Last week he assigned various arpeggios to work on while he is traveling, the beast of them is the F arpeggio in C. It starts in 2nd position and winds up in 5th. This week I'm focusing on slow scales/arpeggios/shifting/slurring practice and not so much on pieces - just the occasional piece when I need to break it up.
I am straining my 4th in 5th position reaching for the F and I can't for the life of me figure out how I am doing this - it is not a long reach from 1-4 in that part of the fingerboard. As some may remember I do have quite small, and arthritic, hands, but we've solved that problem in 1st, a bit unconventional perhaps, but it works and it's in tune.
Any tips on how not to strain my hand while reaching for F in 5th? It's the first time I've needed to deal with the body of my violin and I am sure it has to be related.
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My 1st is on C before my 4th hits F, I will experiment more with elbow and thumb placement.
When I said that we solved the 4th finger in 1st position - I also said we found a non-traditional compensation for my small fingers. I physically cannot make the stretch from F to B on the E string, for example, not with both fingers down at the same time. So I compensate, but can do so very quickly and in tune - and for all 4 strings. My teacher and I worked for months on this but we finally had to accept that I have to compensate in order to effectively use my 4th. I don't even have to think about my 4th in 1st any longer - at least not up to/including 16th notes. Haven't gone beyond those yet.
As I think through this, and read the helpful comments, I wonder if my hand having to be against the body of the violin in order to reach for 5th position F is causing my hand or wrist to fall into an odd angle which then leads to the strain in my 4th from 1-4 in the 5th position?
So I will watch my thumb position and elbow angle. Back to the mirror to see if I'm doing something weird with my wrist. Thinking of Joel's comment I am also wondering if I'm trying to reach higher than I realize as the interval distance is different from 3rd to 5th.
Thanks for helping me think this through, it helps!
Try this:
Play your arpeggio upside down - I mean, starting with the top note, and working your way down. Only ever touch the string with one finger at a time - so no anchor fingers! It's the opposite of the way that your practice secure intonation in first position. When you go from one finger to the next it's a scissoring or walking kind of movement. Spend a little time on each note to find the hand position where your finger makes the strongest curve against the fingerboard. You can put the violin down and make a strong circle with that finger against your thumb to get an idea of how it should feel.
Then do the whole arpeggio again, the same way - top to bottom - except this time tap each finger for a long time before going on to the next one. It will feel like you're playing a trill between that finger and the open string below it.
The purpose is to establish a series of "targets" for when you really play your arpeggio right way up - both visually (you should watch your hand at each stage) and in your sense of touch (you should play with your eyes closed at each stage). It's like a row of snapshot photos that you will visit, one at a time, each in turn, when you start playing the arpeggio as-written.
The trilling is to make sure that your fingers are strong but elastic - if you can't pick a finger up and put it down again right away, quickly in the same place, there is some cross-wise tension that you need to find and eliminate.
If your palm is not very broad, you will probably find that you need to adjust your hand position more frequently than most people - that's OK! *However* - make sure you are getting the full range that you have by reaching back from the base knuckle of your first finger as well as forward with your fourth finger. As Simon Fischer says, we can almost always reach further than we think we can. :)
The "upside down" F arpeggio in the way you described caused me to see a few things differently, never a bad thing. It's not mastered yet - your comment about the possible width of my palm is spot on (which is why my 4th in 1st had to be modified) but things have already improved a bit and there is much less strain apparent in my 4th at the high point of the arpeggio in 5th. It looks like my hand was trying to twist in an odd way to get my 4th there, and that just is not necessary.
Make sure you're not clutching the violin's neck either between your thumb and the side of first finger *or* between your base knuckle of first finger and whatever finger you have down. To practice this, use a really big wide vibrato - even letting your finger slide a little - on every note. Your goal is to make sure that no part of your hand is touching the violin's neck on the E-string side. For big vibrato, fast shifts, and extensions (and also chord playing) you have to make space in your hand by supporting with just your thumb. (Menuhin suggests that we should play this way all the time, but giving up the touch point on the E-string side makes intonation a lot trickier!)
Jean: I think "The Violin Lesson" is my favorite of all of Simon Fischer's books. :D
Third and 5th positions have shorter intervals however, and after trying Nates suggestion last night I will experiment more with the reverse approach in my scales and arpeggios. 1-4 in third reaches my physical limit, but I try very hard to not modify there.
Fisher's book is great, isn't it? I think I want to add his Basics and eventually Scales to my little reference library.
I will observe that the F arpeggio in C major is still a beast, but that will pass. All of this is, currently, to support one measure in Chinese Puzzle (Rebecca Clark) but it will certainly serve me well as I continue to move forward. Thank you again!
https://youtu.be/MrKyFTNat3U
If you want to get the jump on him, go back and play all your Suzuki Book 1 songs as 3rd position etude. Perpetual Motion is a particularly good one!
As far as 5th position...Rebecca Clark wrote a lovely piece (Chinese Puzzle) that is actually quite easy - outside of one measure that goes into 5th - hence the C major arpeggios that are meant to help me with that one measure (and it has, both are much easier). His approach is working for me. I've come along much further in 9 months than I thought would be possible. I'm still a returning beginner - sometimes difficult things (to me) come much easier than the easier things do - but that's to be expected. He doesn't cut me any slack for either which is a good thing.
Nate - that's a good idea about Suz. 1 and Perpetual Motion in particular!
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