erm....i'm going to take up violin lesson too after my exam this october, i'm now having piano lessons too.but i know nothing about violin. but i'm curious about one thing, will the string of the violin just broke down when i was playing violin, and if it do, will it hit my face or hand, ?????painful or not.hope anyone here can answer my question, thanks.

If you change your strings before they get to the "hanging on by a thread and about to snap" stage this won't happen! It has happened to my teacher though in a concert, it hit her in the eye and she had to play with one eye shut and on only three strings for the rest of the concert (it was OK though- it was the A string, not G or E where things could've got difficult)!

It can happen but it probably won't if you change your strings regularly like Cecilia said. I have had my E string snap in the middle of an orchestra concert though and to make matters worse, my A string immediately went out of tune! At least it was the last piece and it snapped nowhere near my face

It can happen, but you will probably notice before it happens, but its never happened to me. Your strings can break if you are tuning with the pegs but you don't do it right, and if you play a lot its good idea to change strings about once or twice a year to avoid that sort of thing happening.

Gosh! It sounds potentially dangerous in performances. I thought it was one of the safest instruments especially when it happens like in Cecilia's teacher's case. And also quite terrible when you suddenly have to change your positions because your usual position on that snapped string is not available anymore.
I have only seen violin bow hair flying all over the place during concerts so far though.

oooooooooic.so it's quite safe.what a great releive.phew!!!!

I remember years ago - when I was at school...my best friend's violin just 'collapsed' during an orchestra rehearsal- the tail gut broke ( this was in the days of gut tails- not the wonderful long life ones we have these days) it was the funniest thing ... the whole orchestra just fell into hysterics....... it took ages for her to see the funny side!

Lol, I can imagine. Didn't they use to rot under the lights? Thank god for nylon!

not to scare any of you...but yesterday evening my friend who's really a very accomplished violinist had his E string break in the middle of orchestra and hit him in the face!! It very nearly got in his eye It didnt though and he's fine though thank goodness. Was very scary though as i thought that kind of thing never really happened!

Ooooh, I hope he's ok. I had a C string on my viola break in an orchestra rehursal once, that was a bit weird because one minute its there and the next minute I can feel it dangling by my hand, gave me a bit of a fright. I was so thankful the what we were playing had hardly no bits that went low enough to go onto the C string.

Watching my son play, I think one reason it's unlikely to happen to a beginner unless you never change your strings, is that you exert a lot less pressure with your bow-hand than an accomplished player does at times.

I don't mean you should have a lead bow-hand, but you probably won't be creating huge momentary changes in pressure just yet! So rest assured...the worst thing that's ever happened to Viohazard was falling downstairs while playing in the echoey stairwell, and the fall was harder on his violin than on him!

that's funny.however, my string do broke last week.but it was while i'm tuning it.it's the a string, but my teacher oredi fix it for me.

Be careful with tuning, if string is flat, take it down and make it flatter before you take it up to the correct pitch, otherwise it is likely that you will break the string.


And what All Ears has said is true, you don't exert much pressure using your bow arm when you first start so it is unlikely that your strings will break, once you start learning how to express yourself in your playing thats when there is a small risk of the strings breaking but even then it is highly unlikely, my C string was the first string I've had that has actually broken whilst playing and I've been playing since I was 7. Strings can take practically all of the abuse we put them through.

I have never experience a string that break in the middle of a performance, but, once when i had a recording for tv show, due to 'too many' lights on, and we were sweating all over, and which cause my A string to be out of tune, i couldn't tune it since the peg is loose.

I just play whatever i could play(but quite difficult without the A string), so i just act 'as if ' i am playing, but with the bow lightly over the string, but not making any sound, and i make sure my bowing is correct so that others won't know.

When i view the show on TV myself, ahah! That seems all right! it looks like i am really playing...because my fingerboard and fingers was blocked by the music stand...other people cannot see!

But that is my worse experience (so far ).

that's really funny.hahah.

QUOTE (anita @ Sep 24 2004, 12:17 PM)

the tail gut broke ( this was in the days of gut tails- not the wonderful long life ones we have these days)

lol! that happened to my old vio about 4 years ago, and as with your friend it took me a loooooooooooong time to see the funny side!!
I had a vio string break at the end of a performance, which was quite spectacular(!)
I had 2 pizz chords to finish with, and on the last 1 my e string broke. I was soooooooooo embarssed!
Playing the my cello in a chamber group just the other day, I broke my A string! It slashed my arm just above my wrist, and is quite painful.
My friends found it funny............. l