Yeah, well, this was not unexpected. One thing at a time.
I needed a bow so I could try to play the violin again. At age 64. After, conservatively, a 35 year hiatus. Hence the just-past posts on rehairing a bow.
And now that I have a functioning bow, I tried to play the violin again.
The re-haired bow makes noise as well as it ever did.
Not so the violinist.
And not in some “oh, I’m out of practice” way. Beyond that, I’m simply too fat at the neck hold the violin correctly any more. Probably have been for quite a while now.
I can no longer “tuck it under my chin”, that is, support the violin horizontally without use of the (fingering, left) hand. Hold the violin up using the neck only. I tried a range of positions and implements. There is no position in which I can stand to do that for more than a few seconds at a time.
My recollection is that you need to be able to do that — be able to support the fiddle hands-free — to play some (probably) most classical music well. I also recollect I never did have good position, as I played.
Doesn’t matter. I yam what I yam. The only way I can now play the violin is “fiddle-style”, with the violin neck supported by, and frequently clasped in, the left (fingering) hand. I know this is dysfunctional, compared to a light grip, on a fiddle supported by the fiddler’s neck. But until something major changes, that’s how I play, if I play the violin.
