} Violin Left Hand

A Major Scale

Depending on the circumstances, we may need to hold fingers down or…

The finger patterns for the harmonic minor scale can be described as…

The four basic finger patterns are Low, Mid, High and Open: Most…

The thumb as shown here acts as a counterbalance only for the…

Most of the time we need to use all four fingers equally…

“Practise your mixed bowings. Try two notes slurred then two notes separate.…

“Before practising your mixed rhythms, make sure your left hand is comfortable.…

Often markedly different finger patterns on adjacent strings cause clarity problems. By…

Andrea alternates between major and minor thirds on the same string, then…

Pause on the notes before each string crossing and make sure that…

Notice how Fintan reverses the bowing in this playthrough of Kreutzer ‘Study…

“Think ahead. Prepare your 4th finger before playing the 2nd. Place the…

What is practice? Everything we do can be considered practice, the challenge…

Notice how left-arm steering helps get the hand into a good position…

“Practise placing all your four fingers at once.” This is an extended…

Strumming the fingers across the strings and using the whole arm encourages…

Whilst there are many warmup routines, the most useful ones focus the…

‘Finger before bow’ is an essential aspect of good coordination. This type…

One of the major skills of violin-playing is coordination between left and…

Body use and release In order to play with fluent coordination, the…

“To help develop the hand vibrato, try practising with the thumb underneath…

Start the vibrato action from the top and make the first movement…

Hand vibrato consists of an active movement of the hand from the…

Here you see Fintan start each note with an arm vibrato and…