is violin very diffrent to guitar?

Comments

1. Carpetbomb says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   i think violin is more akin to the bass, if you play that
2. Krankor says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   If I understand your question correctly, the answer is: yes

   I believe that what you are asking is, will your prior experience in playing guitar help you in learning violin. If that’s correct, I’ll offer my own experience. I played guitar for some 30 years before I decided to take up violin, and it definitely helped some. The two instruments are very different, but there are still some skills that translate.

   There were certain beginner problems that I never had, things where I observed my violin teacher looking to catch me at but never did. For instance, he never had to tell me to press the string down harder, because my fingers were already plenty strong and used to pressing down strings. He never once had to tell me to look at the music instead of my fingers, because I was already used to doing that. And I already had a natural "feel" for the strings, such that it wasn’t that hard for me to feel where exactly the fingers should go to get the right pitch, even without frets, or how far up the neck to move when switching positions. And, of course, I had developed a pretty good ear for pitch, so I could usually tell instantly when I had fingered a note in slightly the wrong place, and could quickly adjust.

   Obviously, some things will be foreign to you too. The violin is tuned in fifths, whereas the guitar is tuned in fourths, so the string layout will be completely unfamiliar (but you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly). The bowing is brand new. The biggest problem I had was that vibrato is done *entirely* differently, and I never did get the hang of it (I only studied violin for two years).
3. Little Rebel says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   The violin only has 4 strings while the guitar has 6. This would make the notes different. It would help to know if you finger pick or if you use a pick. Either way you use a bow.
4. guitar baby says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   um well the music theroy is pretty much the same but the accutcal itrument and notes are not. it may make it mroe confusing becuase an A in a guitar may look like _ and that note could be a C in violin
5. Poo says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   It might help you exercise your fingers! However, violin is not very similar to guitar.

   Violin is a very complex and beautiful instrument, the early frustrations are worth the prize you receive at the end. Practicing for thirty minutes to an hour a day for eight years is not much. An old man at eighty eight would learn the violin and think of those eight years as nothing! It’s much easier to learn when you’re young though.
6. plwimsett says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   It depends what you mean by an advantage-if you want to join an orchestra, then yes. But it probably won’t help you play the guitar. And its much more complicated. Not only that a guitar is much cheaper than a guitar.
7. mc_hammark says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   it would not be an advantage to learn it if you want to play the guitar well but to the title question, no the theory of it is quite similar
8. Joe says:
   April 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   The violin is very different from the guitar. It’s tuned differently, it’s fretless (meaning your finger placement has to be much more precise), it’s bowed instead of plucked, and several other issues. I knew a violinist, an excellent one I might add, who always casually commented that if you can play a violin you can play any stringed instrument. He started learning to play guitar and was so absolutely awful I couldn’t stand to have him around. So the skills don’t really translate. On the other hand, all the musical theory is the same.
   Also if you learn to play violin you’ll be surrounded by violin bigots who talk about what a fine and elegant and complex instrument it is. Which is true, but not any more elegant and complex than a guitar, or a bass, or a piano, or a flute. They’ll talk about how it takes a lifetime to learn to play, even after hearing twelve-year-olds play Paganini’s Caprices. These are people who turn up their noses at any other instrument and any other style even though they can’t even begin to comprehend the difficulty of playing, say, a J Mascis-style guitar solo. Do you want to be associated with that kind of person?
   Mind you, I just unleashed a half page of vitriol against a huge worldwide group of mostly decent people because of their one shared characteristic as if it defined everything about them, so if you take my advice you’re listening to something disturbingly close to racism. But it’s still true.
   Anyway, yes, it’s different, no, there’s no advantage, and I’m about to be shot by a violinist, aren’t I?

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