COMMON LEFT HAND MISTAKES IN VIOLIN PLAYING
“I never make the same mistake twice. I make it like five or six times just to make sure!”
Anonymous
Mistakes are made both in the left and right hand while playing on the violin.
It is useful to concentrate right and hand separately looking for ways to improve the playing.
Common 11 mistakes of the left hand are discussed and the methods to avoid them.
- GRIPPING THE NECK OF VIOLIN TOO TIGHT (Death grip!):
Solution 1: To correct this one way is to lean the violin scroll against a wall with cloth / sponge and ensure that the violin is supported between your left hand/ shoulder and the wall. One can take the thumb off and practice slowly scales till confident of not needing the thumb apposition. Then gradually the thumb can be reintroduced the normal way and suddenly the deadly grip is gone!
Ideally one should be able to support the violin between the left collar bone and chin not even needing the left hand to hold it.
Solution2: Another way to lose the deadly thumb grip is to move the thumb up and down during practice.
A gap between the web of the first finger at the neck of the violin by opposing a cloth/sponge will achieve a similar result of relieving the tension.
- MOVEMENT OF THE FINGERS (Finger flexion):
To have the vertical positioning of finger tips, it is important to align the left knuckle in line with the strings and high so the fingers will drop down from above on the strings.
*MP joint- Meta carpo phalangeal joint;
**PIP joint-Proximal inter phalangeal joint.
3. TIPS OF FINGERS- THE POINT OF CONTACT:
The point of contact between the finger and the string is the finger tip. This is important in the intonation and unlike guitar with frets, is more difficult in violin.
Tip of finger falls usually perpendicularly in a square fashion or elongated fashion the lower position.
Elongated fashion is used in half step from square position, gliding or high positions.
Tip of finger also slats towards towards the bridge. This slant is neither too steep nor too slanting.
As the wrist comes around the violin neck, the tips of fingers generally have a tendency to bear towards the E string side of the finger board.
Violinist with short fingers needs to oppose the knuckle closer to the neck of the instrument and keep the elbow to the right.
Violinist with long fingers can have the knuckle lower down with respect to the neck of the instrument and the elbow to the left.
4. CROOKED HAND FACING:
The wrist is sometimes wrongly position at right angles to the finger board; the hand wrongly faces the violinist. This position is incorrect.
The left hand should face the finger board so the fingers (and the left knuckle ) align with the violin strings.
5. IMBALANCE OF LEFT HAND:
Left hand should not have undue tension between fingers. No undue squeezing of the fingers.
6. CROOKED WRIST:
Ideal position of left wrist is neutral between the flexion and extension. The angle of the elbow is triangle for the upper bow which can be observed in a mirror. The wrist can be verified to be in line with the forearm.
7. BAD FRAME OF THE LEFT HAND:
Each scale does have the hand frame for the 4 fingers and this mental picture is useful while playing rapidly. Practicing scales is useful to acquire this skill.
8. BAD LEFT ELBOW ALIGNMENT:
The elbow has the action of swinging from left to right while playing from E to G strings. As one goes down from the E string, the elbow has to swing from left to right so that finally fingering on G string is easy. In rapid passages, anticipation of this movement is necessary to get accurate intonation.
Another action of the elbow is to move up while shifting up. And the elbow to move down while one is descending from a higher position. It is a good habit to lean into the shift while ascending and descending various positions. This improves anticipation, accurate placement of the fingers and hence intonation.
This movement of the left elbow is practiced in anticipation of the sequence in mind.
9. FINGER PRESSURE ON THE STRINGS – too little and too much:
Placement of the fingers on the string requires careful study of the music.
Active percussive fingers are when the fingers hammer down clearly and firmly on the strings with firm pressure. These are required in quick legatos, in rapid passages.
Passive soft fingers are with gentle fingers on the strings landing softly without too much or too little pressure. They are useful in melodious moods.
10. SHIFTING THE OLD WAY AND THE NEW WAY – WITH 1 FINGER:
There are two aspects involved with shifting:
- with the old finger or with the new finger
- Shifting with the same bow or the next bow.
The new concept it to shift up or down with the new bowing and the new finger position all ready to be in place by the time it arrives.
Whatever is used, it is ideal to use a percussive drop with the new finger.
11.DURING BOW CHANGE AT THE FROG:
Bow change at the frog needs to be carefully achieved without scratchy, loud playing. Also the continuous playing is important without a break in the bowing.
Preventing crunchy noise at the frog, right hand plays a major role; however left hand can also contribute in the following way.
- To start, hold the bow 1 mm above the violin. The lift the violin to touch the bow
- Keep the bow change at the frog SOFT.
- Just before change of bow at frog, move the violin away from the bow and then do the bow change. This (along with the right hand being suspended from the forearm with the edge of bow hair) will help to keep the bow change soft and continuous.
Acknowledgement:
Eddy Chen violinist
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