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Wonderful Katie - really well done!! Successfully resetting to a relaxed state means you have discovered the key to progress on the violin - and that is awareness. Without awareness we cannot identify and change things. And that nice feeling you described is actually incredibly important. It's possible to play like that most of the time if we know what it feels like and how to find it through resetting... That lovely feeing IS playing the violin! I'm really impressed and delighted for you!! Mary💗

Hello Shin! It's wonderful that you have been searching for and finding solutions both in your technique and your violin setup. Our body is always logical, isn't it? When faced with an awkward shape or position, the body responds correctly by squeezing, resulting in hurting. This is the logic we need to understand by working out how to present the body with the chance to respond differently, with comfort and ease. It's perfectly possible to discover that on the violin, as you are doing... Long held habits are best replaced by new impulses and new habits... awareness and concentration in frequent but very short bursts is the key to replacing even long held habits. So many people play and play, experiencing pain and then only do a little bit of corrective work when it's really too late. No, the majority of our practice should be an experience of ease and comfort, even for very short times with many breaks, you see? Short bursts of concentration are also the basis of resetting, so that we can experience ease and comfort every single time we play - that's the best habit of all! I love, love, love what you said about wanting to play for a very long time. Thank you for your inspiration, Shin! Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv Hi Mary . Thanks for your reply. I have a tendency to get carried away and do what I love for long periods of time without a break. But I was reminded that violin practice should include breaks. I am a speech therapist. I provide breaks and reset times for children in speech therapy. I try to make it as enjoyable as possible, but they tend to make a lot of mistakes and lose self-esteem, which leads to a lack of confidence and mood swings. So, to reset them, I hide all the materials in front of them where they can't see them, take out one of their favourite things and give it to them, or let them walk around the room. I then give them 30 seconds to switch over and resume therapy again. I know this, but when it comes to me, even though it's very painful, I play the violin as if the pain doesn't exist. And then I lose confidence in my inability to play, so I keep practising more. I wondered if my violin practice was the same as speech therapy for children, so nowadays I practise for 10-20 minutes, take a break for stretching and tea, and practice. This way there is naturally no pain and no mistakes, which increases my self-esteem and makes practice more enjoyable. Your videos are all amazing and as a self-taught person, I think your videos are a real treasure as they are all knowledge and techniques I wanted to know. I keep a notebook so that I don't forget as I watch. Shin😊

Hello! Thank you very much! Dotted rhythms are fantastic for both your bowing and your left hand by increasing your touch, precision and coordination and your teacher is very wise to recommend that for you. Advanced players know how good dotted rhythms are for touch. Here is a video all about dotted rhythms which I hope you will find helpful; th-cam.com/video/rc3ZxYmDknI/w-d-xo.html Another term for resetting is 'correcting as you go.' Violinists progress by learning to be intently aware of tensions that may arise while we play and we learn to correct any tension 'as we go', rather than waiting until we stop playing. Thank you and take care. Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv thank you so much for the detailed explanations!!! they've always helped me tremendously. thank you!❤️

Hello Lola! How wonderful to be playing again after two months - I hope your return will bring you fresh joy! Yes, learn to reset and you will transform your practice sessions. Take care! Mary💗

Thank you for your very kind words! Mary💗

Oh Marta, I have so many questions for you...is this a different spot from the previous tendonitis? I'm concerned you may believe consciously or unconsciously that violin playing must involve a certain amount of pain and so regularly disregard warning signals in your fingers...I think that our childhood experiences often creates our tolerance to getting results through pain...do you rest enough and stay fresh physically? Is the big violin too big for you? But you are right; rest, think and reset is the answer. Dearest Marta, take care! Mary💗

Hello Nickie! It's fantastic that you can tell immediately when a note is off - it's really all you need to make improvements to intonation. Well done! Mary💗

