Drawing and Writing Violins

Ask blog for questions about violins in fiction

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Hi! This blog is for the purpose of evaluating the use of violins in art and fiction (movies, shows, etc) and whether or not they are being used properly. It's also here to serve as a resource for anyone who wants to learn more about violins so they can draw or write about characters playing them!

Send me asks about characters playing a violin, and I'll answer them! You can also submit your own art or writing if you want.

Sample Evaluation

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I thought it might be fun to share a video of a violinist I found. This is, as the video title shows, Clayton Haslop, a violinist who has focal dystonia. This obviously has a large impact on how he plays, as he can only use two fingers when the violin is designed (and its music is written) to be played with four.

The way he plays is so fun to watch, partly because of the differences in how he has to play (mainly a lot more shifting than usual) but also because he's just such a good musician.

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I mentioned I would try doing info posts for various violin facts, so here we go!

Most people are familiar with what a violin is and that it's played with a bow, but what they don't know is how that works. Most bows are made using horse hair (although there are some with synthetic hair nowadays), and that horse hair by itself doesn't make a sound when pulled across the violin strings. If you've ever seen a brand new bow being used, you'll notice that it barely makes any noise.

So what gets changed so a violin can actually make noise? The addition is rosin, a solidified form of tree sap that is rubbed on the bow hair to add friction. Rosin is usually sold at music stores in the form of a small rectangular or circular block, and there's actually a lot of different varieties of it. It ranges in color from a clear yellowy gold to amber to a dark brown, and the color difference is usually based on different formulas.

Rosin is also used for the other bowed string instruments: viola, cello, and upright bass. In particular, darker rosins tend to be used for the largest string instruments, while lighter ones are more common for violin and viola. This is because darker rosins tend to be stickier and provide more friction, which isn't necessary for the shoulder instruments.

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I've been thinking, I might use this blog to make some basic information posts about various aspects of playing violin and related topics. Would there be interest in that?

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yes

no

explain further/give examples

Voting ended onMar 14, 2024

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Ooh, can you evaluate Towa and Kanata from Go! Princess Precure? They were the first characters that came to mind when I thought about violins!

Sure! Okay the videos I'll be using are these two that I found:

So I hope those are fairly representative of the show.

In general, it looks like the animators tended to use a lot of far away shots or extreme close ups that make it hard to see the exact movements. The fact that both of the videos I found feature a duet also makes it fairly hard to tell who is playing which notes at any given time, so I can't easily evaluate how accurate the playing shown actually corresponds to the notes heard. That being said, in the shots that actually show the left hand movements, the fingering does seem more or less accurate.

The main issue that I see here (or at least the one that pops out the most), is that these characters often don't seem to be using their full bow. They don't straighten their arms on the down bows (moving bow to the right away from their bodies.) Given the style of song that they're playing, with long notes and multiple notes per bow stroke, they should be using the entire length of the bow. As one of my teachers used to say, "A horse gave up two feet of its tail for you. Use all of it." To be fair, though, this is usually in the wider shots that are less animated anyway, and it doesn't really happen in the closer ones.

Also, there are several points where it sounds like the bowing in the audio is different from the bowing in the animation? It's kind of hard to explain, but usually there's a slight difference in sound when the bow changes direction, and the places I hear those differences don't seem to always match up with when the characters are changing their bow. I could be wrong on this one, but it would make sense if the animators weren't always working with reference footage.

The vibrato of the characters is on point though. (It's the oscillation of the sound caused by quick back and forth movement of the finger on the string, used to add expression to longer notes for those unfamiliar.) It matches up with the sound very well.

Overall, I think the places with the most issues are the wide shots, where animating the characters playing is harder because you're trying to show very specific motions from farther away. The medium shots that show them from waist up or so as they're playing are much more accurate.

Also, shout out to Towa for crying on her violin as she plays (even though it's because she's thinking about her brother) because that is a whole ass mood. Difficult passages can get super frustrating lol.

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Can you give me your opinion on Data from Star Trek playing the violin?

https://youtu.be/2QvoGy_OilA?si=qwrupCHFxU1-9YAU

Here's the video link for anyone curious, and, right away, I would guess based on the editing and camera shots that the actor didn't actually know how to play violin. It's fairly common that if the actor doesn't know, the shots with be taken in a way that kinda hides the actual playing.

[I.D. Two screenshots From Star Trek of Data playing the violin. In the first he is shown from the left side with mainly the side and some of the bottom of the violin showing, his left hand on the fingerboard in a fist-like shape. Due to the angle, only his bow hand is visible and none of the arm, but his thumb is very straight on his bow hand. In the second image, he is shown from the front, with his bow about halfway between the frog and the tip. His bent wrist is in the lower corner. As for his left hand, his thumb is sticking up behind his fingers as he plays. End I.D.]

For example, these two shots are basically all that's shown of Data playing, which means that any major issues with his bowing technique are easier to hide. His arm is either obscured by the instrument, or not in the shot at all. From what I've noticed, if they try not to show the actor actually playing the violin, it's probably because they can't play it.

With that said, onto the critiques!

It's a bit hard to see in the first screenshot, but the thumb of his bow hand is kept straight as he plays, which is not proper technique. The thumb should ideally flex and straighten, with different positions depending on what part of the bow is moving against the strings at a given time. The idea is that if the hand is moving properly, the bow can stay perpendicular to the strings and produce a better sound quality.

In the second image, his wrist is too bent for the part of the bow he's playing in. Since he's in the middle of the bow, his wrist should be much closer to straight than bent. Again, this would mess up the bow's path on the strings and make the sound quality wonky.

