Wrist Problem

March 1, 2014 at 09:22 AM · Greetings,

I think you just need to slow down and review priorities.

My wrist doesn`t become a `high wrist` (the hand lower than the wrist) to a greta extent. It depends on the physique and the style of playing. Look at Oistrakh, Issac Stern, Szeryng, Hilary hahn and Julie Fischer on Youtube and see what their wrists look like at the heel of the bow.

Your first priority, as far as I can guess is stabilizng the way you keep the violin up. Again, there are many schools of though on this subject and it depends if you are using a rest or not. If you really want to play without a rest then at this stage inserting some sponge between the violin and your shoulder might well be a good idea. Make sure you are mot gripping the neck with your thumb and index finger. if this si not okay then trying to add bowing is a little premature. You could spend time on pizzicato tunes while you are getting accustomed to the left arm aspect.

You say you are practicing with a pencil. This is good. You are using it to check your bow hold. Have you been asked to pretend you are bowing while holding a pencil? You can practice raising and dropping your wrist while holding a pencil you know.

If, and it sounds like a bit of a big if, you do actually understand the basic position of the fingers on the bow, including having only a tiny part of the tip of the thumb touching the leather or in the space between the leather and the frog. And IF, the thumb is not gripping the bow and your right hand fingers and wrist are pretty much as relaxed and casual as though you were holding an apple you were about to take a bite out of then you could try the following exercise. Keep the same shape of the fingers and thumb , without seriously gripping the bow but feeling the structure of the hand and fingers is quite solid, wave the bow about in cirlles and all over the place making huge movements. you dont need the violin. Keep checking that you keep the bow hold constant and the thumb is not gripping the bow. the wrist, arm, elbow upper arm is just loose spaghetti which is flapping around in a crazy dance while your bow hold is constant.

Now when you begin bowing you want to play only in the part of the bow called `the square.` Its different for everyone where does the bow hair rest on a string when the shape formed by the bow, your upper and lower arm is basically a square. It will somewhere just above the middle of te bow. From here, by opening and closing the elbow joint you can play short bow strokes. If you feel comfortable and relaxed with this you might consider going form that point to the point of the bow. In order to do this and keep the bow straight on the strings the right elbow must push forward very slightly as though you are pulling the bow to a point at 2 oclock in relation to your right eye.

But again, this depends on the school of teaching. Some prefer starting with the whole bow and this is also fine.

But all of the above is weeks ad weeks of patient work and in this brief commentary many many things are missing or glossed over that your teacher will give you according to your needs, physique and rate of learning. Be patient and dont try to force things. In the early stages it is much better to do -very little- correctly and spent the extra time watching the great players such as the ones I mention above for at least an hour everyday. If you really love the violin this should not be too difficult.

best o luck,

Buri