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Now use your other hand on the end of the violin as shown taking care to
maintain good posture. This is the playing position.
A common mistake is to roll the left shoulder forward to support the violin. Keep your left shoulder back. The violin should be kept level along the length of the instrument so that both ends of it are at the same height from the ground, however the left side of the instrument should be higher than the right. Never let your elbow rest on the side of your body, hold the instrument up. The end of your chin should be very near to the tail piece and the underside of the violin should be touching your collar bone, with the instrument resting against your neck. |
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If your collar bone gets sore then you can use a cloth as a cushion but
make sure the instrument does not slide all over the place because you
are using too much to protect yourself. Doing this will cause clamping
up in an effort to control the instrument and compound the problem. The key here is to relax, hold the violin up with your left hand and sit the instrument gently up against your neck. The image on the right illustrates how the violin is rotated with one side of the instrument being higher than the other. If both sides of the violin were level you would have to lift your bowing arm very high to playing the instrument which would be both difficult and uncomfortable. Hold the violin up as shown in the image above, with your left hand on the body of the violin and not the neck as shown here. |  |
