Personal Narrative: Playing The Violin

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The Right Answer Playing the violin is an experience. The friction of bow hair slightly catching on to the strings before smoothly gliding, the warm rich tone as I played an open note, the cloud of rosin as the bow landed on the string with great pressure, the feelings of my fingers flying across the fingerboard, the tension I felt as my fingers stretched to find the note, the weight of the violin on my shoulders accompanied by the pressure of my chin resting on the appropriately named chin rest. Feeling the area between my first finger and my thumb caressing the neck of the violin, my palms, every once in a while, grazing the back of the violin, the bow weighing heavily on the strings as my bow hold allowed the slightest change in pressure to affect the tone and style of the piece, the vibrations of the string reverberating throughout my body. All these sensations resonate within me. However, there are also negative feelings associated with the violin in my memories such as feelings of frustration when I felt as if my body was incapable of …show more content…

This is what I realized a few years back, a majority of people are right-handed and that is why the bow is held in the right hand and controlled by the right arm. The bow is very important because it determines the style, the length, the dynamics and much more. The bow is to the violin what breath is for a singer. The bow is vital to the tone of the violin as well as to the speed in which you can play notes. Controlling the bow is controlling the pace and style of the music. However, I am left-handed, because of this I always focused on my left hand. If I could not play a part the blame went to my left hand. “Why can’t my fingers move fast enough?” I would always ask myself. I would always watch in envy at how the fingers of other student’s non-dominant hands seemed to fly in a flurry of notes with sharp

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