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Violins in concert band?

Posted by Henn on 10/16/2024, 11:20 am

Greetings hive mind! I had a student the other day come in and ask me if they could play in our band. We don't have an orchestra program here and I don't want to turn a student away from music. What would you do? I'm at a 3A HS. Thanks!

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Been there on 10/18/2024, 8:51 am, in reply to "Violins in concert band?"

I've been there and done that, in several different situations. Small school life. I had a great cellist for a couple of years who played bassoon parts and was a featured soloist for us, and I've had a couple of terrible violinists who ended up playing tambourine and triangle for a few months before quitting. My best clarinet right now came to me as a viola player a few years ago.

What age is this student? I'd have a different answer for a senior who will be one and done, vs a freshman who will be there for 4 years.

Are they any good? Do they take lessons? Do you feel confident in teaching them to play violin? If your only experience is college methods class, your answer should be no. Are they good enough on violin that they don't need much help with the technique of the instrument?

Do you march? What will they do for marching? Unless you're planning a violin feature for your marching show next year (could be really cool) they'll need a different instrument for marching anyway.

A violin player should have no problem reading oboe parts straight off the page. Flute would be a challenge, a 2nd year violinist probably doesn't read ledger lines well (and probably isn't in tune in that range).

A good musician should be able to pick up enough percussion knowledge to play some pit percussion and accessories during concert band. If their reading skills are good, or they have piano experience, maybe even some keyboard percussion.

A motivated musician will be able to pick up a wind instrument and learn it, if you have the time (or can outsource) to teach them.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Perc. Dir. on 10/17/2024, 3:35 pm, in reply to "Violins in concert band?"

What would the harm be of having them learn simple percussion parts for concert band, and then also have them play a solo for solo contest?

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Respectfully on 10/17/2024, 7:40 am, in reply to "Violins in concert band?"

Do they *already* play violin or is that just what they *want* to play? Your message isn't clear.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Mr. Dude on 10/17/2024, 10:22 am, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

I have a violin player in my 3A high school. She plays percussion now. We tried talking her into double bass but she was not interested.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Respectfully on 10/17/2024, 1:36 pm, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

Switching violin to double bass isn't easy. The instrument is totally different - positions are different, string order is different, bowing is different, and it's a totally different animal. It's like going from F horn to trombone.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Orch guy on 10/23/2024, 11:02 pm, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

It's not as hard as you think. The handframe on a violin (distance from 1st to 4th finger) is almost identiacal to bass, the difference being on violin it's a perfect 4th and on bass it's a whole step. Bowing is similar. Reading music for bass takes some getting used to as the violin open strings are 5ths apart, so every other space is an open string. Bass is tuned to 4ths so the open strings alternate lines and spaces. This causes some embarrasing misses when the music goes up by a 5th and the former violinist just jumps up a string, missing the intended note by a whole step, but in my experience it's easier for violinists to switch to bass than it is for cellists. At least, my top bass players have all switched from violin.
Yeah, positions are different, but to be honest many bass players don't think about what position they're in. There's two schools of thought, with one (used in Essential Elements) treating the positions much like violin, and the other (Francois Rabbath) using the natural harmonics as guidepoints for positions, so what a violinist would think of as 3rd position, the Rabbath system would call 2nd position. I've seen one excellent scale book for bass that avoids the conflict and just calls it a "new position".

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by No on 10/18/2024, 2:07 pm, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

With the differences in bow hold, etc. it is like going from F Horn to Bassoon

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Henn on 10/17/2024, 9:55 am, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

Apologies. They already play Violin and have for 2 years.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Percguy on 10/17/2024, 12:19 pm, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

A few years ago, I had a similar situation. 3A district, 7th grade violin player comes in. We put him on percussion, and he made the top region band the next year.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Jake on 10/17/2024, 6:43 am, in reply to "Violins in concert band?"

I would ask if the student also plays the piano. Whether the answer is yes or no, I would ask if the student about playing keyboard instruments in the percussion section.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by refree on 10/17/2024, 12:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

For some parents strings are everything. They would not appreciate you sidetracking their child away from strings to something else.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by If thats true on 10/17/2024, 2:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

In this case, then they wouldn’t be enrolling their child in a school without an orchestra program.

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by really retired on 10/16/2024, 4:25 pm, in reply to "Violins in concert band?"

to me: switch to mallets, percussion, tuba (1st choice). Double bass. Oh wait. start on oboe or bassoon. So many good dumb responses here. m

Re: Violins in concert band?

Posted by Rodney Bennett on 10/23/2024, 3:36 pm, in reply to "Re: Violins in concert band?"

Back in 1992-1993 when I taught in Munday. We had a foreign exchange student that was an accomplished violinist, played keyboard percussion in our marching band and then played violin in the concert band. She was a great asset, played with a beautiful sound. She sat right next to my oboe player. If the student plays well I would use heron violin.

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