Hi,
I started teaching myself how to play the violin and appearantly whenever I play a note other than one on the E string, my bow can`t help but touch the other strings? Why am I doing this and how can I stop?

hi, it`s most likely just the balance of you with the bow. I did the same exact thing, along with a lot of other things wrong, lol. you just need to watch the bow while it`s going down the string, watch to see at what time of going down the string, you need to tilt it with your hand. It`s just a matter of practice..what ever you do, don`t give up. I don`t want to try to sound like a boring teacher because I`m only almost 14, but I`ve been playing for almost a year and my teacher used to be in the orchestra.

another thing you might want to do is practice first with out the bow. do all of the fingers you do for E`s and F`s or all the note but where you use the bow, pluck with you right hand index finger... put your thum at the base of the finger board and pluck. that way you get a positioning with your notes before you watch for how to use the bow. hope I helped! - Sarah

Hey

As sarah said, it just takes practise. I am learning by myself too, and I had the same problem. Getting the correct bowing angle takes a while to achieve. I`ve been playing for a few months and I`m getting the hang of it. I occasionally slip onto another string, but not as often as I used to!

Keep practising, look at your bowing, and you`ll be playing Vivaldi`s Four Seasons in no time

Luke

don`t put pressure on the strings. that pushes the string down and make the bow touch the other strings and it wears out the bridge. although you problem will help when you get to playin 2 notes at a time. but you won`t reach that untill much later.

i have been playing the vioin 4 the last 3 years (since i was 10) and i am now in an orchestra. the best thing is that when you have private lessons your teacher can work on the small details, that might seem unimportant now, but when you are getting in2 long 10min pieces by bach it really helps. my teacher is ithe hed vioinist in an orchestra and now because of her paying attention 2 the small little details i can play almost anything. so if you can afford it get a private teacher it really helps

You need an instructor to save you an awful lot of time.
Perhap you are hoplding the bow incorrectly or doing wrong bow arm movements.

James
http://soloviolin.com - Violinist Forum

it`s just possible 9though far less likely these days than it was when i was teaching) that you have a bridge with insufficient curvature. Some bridges used to be literally impossible to play on. If you picked up a used violin with a bridge like that, or possibly an incredibly bad new one, that could be the problem. Tell us about your violin, where you got it from, what brand it is and whether anyone has set it up for you since you bought it, that might give us something to go on.

Liz