On Fri, 18 May 2012 21:47:45 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>>> Possibly doesn't help that I've never tuned a violin in my life.
>>>
>>> Obviously, having your instrument correctly tuned is crucially
>>> important. So at school, the teacher always did that for us.
>>
>> Seems like a poor excuse for a teacher, then.  The point of playing in
>> school isn't to sound good, but to learn how to play (which includes
>> tuning the instrument).
> 
> Well, you know, we're talking about 9 year old kids here.

I don't remember precisely, but ISTR that when I was 9, I had at that 
point been taught how to tune my instrument.

>> Probably not, if you've never done this before.  But I'm surprised that
>> you haven't, as I recall you say you played for years.
> 
> I played for about 2 years, total. And that was 20 years ago...

See, the impression you gave about this previously was that you had many 
years' experience playing.  2 years isn't enough to get a lot of 
expertise in playing an instrument.  You said you sucked at it.  You 
didn't say that you only played for 2 years when you were < 11 years old.

That makes a difference.

> Then again, the violin is a very hard instrument to play. 

It certainly takes more than 2 years practice as a prepubescent teen to 
get any competence at it, yes.  (I played from the time I was 9 until I 
was about 20 or 21).

If it were /easy/, then everyone could play like Itzhak Perlman.

> Basically,
> it's /sensitive/. That means that in experienced hands, you can do all
> this really expressive playing, which is what the violin is famous for
> of course. But because it's /sensitive/, it also means that in
> inexperienced hands, every slightly glitch is magnified drastically, and
> it sounds plain AWFUL! >_<

You expect to get instant expertise.  It takes years (more than *2*) to 
get to that level of playing.

> So far, I basically haven't used the E-string at all. The pressure of
> the bow on the string seems to be enough to put it out of tune. And as
> soon as I put a finger on it, it becomes almost completely mute.

That tells me that the pegs are definitely not right for the peg holes, 
and you should get someone to take a look at it.

> Also, I have bruised fingertips now. :-/

Yep, that'll happen until you get callouses on your fingertips.  That's 
part of the reason I haven't played in several years - I don't have those 
callouses, but I have the dexterity, and it does hurt to play.  Feels 
like I'm cutting into my fingertips with a dull knife.

Jim

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