I think this is one of the best threads that I found on this forum so far. I want to learn the violin quick and have been playing long hours everyday but the way I'm practicing is really slow in a good way. Really want to understand my scales and different fingering patterns. I spend a lot of time doing just that, holding the violin like a guitar and plucking the strings to understand all the different scale patterns on the violin. I'm not sure if that is a good thing to do for brand new musicians but I have a long history on other instruments and I need to transpose I guess you could say in a way that I'm familiar with.

And that bow! That's so important to get the beautiful sound of a violin. It's the main point of the violin family of instruments for sound. Many hours I have been doing just Bowing things on the open strings and understanding 4 main arm positions for the 4 strings. Now I'm getting 3 more pretty good arm positions in between those for playing 2 strings at a time. I thought tremolo or vibrato style would come pretty easy for me on violin because I do that all the time on guitar but with a bow in the right hand....changes things! Still lovin' the violin Fiddlerman! oh, and fiddlerman I'm using a foam padding insert from one of my rollerblade helmets that I cut up and using a rubberband to hold it in place. It works great. I did go to a music shop on Monday and tried 3 (that's all they had) shoulder pads but didn't feel as good as just holding the violin without one on my shoulder. They have different chin rests too but nobody with violin experience there at the time to change them. I booked a lesson with a teacher for holding the violin for next Wed.