How to put a shoulder rest on the violin

Today, I’d like to talk about how to put a shoulder rest on the violin.

My seven-year-old beginning student always repositions her violin many times before she starts playing.

“I wonder why you always need to reposition the violin. 🙂

I’m sure it is uncomfortable for you.

May I see your violin? “

I checked the position of her shoulder and her violin and found that the position of the shoulder rest was not very good.

When I teach a small child, I do not use a shoulder rest, but use a hand towel or handcachikef  folded in order to prevent slipping.

In the case of this student, she has been using the KUN shoulder rest, since she had been studying with other teachers for a year and a half and was used to it.

I reattached the wider side of the shoulder rest to the largest curve of the violin on the chin rest side and had her hold the instrument. She seems a lot more comfortable and she did not reposition her violin. Ta-la~♪ 🙂

Let me explain a little more. Let’s say the widest part of the violin is 12 on the clock, and we hook the wider part of the shoulder rest there, then the thinner part of the shoulder rest will naturally come to about 5 o’clock on the violin.

I always start with this position.

For many young students,like this 7-year-old student, it well usually settle very comfortably with this positioning.

This student’s mother comes to watch the lessons as well as help her practice at home, so I explained to the mother how to attach the shoulder rest. However, there are some students at her age, who come to the lessons alone. If that is the case, I indicate where to attach the shoulder rest by marking with four small stickers on the violin.

By their late teens, most students develop their own sense according to their physical strength, flexibility, and their natural posture.

Some students wanted to feel the shoulder rest to be close to 11 and 4, as shown in the photo above. When I was a teenager, I remember putting a shoulder rest in this position, but now I feel more comfortable with 12 and 5.

In theory, the shoulder rest could be at 1 o’clock and 6 o’clock, but this would be very uncomfortable due to the structure of the human body. You can try and see. 🙂

By the way, I think my shoulder rest shown in the photos is “double leather” of Mach One. I went through a long journey !! of searching MY shoulder rest in the past, and I finally settled with it and have been using it for quite some time. My first Mach One was the plastic with sponge + leather, however, as time goes by, the sponge wore out and came off, so I upgraded to plastic with leather + leather (“double-leather”) . Since Mach One has been always developping their models, the exact model of mine may not be available anymore.

This is my favorite model for a very long time, but I sometimes still wonder if this is the best shoulder rest for me. There may be something even better out there.

It may be interesting to make reviews of the shoulder rests.

One thing I can say is that this shoulder rest has a unique curve, so I don’t think it can work for everyone. This can be said of any shoulder rest, but I highly recommend trying it first, before purchasing.

another article: How to clean a violin and a bow?

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