How to strum chords on your violin | TUTORIAL (with printable chord poster)

A while ago I figured out how to play chords on my violin so I could strum on it like on a guitar or ukulele. It's really fun to do, so I thought I'd make a tutorial about it! :-)
Note: although a violin is tuned the same way as a mandolin, simply copying mandolin chords and playing them on a violin is hard because a violin doesn't have frets. That's why I simplified the chords.
Link to the poster with violin chords (updated version):
drive.google.com/file/d/1_PPn...
The audio in this video isn't as good as I intended, I had some noise problems with my microphone. I fixed it as good as I could. But ah well, better next time.
-Marijke
Instagram: @marijke.violin
________________________________
M Y G E A R
• Acoustic violin // Roderich Paesold, 2017
• Acoustic strings // Pirastro Tonica + Hill E
• Electric violin // Yamaha SV-200 (brown)
• Electric strings // D'Addario Zyex (silver D) + Helicore E
• Bow // carbon fiber bow "Presto" (by Zlata from Violin Lounge)
• Chin rest // Wittner
• Shoulder rest // Wolf - Forte Secondo
• Violin case // GEWA Pure (grey)
#violin #tutorial #chords

[@MarijkeViolin]

Vio-lele or uke-lin? 😋

[@doro4158]

violele!

[@HB-oq1rd]

Ukelin! Lol

[@teasokolovska8099]

Ukelin sounds better in my opinion

[@talhaselimacar5621]

Neck ukulele

[@theowlhouseseason3213]

viouke

[@nocturnallsnake4228]

Since the information it not easily found around, you made a VERY good work putting it together, explaining and demonstrating on one video. Even guitar players could learn something from it, because you go straight to the point and put it simple. And since you are not concerned about traditional paradigms, you use freer and more convenient fingers, as one would use on a mandolin, or an advanced violin player would dare to think of... I am going to share it with my students.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks a lot! 😊 And great you want to share it! I hope many people will have fun with this!

[@SeekerGoldstone]

There is something so wholesomely funny to me about the idea that a violinist calls a guitar pick a "plectrum".

[@kluukurk]

A mandolin would be an interesting instrument for you as well, it has the same tuning as a violin

[@MarijkeViolin]

True! And it sounds nice too.

[@Guitaristlife-dn9ou]

I play mandolin

[@JJ_TheGreat]

I was just about to say the same thing... Instead of having to use theory to get your diagrams - you should be able to just use the diagrams for mandolin chords!

[@sanycarfernandez8660]

I ve searched this for a long tome , thanku so much ,this'll help me too much ❤️❤️❤️🙏

[@MarijkeViolin]

Happy to hear that! 😊🎉

[@edilyjulievazquezdiaz3552]

Thank you for the valuable music theory orientation about the music cords formation. You really are a creative teacher!

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks a lot! Glad it's helpful! 🙂

[@valeaves]

You really saved me! I tried to figure out how to „guitar“ on my violin for quite a while now (because sometimes playing normally gets boring xD) but I didn‘t get it. Thank you so much for this video! I‘m so happy right now, it‘s unbelievable :D

[@MarijkeViolin]

Ooh that is terrific then! Glad to help! 😊👍

[@molecram]

This is very nice! I was looking for this for a while and you are right, there is nothing on internet about chords! Thank you!!

[@MarijkeViolin]

Exactly! And thank you!

[@renf1ower]

you’re amazing! I’m going to try it now, and thank you so much for putting in so much work to put together this video,

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks, that's great to hear! 😊

[@hellen4745]

This is so cool!!! I'll try it on my violin, seems so much fun, thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️

[@MarijkeViolin]

Great to hear, thanks! ❤️🎻

[@nocturnallsnake4228]

Thumbs up for your intonation! This research, as I see self-taught, is going to boost your violin technique.

[@MarijkeViolin]

It's always great to learn! And it indeed helps with intonation too. I used a tuner to find the exact spots on the fingerboard, so the demonstration of the chords would sound exactly right. But with the 4 chords I talk about at the end of the video, I've played them a lot so my fingers go to the right spot straight away, and I can easily correct myself by ear if needed.

[@johnjones4129]

Violins are tuned the same as a mandolin. Mandolin chord books are available in music shops and will give you the chord shapes that can also be played on your violin.

[@MarijkeViolin]

That's indeed very handy! 🙂

[@rebeccanufio9724]

Thank you so much for this! Bless you!

[@uphealth5555]

Amazing job I want more such videos

[@BudderB0y2222]

In the first frame I thought the royalty free ukelele music was the sound of her strumming the violin

[@MarijkeViolin]

Lol! (And I could wish it sounded that good, haha!)