Thank you very much! Mary💗

Hello! Well you are very kind and thank you very much to you and your mum🙂 And isn't it wonderful to have a teacher who cares a lot for your progress? You know how much dedication, determination and support it takes to progress on the violin, but you also have talent and joy - those makes me very happy for you because those characteristics are the keys to everything on the violin! Take care. Mary💗

Hello! I'm delighted you found the video helpful! It's fantastic to know you have such wonderful support and encouragement from your mum. Hello to mum🙂 By the way, your channel is great. I love to see your amazing progress - you are an inspiration! Keep going! Mary💗

Thank you! Mary

Thank you; I hope you get good results! Mary💗

Hello! It's such a gorgeous piece - happy to rehearse together, what a lovely thought! Mary💗

Hope you get on well! Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv why can’t we play with the bow tilted away from you?….why is that bad? Thank you

@@redfalcon3833 Interesting question... So many variables in the bow can affect the sound. Because the bow is curved, the stick often comes closer to the bow hair, sometimes too close if the bow hair is too loose, or the bow becomes taut if the hair is too tight. Pressure and speed of bow vary enormously in just one bow stroke, so tilting the bow towards you makes it much easier to gauge and judge all these factors and to adjust accordingly. You cannot see properly what is happening in the bow when it's tilted away from you. At the same time, it's not 'bad' if you make a wonderful sound. Violinists break 'rules' all the time if after experimenting they find something that's right for them and they get great results, right?🙂 Take care, Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv thank you so much for responding, and free advice! I live in a rural area, and disabled so i have to stay home and do everything myself. Which i love! I have learned every part of the violin, have finally learned to read music, and even setting up my violin, from experience fixing guitars. I sanded the nut and cut the grooves better. I used 10k grit, and put graphite in. My violin was cracked from factory, i glued it myself, and seems fine, i only paid 40 dollars for it on ebay. So its ok to start. Thank you so much for responding to me!

@@redfalcon3833 I'm happy if I can assist any budding violinist. I share your interest in the nuts and bolts side - I think you've done brilliantly to fix up your violin, and there's a lot more that can be done to improve the sound of your violin. Getting the bridge placement and height correct is what makes the biggest difference to a violin, as does a good set of sympathetic strings. (There are plenty of violin workshops on TH-cam) Most violins can sound beautiful if they have a sympathetic set up... As for the playing side of things, please let me know if you've any question and I'll be happy to answer if I can, ok? Take care. Mary💗

Hello! The hand needs to be loose to do vibrato: Is your thumb relaxed, your hand loose and are your fingers going down lightly on the fingerboard? All are essential for vibrato. Here's a video all about vibrato that you might find useful; th-cam.com/video/nHEiW5jlryw/w-d-xo.html I wish you all the best! Mary💗

Dear Shin, Thank you very much for another fascinating message. You devised a very ingenious way to help your awareness of your elbow...I applaud your spirit of experimentation - very well done!👋👋👋 Because there is a big difference between setting up our technique and actually playing, we need to learn the skill of 'resetting' ourselves back to our chosen ideal while we are playing. This process of 'resetting' can be learnt by using plenty of awareness and mental and physical breaks to start to integrate this skill into our playing and practice successfully. But remember, we can 'reset' to our preferred techniques only if we have spent plenty of time trusting ourselves and being thoroughly familiar with our techniques, so if some tightness happens anywhere in our body when we play, we have gained the ability to quickly 'reset' ourselves, so never stop finding out what is right for you! Thank you Shin! Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv Hi Mary, thanks for your reply. I was worried because I translated the long text using google, but I am relieved that you understood it. Thank you also for the compliment on this creative method. I found out something about raising the left hand. I found that raising the wrist position above the collarbone for a long time is very tiring. This is just my case. I hope that analysing this symptom will lead to a less tiring way of playing. I will study the relationship between the wrist, collarbone, elbow and shoulder. I am a speech therapist and music therapist by profession. So I am very interested in music and the body. I love to do research. Shin