His left hand seems a little off to me, mostly with how his thumb is sticking up high enough to be seen over his fingers. This position is impractical when it comes to shifting to higher positions on the fingerboard, which he does towards the end of the video. Then again, at the point in the video where he's playing very high on the finger board, the shift isn't actually shown. (Possibly because the actor couldn't do it reliably, and they were more focused on showing Data's fancy vibrato anyway.)

However, he does seem to be holding the violin correctly, as he's actually using the weight of his head on the chin rest to keep it in place rather than trying to hold it up with his hand. So points for that at least.

A lot of his movement, and especially his vibrato, seems very still and mechanical. Given that Data's a robot I'll assume this was a character choice lol. The general sense that I'm getting from this video is that Data is supposed to be a skilled violin player, but there's a lot of small technical issues in how he plays that would add up substantially. Someone playing with that kind of technique in real life would not be making music that sounds that nice lol.

Given that there's also several places in the video where the audio doesn't actually sync up with what Data's bow and fingers are doing, I think it's safe to say that the actor was faking it and the sound was added over the video later lol.

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Hi! I’m just curious about Rocky from Lackadaisy, and if there’s any inaccuracies in his playing within the pilot.

[I.D: Screenshot of Lackadaisy where Rocky plays violin on a bridge. Behind him is one of the bridge's support beams and a view of a river, the moon, and a city on the river banks. His bow is on the strings, a little closer to the frog than the tip. End I.D]

Admittedly I'm not familiar with this show, but I did go ahead and find this scene of him playing violin, and honestly, I'm pretty impressed with how it's animated. There seems to be a good deal of care and attention put into how Rocky plays, and there's a couple things that I really appreciated.

[I.D. Two screenshots side by side of Rocky playing violin. His bow sits on the strings at the tip as he shifts to about fifth position, his hand moving to rest against the body of the instrument. End I.D.]

First of all: shifting. It's a pretty common thing in more advanced violin music, but isn't necessarily shown that much. It's really nice seeing it show up, especially in such a casual moment of a guy playing for himself as he monologues. He's not performing for anyone, but he's still playing well.

Another example of his variety in technique: in the clip, he uses his left hand (bow hand) to pluck the strings at one point, and plays double stops (two strings at once) at a few others. I get the sense listening to the music he's playing that he knows what he's doing, and is probably a decently advanced musician. Also, the music that he plays is impressive, as he basically seems to be improvising in this scene. He's messing around, basically, but there's solid technique behind it.

There's also a lot of attention paid to which string he's playing on- the angle of the bow is very different for the higher notes and the lower notes, meaning that the animators were actually paying attention to how a violin would be played. For example, in the above screenshots, he's playing on the E string (high notes), and has a mostly vertical bow. I also appreciate the fluidity of his bowing in the clip, especially the wrist position and movements.

There are a couple of shots in the clip where the proportions of the violin seem off- mostly at the start, when it looks too big for him. There's some weird bow hand positions are some points, and also a few places where the fingering seems a bit off. A lot of the time his fingers don't really seem to be changing the string they're on, but that's a matter of trying to animate super precise motions that most people wouldn't notice so I'll let it slide lol. (And to be fair, fingering probably works different when you have less fingers anyway. Maye his violin would be tuned differently than a real one?)

His violin doesn't seem to have a chin rest and he isn't using a shoulder rest either, but again, that makes sense from an animation standpoint. Besides, while those are common in modern day playing, this show has more of a historical distant past setting from what I can tell.

My overall vibe from this character is that he clearly knows what he's doing with his violin, but that he's also just playing for himself. He's not performing, he's not trying to impress anyone, he's just playing violin and enjoying it. I might be a little more critical of a few areas of weird technique if he were supposed to be playing an existing piece or performing for an audience, but overall I think for the most part the breaks in technique match the general air of carelessness/ carefreeness Rocky is giving off.

I do, however, question how often he would have to replace his strings given that long nails are a no-no with violins, and he has obviously pointed claws. He probably breaks his strings fairly often lol.

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Thought it might be nice to give an example of what I'm planning to do with this blog, so here we go, with Lucifer from Hazbin Hotel.

[I.D. A screen shot from Hazbin Hotel of Lucifer playing a golden violin with fancy decorative patterns and frowning aggressively. The violin is held in front of his chin, over his bowtie. It has the chin rest on the left side of the tailpiece, indicating that it is a right-handed violin. Lucifer holds the bow with a grip that resembles a partially closed fist. End I.D.]

In all honesty, properly animating a character playing a violin can be very difficult, especially in a style that has four fingers rather than five. That said, there is one major flaw in this picture that immediately comes to mind:

The violin is on the wrong side.

Given that the chin rest (drawn as an orangey-red shape) is on the left of the strings, it's a right-handed violin, meant to be played with the instrument on the left shoulder and the bow in the right hand. Given that there are, in fact, left-handed violins, there's no reason for him to be playing a right-handed one.

(It's also worth pointing out that even if Lucifer is left-handed, he wouldn't necessarily need a left-handed violin. It's a common assumption that lefties need different instruments but it's not actually the case.)

A few other details:

his bow hand is just kinda bad. He's not holding the bow at the frog (its base, essentially) and he's got his thumb on the bow hair (not great for the bow hair or for actually playing).

He also seems to possibly be tilting the bow back towards his face, based on the angle its drawn at, which isn't good technique either.

He isn't using his chin to hold the violin in place, but that's a more common posture with fiddle music and not necessarily incorrect. That being said, it seems like placing it on his bowtie would be uncomfortable.

The violin's bridge (holds the strings off the body of the instrument) seems very short to me. Other than that, the violin itself seems pretty well drawn.

Most of these details are fairly negligible and can be chalked up to the fact that animating a violin being played the same way as it would be played in real like is probably very difficult. That being said, having the instrument on the wrong side entirely is a pretty big oversight.