[@ricksanchez5492]

Soo good video and also underrated channel. Good job...

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thank you. 🙂

[@toddley2939]

other GDAE tuned instruments that have chord sh3ets you could google are octave mandolin also known as a tenor mandolin (octave lower than a standard mandolin) as well as mandolin, irish bouzouki has GDAD tuning for most players but GDAE is acceptable aswell, tenor banjo (short necked, 4 string) also tuned GDAE. I am sure i am forgetting one. there is an Adeliade Australian band called The Fiddle Chicks that use the violin as an accompanist instrument like you have posted. You will resonate with a lot of fiddle and violin players with this post. good on you for thinking of it and making the post. i wish th3 internet was around when i was learning.

[@FirdausIdros]

Great tutorial - shall be fun for us guitarists as well🙂

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks! ☺️

[@5688gamble]

Sometimes I will sit and just strum chords on my violin, my uncle gave me a mandolin and I figured out the chord shapes on it, only difference is that I will use two fingers or a barre chord on mandolin to form 5ths because the courses of double fully wound strings are much harder to stop but the frets allow for this approach without messing up intonation, on the violin I have to make the 5th with a finger tip, but learning to do this well has improved my normal technique too! It helps you to get the overall feel for double, triple and even quadruple stops, I now know how to play my major and minor chords on all strings and up to 4th position, which is really handy I love my guitars, but I've always been determined to learn the violin and since starting and spending hours playing every day for months, not only is my violin playing improving, my guitar and mandolin playing is too! Due to the crossover in skills, plus for me, the mandolin acts as a nice in between for violin and guitar, left hand is almost the same as violin, right hand is almost the same as guitar!

[@MarijkeViolin]

Oh that's fun! I was thinking of getting a mandolin, but it sounds a bit too country-like to me.

[@jennacolombet2964]

Thank you so much!!!!

[@MinaAzizGeorge]

Haha crazy 😜...i love you so much Marijka 🌹❤️🌹 chords in the first movmet in mendelson concerto i was lazy to practice them with bow and i using the violin like guitar to practice it 😆 musicians are crazy 😂

[@MarijkeViolin]

😁😁

[@SiceeChoi]

Thanks! really helpful.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Nice to hear, thanks!

[@Sunshine-Light]

Same chords as the Mandolin, beautiful video ... well done.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks a lot!

[@AkshayKumar-sd1mx]

Thank you!

[@kjb3315]

Thanks for that, it’s really helpful. Greetings ! :)

[@MarijkeViolin]

Glad to hear that! 😊

[@guitarfox8316]

Laurie Anderson is a good example of strumming a violin

[@samighasemi3333]

Awesome

[@channelphongsakpanta1794]

I love

[@Infamore]

The violin is another lyre instrument like a classical guitar. When you use a different instrument against it like a bow, it produces the sound of a choir.

[@SangeethaSadhananjali]

super

[@ritagailburleson3819]

Thank you!!! I don't do much on Instagram, but, I'm sharing the link to this video on Facebook for you.

[@MarijkeViolin]

That's so nice, thank you! 🧡

[@AulisA.O.T]

just like a mandolin!

[@Allen2]

Marijke, Excellent explanations and poster. Some ideas: On the poster, use capital letters because music notes are almost always shown as capitals in learning books, and so that the lowercase b can be used to mean a “flat” note. On the poster, move the letter circles down onto the intersection where the finger is actually pressed because we are not playing a ukulele or guitar where the player might press behind the fret. Continue to another six to nine chords such as E-flat major (use open G, Eb, Bb, G) and some more minor chords. Ideas: B, Bb, Bm, Fm, Eb, Ab, F#, C# = Db, Cm. Guitarists like to capo up and sing in Eb, for example, so we need Eb, Ab, Bb, Cm. Your videos are so enjoyable to watch and learn.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks for the tips! And I'll add more chords later and put the link in the description. 🙂

[@Allen2]

@@MarijkeViolin Thanks for the quick reply and any more videos!

[@MarijkeViolin]

I'm even thinking of one day making a follow up video in which I demonstrate more chords. 🙂

[@mechadrake]

sacrilegious! I like it. Need a electric pickup and guitar amp too :D

[@MarijkeViolin]

😎

[@sorrenblitz805]

And a distortion pedal.....

[@georgelgrama5943]

hi on the G and D strings in position 1 you can catch the C and G notes or on the A strings I can catch the C and G notes with my finger 2

[@catherinedavison2727]

Thanks, fun and useful tutorial. Do you, or any of your followers know whether these are the same chord shapes that fiddlers play when backing country and bluegrass tunes?