@@s8299shin Hi Shin! I too was using Google translate for comments in different languages, but recently TH-cam have introduced a 'translate to English' facility at the bottom of the comment, so your words and ideas are clear for everyone to read, for which I am very grateful... Your discovery of tiredness in parts of the left arm is something that we as orchestral musicians discover very quickly during long hours of rehearsals. Rehearsing very demanding music for six hours soon teaches you how to maximise comfort and minimise effort. A certain amount of stamina and experience is of course involved in violin playing, but like any other activity, it's best built up gradually. It's a good idea when experimenting or practicing to include frequent 'shake outs' or a tea breaks, otherwise the body gets very weary. Take the precious time to stay fresh when playing the violin so you're working with the body and the mind... If you look very carefully you will see the wrist is not above the collarbone, but below. Yes, the wrist can occasionally move above the collarbone expressively, but the basic position is below and the violin tilts down slightly. Think about the bodily logic of the arm coming up to meet the violin coming from the neck above... Holding the violin too high causes quite a few problems in the neck, shoulder and left arm, as I find in my teaching. The balance of the violin hold between our head and left hand stays light when we employ gravity in our well fitted shoulder rest. Gravity is a very important factor in both holding the violin and bowing... Aah! I thought there was something beyond learning the violin in your interest, so I'm delighted to find you are a therapist - wonderful! I look forward to your further adventures and experiments with fascination and delight. Take care and thank you Shin! Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv Mary Thanks. I am very encouraged by you. Thanks for all the advice. I volunteered as a music therapist playing the violin in front of elderly people for about four years. (Now it's mainly speech therapy for children.) I played my country's nursery rhymes for two hours three times a week in front of elderly people. The elderly people with dementia were very happy to hear me, but looking back, I am very ashamed to say that I was not very good at it. I would like to get better at it, but I will try not to push myself too hard. Shin.😊

@@s8299shin Thank you very much. Your listeners were very lucky to have you playing for them. I know what it's like to play to elderly people. They are very kind and usually they only need a tiny bit of recognition of a tune to set off a jolly response... I imagine as a therapist you might encourage people not to use the word 'ashamed' when looking back, so I'll also say the same thing to you - we are all on our own precious path of discovery and progress - hopefully at a comfortable speed! I wish you all the best! Mary💗

Hello - thank you very much! I like 'Scales and Arpeggios For Violin' by Derek Collier because the fingerings are so good. Being really familiar with good fingering patterns helps us so much to think like a violinists when playing our studies and pieces... Take care and have fun. Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv fantastic, thank you very much.

Tjanks again Mary, I got the collier book today and have already learned something useful. It looks amazing, years of learning in it

@@ivrz Wonderful! Mary💗

Hello Lola! Thank you very much for your kind words. I hope you are well and having a lovely time...a huge hug! Mary💗

Dear Shin, I love that this piece evokes that feeling of autumn and home for you...here in Scotland the wild roses have flowered and finished, but their buds glow red, pink and orange in the autumn sun. It evokes a longing in me for those long, full flowering days of summer...sigh. But isn't it wonderful that we we can express these things with such personal meaning in a beautiful piece like 'To A Wild Rose?' I hope you enjoy it. Mary💗

Thank you very much! Mary💗

Hello Debbie. I'm sorry you're still suffering from soreness...a while back I mentioned that you have become accustomed to your head and shoulders being really rigid when playing and that the skin under your chin was being dragged forward, creating a sort of double chin effect, leaving less space for the chin and shoulder rests. I advised you to slightly lower your shoulder rest and place your chin rest much more to the side of your jaw to free everything. Also to practice moving your head from left to front over and over while you're playing to teach the head how to be free.. It's not easy to stop being rigid, but knowing what to do and going one step at a time step will be successful. Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv Thank you !! I'll try this.

@@DivaDeb1234I hope you find a comfy way to play, im just starting and it is very awkward and uncomfortable.

