Playing what you hum or whistle on the violin
Let's say I have a tune in my mind, one I have invented and so there isn't any sheet music for it still. I would like to play it on the violin. What strategy can I use to find out what strings to use and where to press them?
For the guitar I just play all notes from the lowest to the highest until I find the one nearest to the first I can whistle (since human whistle is quite high in pitch, I may decide to transpose this note one octave sometimes, to not go past the highest available pitch on the guitar) That fixes my first note. Then I play a second note starting from the first and going either up or down until I find what matches the tune second note as I can whistle and so on. Since there are frets, I have a discrete set of pitches (ignore bending effects, which I only add later as embellishments).
But on a fiddle, how to do that? Is it right if I use vibrato to correct the pitch until it matches the note I whistle? How am I going to remember the left hand's positions without frets? Just muscle memory?
How do you composers find out notes for a music you have in your head on the violin? I am especially interested to play a piece of music I am thinking of that has the timbre of the violin.
(3)3 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
Presumably what you really want is to be able to 'just play' the melody on your instrument of choice, in the same way as you can easily 'just sing' or 'just whistle' it. With sufficient practice, this can come - you hand can develop the same ability to jump to the right position on the right string to get the pitch you want without any obvious thought or analysis going on.
The question is - how to develop this ability as quickly as possible?
If the instrument had just one string, you could probably develop this ability fairly quickly without too much analytical thought - your hand would learn how far to jump, just as your lips or vocal folds learn how to change position.
The difficulty is that violins and guitars have multiple strings, and taking advantage of those is trickier to do through intuition alone.
This is where learning how to play some scales on the instrument is really useful - and at first it doesn't really matter if the scales you learn are not the scales you use in your music. If you learn to play a few different major scales you'll learn how to move a semitone, a tone, a fifth, and how to jump an octave. This will give you an idea of how the pitches 'map' across the strings, and will make it easier for you to play any music using any scale.
You could also try to work out what scales your music is using. If you do find that your music is using a particular scale or scales, then those scales will be the most useful ones to practice as you will be learning / reinforcing the note positions that you need to find for your tunes.
There are two ways that come to mind:
Find a violin teacher, whistle the melody to them and ask them to teach it to you. (Easiest way, but also requires money)
Use a computer or a smartphone to record yourself whistling the melody.
then use a transcription tool like "amazing slow downer", "music speed changer" or even "audacity" (open source) to slow the notes down to 1/2 or 1/4 speed. You can also set loop points - loop the first note so the computer or phone plays it over and over until you find it on the violin, then loop the next one, etc. (Needs no money, just lots of time and patience)
To find notes on the violin (or just about any string instrument):
Play an open string.
If it's higher than the note you're imagining, play the next string to the left (thicker). If it's lower, play the next string to the right (thinner).
Eventually one of 3 things will happen:
You're back and forth between 2 strings: This means the note you want is somewhere on the left string in the pair, but not higher than the right string. Slide up the left string in the pair until you find your note.
You're on the right-most string (on the violin: E). Slide up until you find your note.
The note is lower than the left-most string (on the violin: G). It's out of range. Move the whole tune higher and try again.
Getting hold of a mandolin might help - it's tuned the same as a violin, but has frets, which will help give you some structure.
There's also some ear-training software specifically for violin like this: www.violineartrainer.com/ which will help you orient yourself and speed up the connection between your head and your fingers.
Good luck, and enjoy your musical journey. It may take a while.
You ask for strategies. The first is to be able to play various scales - major and minor are good for starters. It seems at the moment that you need to play each and every note up and down till you find the matching one, then do almost the same for subsequent notes.
Most tunes use the notes from a particular key - they're the scale notes, and are, in lots of cases, seven out of the twelve. The other five often don't feature, so why waste time playing them to check if they're in your tune.
So, armed with scale knowledge, you can more easily find the key your song is in, and choose only from that set of notes for the rest. At the same time, you'll get used to intervals, e.g. going from note one to note three in a scale is a third, so when you recognise the sound, it'll save a lot of time and pointless searching.
If you struggle more on the violin, it's not surprising, as landmarks on the fingerboard don't exist. As ever, a teacher will be another strategy.
Yes, learning scales is often perceived as tedious, but nowhere near as tedious as your method right now!
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © freshhoot.com2026 All Rights reserved.