Explore how it feels to rock each finger back and forth in this hanging position, making the fingers as loose as possible but still keeping the fingertip in place. You’ll notice the feeling of weight in your fingertip, but there is also mobility in the rest of the hand. Once placed, release the side of the hand, and then release the thumb, until you are simply hanging from your curved finger. Then choose one finger (a lot of people find the third finger to be easiest) and place it on the fingerboard as you normally would. You might even want to get someone else to hold the scroll (or you can gently and very carefully push the scroll against the wall with a towel behind it).
In order to simulate this strange sensation of being in place and yet also being in motion, one exercise that can help is to try “hanging” from the fingerboard.įirst make sure your violin is securely on your shoulder, not held up by your hand. If you are exerting too much muscle into your fingers, they can become frozen and immoveable. In order to rock your fingers, you’ll have to feel a kind of looseness in your finger joints, while still keeping the finger on a given pitch. To test if your thumb is squeezing, try tapping your thumb against the side of the fingerboard. When playing vibrato, you’ll feel a certain interplay between each individual finger and the thumb, which provides a counter-balance to the rocking finger. The important thing, whether the thumb is low or high or straight or slightly bent, is that the thumb is not squeezing, holding, or wrapped around the neck. For those with longer fingers, the thumb may be a bit higher. Relaxed Left Thumbĭepending on the size and shape of your hand, the thumb should be fairly low and straight. In letting go, the hand may still remain just a half-millimeter away from the fingerboard, but as long the hand has let go, then it’s possible to do vibrato effectively. Then simply touch the side of the violin with the side of the hand, and then let go. Use this simple exercise to practice the subtlety of this motion: Hold the violin in the normal position, with any finger or fingers down. This also can create problems, including unnecessary distortion and tension in the left hand. But one has to be able to “let go” when doing vibrato-otherwise the motion will shake the entire violin! However, it’s possible to carry “letting go” to the other extreme, torquing the left hand in an effort to get far, far away from the fingerboard.
The introduction of vibrato does not mean that the side of the hand will never again touch the violin as a matter of fact, it will frequently “check in” with the neck, especially in fast passages. Having the side of the hand on the neck provides a guide point for the placement of the hand, and by extension, for the placement of the fingers. For many students, it’s also new and difficult. This is a subtle, but absolutely necessary detail. The side of the left hand (next to the index finger) must be able to release the neck in order to do vibrato. Vibrato requires two points of contact with the violin: the pad of the thumb on the neck and the tip of the finger on the fingerboard. Here’s a guide with links to the sections in this article. “Explore how it feels to rock each finger back and forth in this hanging position, making the fingers as loose as possible but still keeping the fingertip in place.” Here are a few specific points to check in your left hand and arm to make sure you’re ready for an effective vibrato. Are you set up for vibrato success?Īs a string player progresses, problems with set-up can become problems with technique-and vibrato is certainly one of those techniques that will test your set-up. Physically, it’s a tricky motion, not used much in “real life.” If your vibrato is weak or somehow just not working, your best move may actually be to take a step back. Vibrato is one of the string player’s finest tools of expression, but it does not always come easily. So we're asking you to give $5 (or whatever you can afford) right now. Hey, fellow string player! Did you know 99.9% of visitors to this site will scroll past this message without making a contribution? Many plan to pledge later, but then forget.
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