how to master fourth finger vibrato on violin
Has anyone got ideas on how to perform a hand vibrato on fourth finger particularly in first position. What can be done when knuckles lock and all the traditional methods have not solved the problem?
Replies (16)
My Russian violin teacher Paul Stassevich used the 4th finger in vibrato by flattening it on the fingerboard and applying a full arm vibrato.
This method was used almost exclusively in long expressive passages .
I think Theodore has a good basic plan there.
My teacher explained that I should really concentrate on learning a correct and good-sounding vibrato with just my third finger. Then once you really understand how your third finger is doing things mechanically, that information can be transferred to your other fingers, because really it should work about the same. There is no real reason why you cannot develop good vibrato on your fourth finger with a wrist vibrato if that is what you prefer normally.
Two suggestions:
- With a "straighter" 4th finger, the pad of the tip can sometimes absorb the vibrato mouvement, (unless your fingers slip through being very dry); also, depending on the violin setup, it is not always necessary to hold the string right down to the finger-board (high up on the E-string).
- With a more "curled" 4th, the whole hand can lean just a fraction towards you (thinking of Jonathan's post) to stop the middle joint collapsing and apply hand weight more than finger tension; also,in your idle moments (?) try re-educating the weaker fingers by rolling a thickish pen, or a small rubber ball in th palm of the hand; if you are right-handed like me, our left hands do astonishingly little most of the time..
Thanks all for your ideas. My fourth finger has always been an awkward finger to vibrato on, the mid knuckle straightens and the tip and hand do the work. I am always working on my technique. I believe technique is a work in progress and am always open to new ideas.Thanks, Bron
I second what has been written above: make sure your vibrato with the other fingers is satisfactory (to you). Many other discussion threads on this forum are devoted to fourth finger vibrato; do a search (right near the top right of this page!), it will reveal a lot of interesting material. One of the tips you will find there is to do vibrato with the 3rd and 4rd finger simultaneously. What has worked for me personally when learning vibrato was to practice every day that I practiced for some extended time, say 20 minutes, on a very very slow vibrato, say, twice per second. As the days, weeks, months, go by, you will see improvement. Of course practicing slowly and practicing a lot are the two principles that apply to just about anything on the violin! Best regards.
My teacher recommended something that ran against my intuition, but worked very well: try to vibrate, using wrist vibrato, with the other fingers on the string. It is more difficult in the beginning, but it has the advantage that your fourth finger and your hand are shown the right direction to move in. And it works well for uniformity of vibrato.
A number of great players have admitted that their 4th finger wasn't as good as the others for vibrato (and trills, too, for that matter). It's smaller size and lesser strength, its placement on the hand, etc. all militate against equality with the other fingers. Then there is the issue of how we vibrate - arm? wrist? finger? some combination?
I use a wrist/finger vibraro. It's like the wrist is a big motor and the fingertip in each finger is a small, secondary motor. The latter, especially, has helped my 4th finger vibrato, and yes, we can also support it with keeping the 3rd down. For juicy, very expressive, climactic notes, I would not typically use my 4th, but it's more than adaquate for passing notes. It's actually improved over the years - and I'm no spring chicken! One thing that helped was using it a lot on orchestra gigs. After a while, in my own personal solo practice I began to notice an improvement, to the extent of re-fingering some old parts where I had previously avoided the 4th finger.
I already leave the third finger down when I vibrate the fourth finger, I discovered a while back that it stabilizes the fourth. If there are anymore ideas to try please feel free to comment, I read and try everything that is suggested. thanks heaps
I second everything that was told above...
Personally, I don't like arm vibrato sound so I mostly use finger and wrist vibrato.
I see the mouvment as starting from the finger tip and then going in the rest of the arm. That really makes the smooth and relaxed sound I like. And it's also logical since it's the finger tips who actually touch the violin and will do the desired sound effect.
To flatten my finger tips even more, allowing them to do a better vibrato, I try to not stick my left elbow too much inwards (as this makes one play almost on our finger nails... which we absoluntly don't want) To help myself in not putting my left elbow too much inwards, I stand very straight. Otherwise, this and many other violin things are difficult...
And mostly, since my fingers are almost tooth picks and very weak, I put almost no pressure on them. It's the only way I found to have a nice full vibrato amplitude (since I don't like to have my amplitude with arm vibrato) To put almost no pressure on my fingers, I like my teacher's image that the neck of the violin is like a little animal (bird, mouse etc.) that you don't want to hurt!
Well, these are my favorite tricks...
I used to play with a straightened mid knuckle on my 4th finger. Then I adjusted my hand position to allow the 4th finger to bend and my vibrato improved dramatically.
In order to curl the 4th finger and still be able to reach the note, you might need to adjust the left thumb position, making it opposite the middle finger rather than the index finger. It also helps to bring the left elbow around, more to the right. But as long as the 4th finger is straight, it is very difficult to achieve an effective vibrato.
The OP stressed the 1st position, but while I'm thnking of it I will say that it would be pretty awkward to maintain a curled finger in the upper positions. That's where the relatively independent finger vibrato really helps.
Beyond this it's hard to comment w.o. seeing the individual.
BTW, By moving the thumb opposite the middle finger it favors the 4th finger, allowing you to reach the note more easily with the 4th finger, but the first finger will be too high, so it needs to reach back a bit. To accommodate this, the hand must bend slightly back at the wrist (i.e., palm facing slightly more to the ceiling) to facilitate the backward reaching first finger.
I have been experimenting with my thumb position bringing it more opposite the second finger, but I have a double jointed thumb which does not want to cooperate. I have seen improvement when I dont press so hard but I suspect my fourth finger is going to collapse whatever I do. Im still trying suggestions, thanks,bron
youtube Tod Ehle has nice vibrato videos that are quite helpful.
Raphael, I agree, but.. (as usual!)
With my short pinky on the viola, for the high positions my whole hand comes round the viola's shoulder, thumb and all! My pinky then points across the string rather than along it. This technique could interest violinists with small hands..
(I do hold my viola well to the left, and tilted at 45° to allow a good 4th-finger vibrato on the C-string.)
My pinky then stays curved enough for a wrist/forearm vibrato, but I agree there is a dose of finger (or rather "palm") vertical motion.
With a Dominant A, (!?) I can get sweet, singing tone right to the end of the fingerboard..
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September 24, 2012 at 05:14 PM · I find it easier to make sure only the 4th finger is down and keep it weighted into the string with the aid of a heavy, loose arm. This seems to help with my pupils too.
How strong is your fourth finger? Might be worth just using it loads, if you're coming up to it from a 3rd finger, keep the 3rd down for stability for now.
Just use it lots and feel the burn, does wonders! Try it on the viola and you'll have no problems going back the violin!