Violinist in Balance

I was happy and grateful to do this project. Feeling more comfortable with my instrument has helped my playing. If I can use my body better, I can play better. Having equipment that suits me means that I can look forward to having a good feeling more often whenever I pick up the violin. I can feel a difference between the good feelings I have now and the bad feelings I had before.

If I had pupils, I would be more conscious about their equipment and how they used their bodies. I really didn’t know about or notice these things before but now I feel that it’s really important. If you can learn it when you are a child it is better than when you are 27, like me!

I noticed that I had a lot of resistance to trying new things. I think in general musicians have quite closed minds and they think they don’t want to put “ugly things” on the violin two centimeters high. I’m not the only one who thinks like that! Sometimes, during the research, I thought “Come on! Let’s just continue with the normal things.” But maybe when you don’t believe too much in these “normal” things you sometimes have to trust that it’s okay to try “crazy” things, no?

This is what I would advise: If you don’t feel really good with your equipment, try something new, even when you don’t know exactly where it can go. At least it won’t be worse than what you had. Give it a chance!