How to Practice the Violin Silently!

I teach my students that they need to practice everyday. Yep, that's right, every single day! Or at least 5 days a week. As SOON as I say that, my students immediately began to make all kinds of excuses! One of the main excuses that I hear is "My only time to practice is at night when other people are sleeping" Okay, well that certainly is a problem because violins are VERY loud! So I have a few solutions for this . . .

The first solution is to just play pizzicato. I have spent hours in front of a mirror before just working on my left hand technique while not even using the bow, or by just plucking the notes so that I can hear the pitch.

The 2nd thing you can practice silently is rhythm and counting. Pull out your music and practice tapping the beats with a pencil or counting out loud quietly. You can never get enough practice counting music!

Now I also have two more options for silent practice and you can use these methods to actually play your violin with the bow, while greatly reducing the sound.

The most common method for quiet practice is to buy a practice mute to place over the bridge of the violin. This dampens the strings so that they do not vibrate as fully. Keep in mind that you buy a 'practice' mute and not an orchestra mute because an orchestra mute does not work as well. There are two kinds of practice mutes, rubber and plastic. Both are large and cover the entire top of the bridge! The rubber mutes are the cheapest, but they don't work as well. The metal mutes cost a little more, but they work REALLY well! Your violin will sound very small and tinny and it shouldn't bother any sleeping family members. However, it's not very much fun to play the violin with the mute on, so I use it as a last resort!

My favorite method for practicing quietly is to use an un-rosined bow! You would be surprised at how well it works! To do it, you need a brand new bow that has never been rosined before. You can just buy a cheap bow for $15 or $20. Then wipe ALL of the rosin off of your violin's strings. You have to get ALL of it off or the bow will pick it up and then it will produce sound. It's not hard to do, just take a clean cloth and wipe it down. Then you are ready to play! The bow will feel a little bit more slippery than your normal bow, but that's okay, just apply a little more pressure to it. You will be able to practice silently, but the neat part is you can still clearly hear all of the notes! It is a very quiet and whispery sound - I actually think it's kind of neat! And the best part is you can practice while others are sleeping and you don't have to play any differently. You can still use your full bow pressure without worrying about being too loud. And there is another benefit as well- since you aren't producing any bad sounds on the violin it encourages you to really play into the string. You'll find yourself relaxing and starting to lighten up. It's actually a great way to practice!

So no more excuses! Even if you have to get your 10 minutes in at night, just buy yourself a mute or a cheap bow and you're ready to go!

Good luck with your playing, and be sure to visit our website www.violinstars.com for more great violin tips and lessons!