0c.1 Sitting and holding the violin the Carnatic way

What this is and why it exists

A Carnatic violinist sits on the floor and holds the instrument in a way a Western player would not recognise. The scroll rests against the ankle. The body sits against the upper chest.

This is not a regional habit. It frees the left hand completely, and a free left hand is what makes the long slides of this music possible. A player holding the instrument under the chin cannot make them.

The vocabulary

• Scroll — the carved end of the neck, furthest from the body of the instrument.
• Fingerboard — the black strip under the strings, where the left hand works.
• Shift — moving the whole left hand to a new place along the fingerboard.
• Bow — the stick and hair that sound the string. Held in the right hand.
• Open string — a string sounded with no finger pressing it.

The mental model

Three points hold the instrument: your ankle, your chest and gravity. Neither hand is one of them.

That is the whole idea. In Western playing the chin and the left hand share the work of holding the violin, which limits how far the left hand can travel. Here the hand carries nothing, so it can slide from one end of the string to the other and back.

You will use that constantly. This music moves between notes by sliding far more than by hopping, and the position exists to allow it.

The work

1. Sit cross-legged on the floor.
2. Rest the scroll against your right ankle or the front of your right foot.
3. Let the body of the violin sit against your upper chest, near the left shoulder.
4. Keep the angle shallow. The instrument lies across you rather than pointing up.
5. Take your left hand away. Nothing should move.
6. Put your left hand on the fingerboard without gripping the neck.
7. Slide the hand slowly from one end of the fingerboard to the other.
8. Slide it back. The instrument should not move and your shoulder should not rise.
9. Now take the bow and reach all four strings in turn.
10. Check that your right elbow clears your knee on the lowest string.
11. Adjust the angle of the instrument if it does not.
12. Sit like this for five minutes a day before you play anything.

What you should now be able to explain or do

Sit with the violin held by your ankle and chest, with both hands free. Slide the left hand the full length of the fingerboard without the instrument moving. Reach all four strings with the bow while sitting cross-legged. Say why the position differs from the Western one.

Check yourself