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How To Play THE VIOLIN - excercises

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open E string, which sounds the tone E when it is not pressed
down by a finger.

The word Pizz. (pizzicatto) means to pluck a string with the
finger instead of sounding it with the bow.

The sign s~~~ is called a slur, and covers two notes. It means
that the two notes are to be played with one stroke of the bow
—either upward or downward.

Playing the Open Strings

Your first exercise on the violin should^ be to play on each
open string, E, A, D and G. Practice until you can get a good,
clear tone.

Start with the E string. Use the middle part of the bow.
Draw the bow down slowly and evenly. Do not press against
the string. Then push the bow up slowly. Practice until you
can make a clear, singing tone.

Next play on the G string. Move the bow slowly but steadily.
An important point is not to touch the edge of the violin with
the bow.

Practice next on the A string and D string. The important
thing here is to touch only the one string on which you are
playing.

When you have practiced on all the strings, do the simple
exercise shown in Fig. 65. This consists of playing E with a down
bow, and A with an up bow. Then play D with a down bow
and G with an up bow.

These simple exercises will get you started. You should con-
tinue to play on the open strings until you can play first one,
then another, and then another with a good bit of confidence.
It is right at this point that a book of easy violin exercises
would be a real help. Such a book, which you can get at any
music store, will give you a number of open string exercises to
work at. We are really sorry that there isn't room for some of
these in thik book; but we feel that it isn't asking too much of
Dur readers to ask them to help themselves along by getting the
music they need at one of the regular music stores.

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