@@redfalcon3833 thank you

@@violinstudiowithmaryv Hi Mary, I did all these things the last couple days. Such a big habit to tense up.I am seriously trying this time. I think I now know what to do . I have to keep constantly reminding myself.

Thank you very much! Mary💗

Thank you! Mary💗

Thank you very much! Mary💗

It's really lovely, I agree. Thank you! Mary💗

Thanks for the encouragement - I'll do my best! Take care. Mary💗

Hello Shin, thanks very much, I'm very glad you're finding the exercises useful when doing your studies. Having plenty of breaks like you are doing is the very best way to give the inner mind a chance to absorb and refine all our outer experiences. You will find yourself refreshed and more alert and concentrated after a good break, so this is the best way to practice; well done! Take care. Mary💗

Hello! Thank you very much, I'm so glad you find it helpful - and it's amazing how quickly we can learn that tension has nowhere to go when we use our secret weapon...😀Take care. Mary💗

Thank you very much! Mary💗

Dear Shin, Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments. I'm delighted you found the shoulder rest comfortable and relieved any shoulder squeezing... I really admire your talent for observation and your willingness and patience to experiment. Knowing how to slow down and really examine our own actions is something that we violinists have to do over and over again... Old ways of doing things are constantly being refined and even overturned as the music we play becomes more complex and our technique progresses. This means it becomes second nature to take great care of our basic fundamental techniques, as we depend on those foundations for everything we can hope to achieve on the violin. I wish you all the best! Mary💗

Dear Alice, Thanks for your question. It's difficult to answer because I don't want to undermine your teacher in any way. However, you should not be asked to do things on the violin without explanations of why and how to do them, so I'm puzzled and would like to ask you, why are you not getting answers from your teacher? Can you not talk to your teacher? There should be plenty of dialogue with your teacher until you know exactly how to practice, but your questions tell me that's not happening...ask yourself why not. Anyway, back to your question; there isn't one answer; perhaps your teacher thinks your fingers are lifting too much and wants you to learn how to have them closer to the string. Or perhaps they were taught to keep all the fingers down and can do that only because they have long fingers and like most violinists, they don't realise that people with small hand need a different approach of finding escape mechanisms for the different fingers. It's crucial that we can set up our hand so we can play an octave with the 1st and 4th fingers without becoming rigid. Watch some videos all about setting up a small hand; th-cam.com/video/sMh3W2CFv7M/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/69osBchjZu0/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/J3OZcjjpdII/w-d-xo.html In this video all about finger drills you will see how I release fingers to keep my small hand relaxed; th-cam.com/video/Joar6qBb6ZY/w-d-xo.html I've done plenty of horrible, uncomfortable studies and pieces, trying to force my left hand into unrealistic 'recommended' techniques usually devised by people with 'normal' large hands until I realised I have to find what actually works for me... Many violinists recommend keeping the fingers as close to the string as possible, which is needed to play fast, but you can also see fantastic violinists lifting their fingers all the time to make their vibrato and shifting more free, so there's no rule, except one - whatever works for you. All violin technique needs to be tailored to our individual needs. Perhaps you need to take charge of that by asking questions and having a proper dialogue with your teacher until you are satisfied... I wish you all the best! Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv Dear Mary , unfortunately some violin teachers don't know how to explain why and how , yes my fingers are very short plus my teacher thinks that I play the piano , I mimic the action on piano to the violin. Maybe that is why she keeps asking me kept all the fingers down. She says it is a problem to hold fingers down , pianists lift fingers all the times on the keys Do you think people play piano will have the problem learning the violin . It seems the two instruments are quite opposite , piano we are right hand dominated , but violin left hand is doing lot of fingers work. Plus I am lazy not actively listening , it really takes time to get ear training , I really appreciate you have given me a good insight why and how , I certainly work on this and watch your precious videos and teaching. Thank you so much for taking time and effort to share with us