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks! And no idea, I found these shapes most comfortable to play. Chords can be played in more than one way ofcourse, but doing so on a violin is already challenging enough without frets, so I went with what's the easiest way to do them. 🙂

[@burkhardstackelberg1203]

It is definitely a vio-lele :-) I just started out watching your videos, so I don't know whether you came across the mandolin in the meanwhile -- tuned like the violin, fretted and often played in chords! So you have a bounty of resources if you want a fast bootstrap for your violele chords :-)

[@MarijkeViolin]

I have been looking at mandolins online, but I'm not sure if I'd like it. So I tuned my ukulele to GDAE with special strings and now I can do "mandolin stuff" on it and follow some tutorials. If I end up really liking it, I'll get a real mandolin.

[@burkhardstackelberg1203]

@@MarijkeViolin It took me some time to like it. But I was fascinated about how easy it is to get the chords right on a mandolin compared to a guitar. Beethoven wrote some great pieces like that one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5a5amdmdtJjbtk

[@sampahalder2893]

Thanks

[@hoppybitter608]

the fiddle fretter might be a good thing for this, it's hard to fit lots of fingers on the board and get them all in tune otherwise!

[@MarijkeViolin]

Good idea!

[@MinaAzizGeorge]

Marijka u can try using the pirastro Gold E String i use it always and i like it so much give it a try 😀

[@MarijkeViolin]

I recently tried a bunch of E strings and Pirastro Gold was my favourite too! ☺️👌

[@MinaAzizGeorge]

@@MarijkeViolin 🌹

[@nathanbarria7925]

Mandolin player here finding this channel intriguing. Same tuning and imitating a violin bow on a mando, try tremolo

[@MarijkeViolin]

🙂

[@CatWezel66]

🤗👍 Good to know. I would leave the singing behind 😁

[@MarijkeViolin]

You could accompany your own violin melody too. 😉

[@teasokolovska8099]

Hello Marijke I wanted to say that you sound wonderful on the violin and your pinky looks so healthy how do you do it!?

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thank you! I'm doing more technical exercises to strengthen my pinky. It's hard but it helps. 🙂

[@teasokolovska8099]

Marijke Violin ok thank you Marijke

[@pipborthwick6313]

Chords when strumming the violin work well. However I've found being that you can only bow 2 strings sustained at a time on a violin (a double stop?) You only get 2 notes. So the C chord if you play C and E it could be C major or it could be A minor. I've found that every 2 string shape is contextual. There doesn't to be a way to play a definite minor or major chord. So again if you played A and C this could be A minor but it could also be F major. Not really sure what my point is other than you cant bow minor or major unless there's some sort of content behind it. Please correct me if I'm wrong!!!

[@MarijkeViolin]

Indeed, when bowing you can play 2 strings, but you can play 3 strings at the same time too if you bow closer to the fingerboard. When strumming, you need to strum with a rounded hand motion so you can hit 3 or 4 strings. Not as easy as guitar strumming, but surely doable. 🙂

[@pipborthwick6313]

@@MarijkeViolin you can bow 3 strings together?! I must try this immediately! After a cup of tea of course! Thank you. Just without a third note its all ambiguous..not that its a bad thing..lol I can strum the violin fine as been playing guitar over 20 years lol. I'm practicing lots of violin though. Working out czardas by playing half speed on youtube as I can't read music. Interesting listening to vibrato half speed. Also no fiddle player is 100 percent I tune all the time. At 0.25 you really hear those little grace tones haha

[@christophertsiliacos8958]

👏 Hi Marijke 🙋 - Great tutorial! You do make the violin sound like an ukulele with your strumming. How about making a similar tutorial with the ukulele? I currently play the soprano and concert ukulele, but only melodies with individual notes in all key signatures. It would be fun to learn to play “traditional ukulele” with chord strumming. You can introduce, perhaps, only three or four chords with strumming. You could call it "Strumming chords on the ukulele with Marijke." 😊 🎸♫

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thank you! Although that's a fun idea, there are already lots of ukulele tutorials online about strumming chords. Plus, people come here for violin related stuff, so they're probably not interested in a ukulele tutorial, I guess. 🤔

[@christophertsiliacos8958]

@@MarijkeViolin 😢 🎻 🎸♫

[@AlgSub22]

Hi Teacher! Would it be possible if I gonna use a bow rather than Hand stramming?

