Rules of Preventing Injury

Written by Charles Cook
Published: April 24, 2015 at 5:44 AM [UTC]

The main reason to have good technique is to prevent injury, or it should be the main reason. Don't worry too much about projection unless you own a 50 thousand + dollar violin and playing in a grand hall.
Injury can happen at any stage, but poor technique can start showing signs of injury(pain) around the 4 year mark of playing. The GREAT thing that comes from selecting techniques that are injury prevention oriented, is that they will increase speed, accuracy and ease of play. Basically you will learn things quicker with less effort.

Signs or rules of injury preventing techniques (IPT):

1)prevents excessive finger and hand movements
2)prevents 'constant' tension
3)minimizes hand muscle movements
4)increases flexibility and dexterity
5)prevents 'constant' use of shoulder, arm and hand muscles
6)puts the bodies health first, not the instrument's, or speed, accuracy and projection dogmas first
7)doesn't restrict blood flow
8)follows basic rules of posture: ears, shoulders, hips and ankles need to be aligned
9)prevents fingers from pressing to hard or coming down to hard (thumping or banging noise is heard).

---List of techniques: the Good, the a bad and the ugly:

-Left wrist bent forward(pizza pan hand): breaks rules 7,4. Considered poor technique.
-Left wrist bent away when playing on A or E string: breaks rules 7, 5 also an indication that violin is to large or holding the violin to far to the left.
-Left wrist straight when playing on A or E string: uses rules 7,5,4.
-Index finger facing you or facing down fingerboard when used on E string: uses rules 1,3
-Index finger at an angle when used on E string: breaks rules 1,3,7. considered poor technique.
-Index finger is away from violin's neck and thumb supports violin: breaks rules 2,5 -thumb and shoulder muscles in constant use.
-Fingers to high from fingerboard: breaks rules 1,7 (causes inflammation),9
-Fingers low (1/4 -1/2 inch) with a light touch will prevent many injuries.
-Elbow staying in one spot under violin and not swinging forward to guide fingers to lower strings: breaks rules 1,3

That's a few example of the basic techniques to give an idea to what to look for when choosing healthy techniques that will make playing the violin more enj

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