Dear Alice, Thanks again for your thoughts...I think I see now what your teacher is trying to help you with but in fact you may be missing some fundamental techniques in the left hand that you need first... I'd like you to kindly consider some things I've observed... The way you put your fingers down and not actively listening are connected. Actively listening is much more than ear training. It's actually awareness and examination of your actions and thoughts. Without that you will be stuck just repeating the same things. I've mentioned before that you're in a great hurry to improve but your impatience has caused you to miss out on quite a lot of fundamental things you really need to make genuine progress... Your teacher is trying to stop you banging your fingers down too hard on the fingerboard. It's a common problem. Piano playing and right and left hand domination is not an issue here. It's more a question of how you are processing information, which comes right back to being actively observant. You cannot really expect to play the violin without really listening to what you're producing, or examining with full awareness the movements you're making. Repetition is not the answer because it does not correct the problem, but just reinforces our mistakes and bakes them in. I advise you to slow right down and have a think about why you are leaving it up to teachers to do all the listening. A teacher can only do so much without an active pupil, you see? So Alice, those are my observations and I strongly advise you to think about your great passion and desire to improve and why you would allow yourself to be lazy and not examine extremely carefully every single thing you do on the violin. I know you can do it. Take care! Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv thank you Mary for reminder , I will learn to be patient and actively listen and watch my fingers and intonation , actually my bowing is getting better without scrapping on the wood , I understand what is happening

Dear Alice, I'm delighted your bowing has improved - well done! By really listening and examining yourself you will make the progress you want so much...and do try to have conversations with your teachers, not moving on until you fully understand the reasons and the techniques you are being asked to practice, ok? Take care Alice! Mary💗

Dear Shin, Thank you very much for your very thoughtful comments...I appreciate your willingness to experiment and stay open to possibilities. By shifting the weight of our pressure on the strings from the 1st to the 4th finger and back, we activate a type of flexibility in our hands and learn to equalise different finger strengths. This is far superior to always just putting our fingers down the same way. The first finger, thumb and chin hold the violin, while the first finger is also also a playing finger. That violin hold is the fundamental thing that helps or hinders our flexibility... Basically if the violin hold is too tight between the 1st finger and thumb then the other fingers cannot reach out easily. And if the thumb is too tight when using any finger it causes rigidity in the whole hand. We can discover several release mechanisms in the fingers and hand through experimenting with shifting weight, as you are doing through the use of basic simple scales; a wonderful way to practice to establish concepts and techniques - very, very well done! Thoughtful exploration such as you are doing is the key to success on the violin - that and enjoyment! I wish you all the best. Mary💗

Hello Isabellas! Thank you so much for your heartfelt words...Mary💗

Hello Katie! Thank you very much. These weight shifting exercises will strengthen your 4th finger and make your hand feel much more flexible and strong - always a great feeling! Take care. Mary💗

Thank you very much Marta! Mary💗

Hello! I get marks and grooves too, especially since I got my new fingerboard. It doesn't really matter if you get marks and grooves so long as your hand isn't getting tired...but thumb tapping really works to lighten up a bit. Take care. Mary💗

Thank you! Mary💗

Thank you! Mary💗

Dear Shin, I'm delighted you have been finding my videos helpful. Again you have mentioned a very important issue for violinists - the uneven strength of the fingers. Please remember that balancing the hand so the fingers can move equally is something that takes quite a long time on the violin. This is because as we progress and play more complex and demanding music, we find that changes need to be made to the hand to introduce more and more flexibility to the movements, not just in the fingers, but in the hand itself. It's a constant, exciting progression until we find that our hand has more stamina and is more balanced and flexible.. Have a look at the new video on my channel which is all about balancing the left hand. Thanks again for your fascinating comments. Take care. Mary💗

