by Lora | Oct 15, 2024 | Left hand technique, Vibrato
A shaking scroll is a very common problem that is usually caused by one or more of the following: The thumb is pressing and trying to “participate” in the vibrato motion. Instead, it needs to learn to be stationary and function as a stabilizer for vibrato....
by Lora | Jan 21, 2020 | Adult learners, Left hand technique, Practice Tips, Uncategorized, Violin practice tips
Violins do not have frets. We don’t’ have black or white keys. This makes it extremely easy to play out of tune, and extremely difficult to play IN tune. Lucky for us, our hands are like little brains that memorize the distance between notes. If we train...
by Lora | Sep 27, 2018 | Expressive playing, Left hand technique, Uncategorized, Vibrato
When a violin student learns vibrato, they literally have the ability to create hundreds of shades in their playing. It is like handing an artist a tube of red, yellow, and blue paint….does every artist know how to create any color from the primary shades? No,...
by Lora | Mar 19, 2016 | Left hand technique
What is block fingering? It is a fingering method where you place groups of fingers down together. You place the primary finger PLUS any fingers of lower number down together. So if you play a 3rd finger, you place 1, 2, and 3 down together. If you play a 2nd finger,...
by Lora | Sep 10, 2015 | Adult learners, Left hand technique
A student asked if it was possible that she was too old to learn to do vibrato on her violin. She described her hand convulsing into all sorts of unnatural positions, fingers poking out in all directions, tension, and just plain frustration that her hand did not seem...
by Lora | Jun 25, 2015 | Left hand technique
Violin students’ pinky fingers can be problematic on BOTH hands mainly due to weakness and the shorter length of this finger. This problem is VERY common, and easy to fix! Hooray! This article will focus on solutions for the LEFT hand pinky, but #1 below can...