Can you play Western classical violin songs in the Indian carnatic music holding posture?

Posted by
981 views
16.3K points
1 user
gices
+
+
+

South Indians hold their violin differently to Westerners; they place the scroll on their foot close to their heel in a cross-legged seated position and hold the tailpiece near their collarbone whilst Westerners hold the instrument between their shoulder and chin. Although the musical genre is different, it is said you should be able to play any classical musical violin piece in the indian posture. However you cannot play carnatic music in the western style holding position because the movements require a more stable position.

I needed proof that the carnatic style would allow me to play western music, so I searched for videos of people doing just that but couldn't find any until I came across the following Youtube video:

Since I was searching for specific videos within my limited classical music repertoire (eg Paganini, Mozard pieces), I couldn't find anything related. Maybe if my music knowledge was wider, I would have found something sooner than those couple of hours I spent doing this. Anyway, the YT video above is good enough proof for me.