I've just been introduced to the joys of slurs They sound okay over two notes, but three or more and my poor viola just sounds as though it's drunk!

I'm learning my Grade One pieces and one of them sounds horrible

and, I have to use my pinky finger now!

Life is Hard

and.....I have a new practise companion........

The Cat!!!!!!!!

I get the viola out and start playing and she comes into the room, sits herself down and just stares at me!

I don't know whether to take this as a good sign or not.

I can't help whatsoever, but which pieces are you playing?

I think this happens because when the fingering is hard one tenses up all over, and that includes the bowing arm. Have you tried just forgetting about the left hand and concentrating on keeping the right arm relaxed? If the slur includes a string crossing, it can also be helpful to practise it on open strings before you add the fingering.

Our cat had a favourite radiator in the room where we practise. When my husband played his cello there she would continue snoozing very happily, but as soon as I got out my violin she would glare accusingly at me, get up and stalk out. Quite demoralising!

I wonder if the cat is trying to recognise which relative has ended up as your strings ....

nick

I found doing scales helped with the slurs

You don't have to worry about the music reading bit, it's one less thing to worry about.

Take it really slow, slur 2 notes in your scales, then 3 and 4.

I started this year and I'm sluring 8 notes now so it does work.
(I practice a lot, I get bored)

I am currently learning: Evening Hymn by Bruckner, Cotillon by Hotteterre and March by Baklanova (I haven't played this one yet though). It's the Bruckner that sounds horrible

How about if you forget about any fingering and pick an open string and play a slow semi-breve using the almost the whole length of the bow and repeat it so you go downupdownupdownup getting slower each time until you can do it really quite slowly but still get a nice sound out of it.

Having done that so you can confidently bow that nice and smoothly, forget about the bowing and just do fingering 012343210 so just doing a five note scale at varying paces without the bow until you can comfortably do that on its own.[1]

Then stick the two bits together.

Finally replace 012343210 with whatever the actual notes are.

[1] This is a handy way to practice finger placing without disturbing anyone, if it is quiet enough and you listen carefully you should be able to hear the tuning as you place and remove fingers like that, as it causes slight vibratiosn up the strings.

My cat hated the violin, but loved the cello. Oboe wasn't exactly his cup of tea either

Glad it's not just me, then. Maybe nick has a point!

My cat used to be terrified of violin but now he's used to it He never gets used to saxophone though and runs off as soon as i so much as touch the case