FIddle

Buying a first violin

by Lia Zito June 21, 2009

I sometimes get sent Craigslist postings from students asking me whether they should buy an instrument based on the label information provided in the seller’s post.

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Every so often I get asked to teach a viola player Irish music. I usually talk them into playing fiddle instead, and here’s why: Mostly, this music is pretty much set up around the keys of D and G and their relative modes. To play in those keys on viola involves a lot of stretching to […]

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So you’re left-handed…

by Lia Zito May 29, 2009

If you’re left-handed, should you learn to play an instrument left-handed? Well, no. And I’m a lefty. Being a violin teacher, I come across this idea pretty regularly, since the left & right hands do very different things on the violin (unlike, say, piano). Guitar players also will ask the left-handed question. It’s not quite […]

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Why won’t my instrument stay in tune?

by Lia Zito May 22, 2009

Instruments aren’t built to stay in tune perfectly, and they shouldn’t. Here’s why: all materials change size with changing temperature, and wood is also quite sensitive to changes in humidity. To survive in Alaska, instruments must be able to respond to the changing weather, and this necessarily changes their tuning. Ask any carpenter: wood moves. […]

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