Hello Katie! Wow, that's dedication - I hope you're enjoying yourself...Mary💗

Hello Shin! I'm very glad you found the video helpful, thank you. You have mentioned a really important but often hidden factor in violin; pleasure versus pain. You are absolutely right that for many personal reasons, some from our childhood, we validate our hard work by making sure there is pain involved. This is a conditioned and often rewarded position: Pain can certainly make us feel we've worked hard. But the drawback to this approach on the violin is that pain and discomfort always hinders our progress... So if we learn techniques and do simple basic things on the violin while relaxing and observing, we give ourselves a chance to alter our mindset to a much more effective state for progress - pleasure and even joy. We can marry these feelings to our philosophy of cherishing our chance to play the violin and to enjoy every minute of our precious lives... With this mindset then any pain we experience is dealt with from a very different standpoint. We can now view pain as an important signal to ourselves and we can learn techniques to eliminate it from our own precious violin world, just as you said so wisely. Take care. Mary💗

Hello Shin! Thank you very much. It's great to hear that you are now pain free! I'm relieved and delighted that my videos are clear and easily understood even in translation... Please let me know if there's anything in particular you would like to see a video about, ok? A little bit of technical knowledge can really help us to solve issues and make progress. It's wonderful to make contact with you all the way from Japan to Scotland where I am. Take care and keep going! Mary💗

Hello! Thank you very much, I'm delighted if you found the video helpful! Mary💗

Hello! I'm thrilled for you that you've had such good results! It's not always that easy to work out exactly what causes pain, so your analysis that the violin was unstable was quite brilliant... And remember that when we change something on the violin, the body wants strongly to go back to older habits, so we need to keep things very fresh and aware to help embed our desired new habits. I'm sure it must feel wonderful to be free again to play your beloved violin! Take care. Mary💗

Hello! Thanks very much - wow, those are all great tunes and very jolly - seems like you're a happy fiddler! Mary💗

And I came in second place at a fiddle contest last month! Actually got prize money :)

@@chickensandsuch.1754 How wonderful - congratulations! It's an honour to have a prize winning violinist on my channel. Take care. Mary💗

Well, I wouldn't go that far. Still a fiddler.

@@chickensandsuch.1754😄

Hello! Thank you very much - I love Father O'Flynn! Mary💗

Hello! Thank you very much! Mary💗

Hello! Thanks for the suggestion...I'll look for a lovely accompaniment. Mary💗

Dear Mary, How wonderful that you and your teacher play Irish tunes and you love Scottish airs! There is something especially poetic in them about the spirit of the land that makes our heart ache... in fact the air you mentioned is my favourite, 'Ca' The Yowes,' words by Robert Burns; Ca' the yowes to the knowes, Ca' them where the heather grows Ca' them where the burnie rows, My bonie dearie. Fair and lovely as thou art, Thou hast stown my very heart; I can die-but canna part, My bonie dearie. TH-cam has loads of wonderful fiddlers and Celtic groups and there are also tutorials showing ornamentation - it's amazing just how much is there for us! Take care, dearest Mary, and keep playing those beautiful airs... Mary💗

@@violinstudiowithmaryv Thank you very much Mary, you are very kind, this wonderful air has so some beautiful words.

Oh Mary thank you so much, I love trying to play Irish and Scottish tunes, and I always feel guilty because I start my practice sessions with warm ups then scales then I intend to do a few etudes but always end up practicing my Irish jigs instead, I’m currently working on Tamlin and sailors wife and love the Scottish tune Arran Boat I think its called, I will definitely look up that book and try and get hold of one, I’m 18 mths into learning this wonderful instrument but your little tips are so helpful and have been a great boost for me, Thankyou once again. From Australia😊

Hello Chris! Thank you very much. I'm afraid you're well and truly hooked! Feeling guilty isn't working, so that's something you might as well give up immediately. 😄 Remember how incredibly good Scottish and Irish music this music is for your playing too and of course something you love should play a big part in your practice... (Maybe even learn to love scales and studies just as much! 😄😅😀) There's a special place in violinists hearts for folk music. For many of us there's a connection to our roots or a feeling for our land or simply a love for the violin. So I wish you the very best on your wonderful, joyful violin journey. Mary💗