Violin/Fiddle: Learning Handicaps

Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 19:07:37 -0400 (Eastern Standard Time)
Subject: Having Trouble Fingering The Violin

Dear Sir,

Greetings Bill,

I'm glad to assist:

I am sixty years old and taking violin lesions.

That's great to hear!!! I love playing my violin...even though I'm spread thin over many string instruments, I find myself gravitating to the violin...especially since it's such a challenge...

Now I am getting in the part where I am positing my finger's on the different strings like the flats and sharps. Example: placing my first finger on E on the D string and at the same time playing another open string.

Yes, this can be difficult even for the beginner with thin fingers...

My fingers are kind of short and fat. When I do this the sound doesn't sound right, because I'm hitting the other string with the same finger. I am getting very frustrated at this problem. So how do you over come this?

First, we need to determine if you're angling your finger in any way...that is the finger needs to come down on top of the note without leaning in any way. The tip of your finger should be flush on the note and the angle of the finger should be coming down straight...while the thumb should be mostly behind the neck with only the tip of it showing...the finger cannot be leaning to the side. Now, if we've determined that this is the process you're using, and you're still muting another adjacent string, and you cannot fret this E note, on the D string, without touching the A string or the G string, then we'll need to consider spreading your strings out slightly...this requires a violin technician...and if set up properly, you should not encounter any future playing problems...and it should contribute to your learning efforts while inspiring you to practice more...with less frustration...

I have a private teacher, who said there's a violinist by the name of Itzhak Perlaman, who had the same problem. He had the same problem and master situation. He develop his own technique , and became a world name violinist.

Would you happen to have some kind of photo on your web site showing how to do this? I did get a picture on how to hold the violin and bow. So there must be one on the correct way to position your fingers?

Yes, the finger position, for the neck, is illustrated on the following page:
http://www.folkofthewood.com/page364.htm

You can see how the thumb is mostly under the neck and the fingers come straight down over the notes....

Hope this helps, Mickey

Thank you,

Bill Hayes