lessons, sheet music and violin tabs.
Not everybody has access to a private teacher. Sure, a teacher gives you faster progress and can prevent you from learning bad habits. As a private teacher myself I want the violin to be accessible for everyone, so I do my best to teach you with my free online violin lessons.
#1 Spend plenty of time on proper violin hold and bow hold
This will save you a lot of struggles and time in the future. The hold of your violin and bow determine if you can make progress.
#2 Practice on open strings
Don't move to placing your fingers on the strings too early. First make sure that you can get a good sound from the violin on open strings. This is hard to correct if your attention is divided. Lots of self learning violin beginners get stuck, because they move on too quickly. Hold your horses!
#3 Follow a step by step plan with scales, exercises and songs
You can find thousands of violin lessons online on YouTube, but if you don't know in which order to take them, you'll only feel overwhelmed and stuck.
In my free online beginner course I give you a step by step plan from a century long European tradition. It teaches you from scratch ALL the way to your first concerto. Click here to join 12,500 students from 50+ countries in my free beginner violin lessons.
As you are now perhaps looking for more specific topics, feel free to use the search bar on the top right of this website to find exactly what you're looking for. Here are just some highlights for intermediate violinists:
Free Violin Fingering Chart
Explore the whole fingerboard of the violin:
Get my violin fingering chart with the exact spots of ALL notes for FREE!
5 Intermediate Violin Concertos
When you just learned the third position, you can move to intermediate violin concertos.
Downton Abbey theme
Oh man, I'm a sucker for costume dramas!
Godfather love theme
You're an advanced violinist when you're comfortable with:
Vibrato
Shifting also to higher positions
Different bow techniques like spiccato and staccato
Schindler's List violin tutorial
24 Violin Bowing Techniques
Czardas by Vittorio Monti
Professional Violinist's Daily Practice Routine
Meditation from Thaïs by Massenet
Spiccato vs Sautillé
Download my violin lesson library:
Click here to download your Violin Lesson Library
In this downloadable PDF you'll find my online violin lessons sorted by style and level
You need a violin (duh) with a chinrest and shoulder rest, violin bow, rosin, violin case and music stand.