The more fluid your body movements are, the more likely you are to achieve an easy, coordinated playing style. Professional musicians (and even studen… New …read more
Violin Left Hand - page 2
Relaxation
“Before you practise, do some real work – Find a book that’s a comfortable thickness for your head and neck. Lie on the ground with …read more
Lizard Tongue
To warm up the left hand practise elements of the basic skills needed for your current repertoire (likely to include finger action, shifting, finger i… …read more
Finger Pattern – Doubling the Tempo
Regular practice of finger patterns in quarter tempo, half tempo and tempo is good for improving technique and also makes a good warmup. This is …read more
Introduction to Left-Hand Fundamentals
The left hand frame needs to be set up for long-term and varied demands. At all stages of learning we need to be developing hand …read more
Correct Left-Thumb Placement
Most of the time we need to use all four fingers equally and therefore the thumb needs to support the 3rd and 4th fingers as …read more
Incorrect Left-Thumb Placement
The thumb as shown here acts as a counterbalance only for the lower fingers and barely supports the 3rd and 4th fingers. There are individual …read more
Left Wrist in Line
“Make sure you use the whole arm to strum across all four strings. Don’t distort the wrist.” Moving the whole arm under the violin is …read more
View from Scroll
“Make sure you use the whole arm to strum across all four strings. Don’t distort the wrist.” In this view from the scroll you see …read more
4th Finger Pizzicato – Single Notes
Let your left arm carry the finger from one string to another string. Plucking the string with the 4th finger of your left hand develops …read more