Violin Video Lesson: My FingeringBoard Journey: Getting from here to there

So I used to show this to my students. I would go from an A first finger on the G string to a C sharp third finger on the E string. I would then ask them if I could hit it the exact same spot five times in a row. They would laugh and I would smile and start.

Okay, so I hit it five times in a row, but can I miss it on purpose? Can I miss it playing a bit sharp on purpose?

Alright then, but just how am I doing this? Well, let me map it out for you on my fingering board. Start from the A first finger on the G string and go across the strings like this. We are now at an F sharp on the E string. Let's play a scale up to the C sharp with the fingering one two three one two three. And with that we now have outlined the path we need to follow.

Now if the note values are an eighth followed by an eighth rest to a quarter note at say 60 on the metronome, obviously what I just described it take way too much time. So we have to pare it down.

We can do this by first going from the A to the F sharp with no stops in between. Be aware that this is achieved not by leading with our fingers but with the elbow.

Then shift from the F sharp to A with the first finger practicing the shift by doing one to three or F sharp to A three to one. Then one to one back to the A one to one. We can do one two three or A B C sharp then three two one. Next play one to three.

Since I've mapped it all out I visually now know how to get where I'm going. If I follow my path and aware of what my body is doing to accomplish this after a little bit of repetitive practicing, I can get there repeatedly.

I'm reminded of a story about a French violin student who was having a conversation with his teacher during which he explained how difficult it was for him to play in tune. The teacher looked at him and said, but what's the problem? Just figure out where to put your finger and keep putting it there.

Well okay. I used to slide into the B flat in the first movement of the Sibelius concerto one measure before number six. I used to slide into it like this.

But when I played it for Miss Delay she told me that I should go to the B flat without the slide. This totally destabilized me as the idea of doing this kind of shift or should I say jump scared me. But I did what she said and tried to work through my fear.

What I now admit is that it never occurred to me that to do what she asked didn't mean that I had to lose the shift. It simply meant that I needed to take my bow off the string so you wouldn't hear the shift.

Doing it this way I could map out the distance practicing it from the F natural in the E string to the octave F then play F G A B flat or one two three three and then I could practice it like this.

All of this led me to understand when creating a path to go from low to high across strings we should do it like this. We shouldn't do it this way.

Do take care. Ciao.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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