[@welayinthorns747]

How come for the A minor when you said 'low third finger on the G string,'' you went lower than where the third finger would normally be, but then when you said "low first finger on the G string'' for the E chord, you went higher than the first finger would normally be? Edit: I'm new to violin so I'm sorry if there's an obvious answer. Btw thank you for this video it's been helping me so much

[@MarijkeViolin]

I could be a bit off when putting my fingers on the fingerboard while talking, but in the demonstration clip afterwards my fingers are in the exact right place. And glad to hear it's helpful for you! 😊👍🎻

[@welayinthorns747]

@@MarijkeViolin Oh okay, thank you :p

[@apartment306]

I play violin and mandolin. Get a Mel Bay Mandolin chord book. The fingering of the mandolin chords will work on the violin. Ukulele chord won't work, because the tuning is G C E A, where the mandolin is turn G D A E like the violin, or the Guitar tuning upside down. Anyway, thank you for your video

[@JJ_TheGreat]

Your poster was deleted :( Is there any way we can download it now? Thanks.

[@RogerMagdi]

Very helpful thank you! But doesn't strumming hurt the strings or something?

[@MarijkeViolin]

Thanks! And I guess not, since normal playing isn't too easy on the strings too. 😉

[@RogerMagdi]

@@MarijkeViolin Thanks

[@lucasribeiro022]

Iria adorar ser fosse traduzido

[@WaldoNevada]

Have you ever played a mandolin. It is the natural crossover instrument from violin to guitar.

[@MarijkeViolin]

No, I haven't. But I once put strings on my ukulele with violin tuning. It was fun to try, but I didn't feel like trying "violin tricks" on it. I have been looking at mandolins a few times, but I know I wouldn't do more than strumming chords on it. And that's what I use my ukulele for.

[@almazambrano3253]

Hi! What ab the bum chord on violin??? I know it’s b d f but what finger position

[@MarijkeViolin]

B minor you mean? I don't know, but you can look it up on a chord chart for mandolin, that's also GDAE tuning.

[@hanwinaung7489]

Is it can play as Ukulele?

[@aasserelzoghby6781]

4:45 you can actually put the 3rd finger on the e string making an A No problems with the e string

[@MarijkeViolin]

Good one! 😊👍

[@sangitagawande4930]

Just like uklele

[@MarijkeViolin]

Jep.

[@supechube_k]

Would you be able to strum it while it's on your neck?

[@mariaguadalupeescorciaalva7499]

Wow TuT

[@14bqdonk]

nuce 1

[@Dragon34th]

You broke the rules Ukelady :) You've offended 1000s of rules abiding violin guitar curious afraid to express themselves openly on KZbin.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Lol

[@MegumieMiku]

Yeah, or just read a sheet or look for it by yourself. This way you'll learn so much more about the instrument itself and it will help for your chords and double stops. Ysaye isn't laughing about chords.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Right indeed!

[@morganakers9293]

I thought you had to use the bow with a violin? 🎻

[@MarijkeViolin]

Yes, but plucking or strumming works too. 🙂

[@lisanne9229]

Are you maybe having a bit more spare time on your hands than usual... Just guessing ;p nice video Haha

[@MarijkeViolin]

You bet I do! 😂👍

[@-guitarhero]

sacreligious

[@Astridwolf-dog]

Your violin sounds different from mine yours is beautiful mines is ugly

[@MarijkeViolin]

All violins sound different. Maybe the sound of yours is not to your personal taste, or it's maybe a cheaper student violin?

[@whatabouttheearth]

We guitarists are spoiled, we have frets. A Triad is a three note chord. Check this guys theory and film score videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZLbXpWug5iHbqc

[@hoppybitter608]

oh if you want internet resources for violin chords look up mandolin charts

[@seanleechild]

You teach? Email please?

[@MericaBack2backWWChampions]

You need a mandolin.

[@shipsahoy1793]

Buy a mandolin lol

[@nocturnallsnake4228]

This is very good for violinists.

[@Machodave2020]

Easier said than done.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Sounds fun ofcourse, but I know beforehand it would end up in a closet after a few weeks, which would be a bit of a waste.

[@Machodave2020]

@@MarijkeViolin That's actually why I said easier said than done, because I have a guitar, and barely play it. I'm a violinist, so I'm always playing that.

[@MarijkeViolin]

Exactly!

[@igoaaronlu8142]

Omg chord on violin Sound like shit 😱 XDD

[@MarijkeViolin]

It's not meant to be played like that, but it's fun to know.

[@burnttoast1076]

Don’t have the cheesy background music

[@petromic1947]

Awesome