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A Monday Morning Lament

April 27, 2009 at 11:37 AM

I've been practicing 1st and 3d postions rather diligently I would say for perhaps 5 months now. Still, I need those dang position markers (a.k.a.tape) on the finger board to accurately find the notes.

Every now and then my instructor will offer me her violin (sans markers) and I may do fairly well. I must say though that during home practice, I stink without them.

How long did it take you before the "training wheels" came off.

  

I too have been working on 1st and 3rd positions, but have never had finger markings on my violin.  There are certain things you can listen for to know if you are in tune or not without having to have a visual marking - if you listen, your violin will tell you.  Have you noticed yet that sometimes another string will vibrate even though you arent playing on it?  an open string will vibrate when the same note is played on another string.  For example, if you play a G on the D string (3rd finger first position), then G string will vibrate with it.  Same with the D on the A string(d string vibrates), and A on the E string (A string vibrates).  This also creates a very slight ringing sound (for lack of a better word to describe) as well as the vibrating string.  4th finger notes in 1st position will make the string above it vibrate, ie. played D on the G string makes the D string vibrate.  Once you have trained yourself to listen for this, viola, automatic guide for where to place your fingers in first and 3rd positions, as you only get the vibration if it is exactly in tune.  A little bit off, and nothing, assuming of course that you have tuned your violin correctly.  This wont help with every finger, but you can use it as a guide to know if you are shifting to the right place.

Do you know the fudamental ear training principles related to violin?  (recognise perfect fifths and know the distance between some basic intervals can save your life)  It's not that hard and you really know if you are in tune or not.  Maybe you should study intervals with an ear training teacher (it really worth is!!!). This way, you will know in your head how the notes should sound and when you press one, if it is wrong, you will know it in a few milli seconds, thus learn defenitivly where to put your fingers without tapes. Also visual charts on paper do wonders for adults but if it is to hear the pitches, then learning the intervals is even better.

Only my two cents,

Good luck,

Anne-Marie

Greetings,

at this stage I would suggets finger tapes are actually workign against you.  Ther eare two things I might suggets.

First ,  imitation.  That is,  play the pattern  abd on the a string with the following rythm:  8th8th quarter,  eigth eigth quarter.    Finger it 013,  013 .  When you have this comfortable and in tune,  play the same pattern but finger it o11,  011. In other words you play the same notes but now gently slide into third postion to the same pitch.  You can practice as slowly a soyu want. The importnat thing is to release the thumb and base of the firts finger before you shift... Also,  without fail,  do not chnage the angle of the fingertip in relation to your face as you shift. In otehr words you shift on the same part of the fingertip.   You can also pracice the same thing with the notes dba,  dba.  The seocnd variostion would then start in third postion(110,  110).  After thta you can add some second fingers and try diffrent rythms but the basic idea doesn`t change.

Incidnetally,  I borrowe dthis stuff from Drew`s book.

The other exericse I reommend is to play a whole note open d.  relly get that sound in your head.  Now pause and remove both left hand and bow form the isnturment.   During this time hear d an octave highe rin your head.  After a timeimmediatley play the octave d in third postion with your firtd finger.  Don`t adjust it in any way.  Just focus on wether it is sharp or flat and to what extent without correction. Repeat procedure until you can hit that sucker quite precisely without adjustment.  You can pracitce this execise for abotu five minutes a day using opne strings and any finger you like inthird positions. The key is not to wiggle the finger around.  You are going for the impossible- to hit a note from dead on without any pr4paration with hands awayy from the instrument.

Cheers,

Buri

I think your all right, i gotta' get those tapes off and just listen.

Playing guitar over all these years has trained me to be a bit more lacks in placement as the frets take care of the notes essentially.

Tape is coming off tonite!!!

 

 

Yeah!