in the preceding videos we did in-depth
work with our bow arms and now we're
going to learn where we place the left
hand okay
so I want to point out a few important
details before we actually get started
with the violin so for now just put your
violin down okay and we're going to
assume the posture for the violin hold
so arm out at a 45 degree angle palm up
elbow in hand rotates around notice the
straight line from the elbow to the top
of the fingers okay
and again our wrist is never bent like
this like this like this or like this
it's completely straight okay and now I
want you to take a look at the u-shape
formed between the thumb and this part
of the hand it looks like a perfect
little hook for the neck of the violin
to rest in but it's not the but we never
really hold the violin up with our left
hand we only hold a violin up with our
shoulder and the weight of our head okay
so the left hand always needs to have
complete freedom of movement so the only
real point of contact with the violin is
our thumb and obviously our fingers
touch the violin when we play but as far
as just point of contacts that we
maintain at all times it's just with
this part of our thumb okay now look at
the hand again it's very relaxed and
notice that the first finger this bass
joint is opposite oriented directly
across from our thumb and this point of
orientation we will also always maintain
when we're playing okay so now go ahead
and get the violin and go ahead and get
into play position okay and now with the
pad of the thumb this fleshy part right
here we're going to place on the neck of
the instrument about one inch away from
the nut okay and you'll notice just the
tip of the of the thumb you know peeks
over the level of the fingerboard okay
and there are slight differences in the
levels of thumb placement from Player to
Player some sometimes a little higher
some a little further underneath
the neck some place the thumb closer to
the center of the hand okay but the
majority of violinists maintain the
orientation with the thumb and first
finger right across from each other okay
and you know the thumb will make subtle
changes in placement depending on the
string we're playing on for instance
when we plan the g-string the hand
pivots over the fingerboard a little
more and the thumb comes further
underneath and when we play higher on
the fingerboard this is called shifting
or playing in higher positions then the
thumb moves to follow the hand but we're
going to be begin our training in first
position so I'm going to put my thumb
back about an inch away from the nut
okay now let's take a look at the other
side of the fingerboard okay the base
knuckle of my first finger okay is it
position more or less at the level of
the fingerboard okay so this would be a
little too low this would be a little
too high okay now in the violin tutorial
I mentioned that the arm rotates around
so the palm faces over your left
shoulder another way to think of that is
to imagine that this row of knuckles
forms a line okay and that's going to be
at a forty-five degree angle to the neck
of the violin okay now let's bring your
attention to your thumb when we rotate
the hand to where the knuckle line is at
a 45 degree angle okay to the neck but
some sort of pivots to where the inside
edge now is in contact with the neck of
the violin okay the thumb is that anchor
of the hand
it keeps the hand oriented so the
fingers can go down in the right place
consistently and and that's its main job
now it's other job is to supply a little
bit of counter pressure to the fingers
as they strike okay and hold the fingers
down but we have to be really careful
when we talk about counter pressure with
the thumb because we don't want to start
squeezing or pinching the neck or we
don't want this the thumb to become
stiff or locked so the thumb very
naturally on its own supplies all the
counter pressure needed to be able to
play so we never need to send directives
to the thumb to apply pressure
okay in fact you'll need to start
practicing the awareness of keeping the
thumb relaxed so you don't develop the
habit of pinching or squeezing okay now
let's place our fingers lightly on the
a-string we won't worry about exactly
where yet but just on top for now okay
let's look at the shape of our fingers
okay the first finger is very squared
off it forms a nice little tabletop okay
now lay the second finger down again
square it off kind of a tabletop
formation and now the third finger
starts to be more arched it's a more
gently arch in the fourth finger if
you're lucky
we'll also have a nice gentle arch but
if you have a short pinky like mine then
you really you have to reach and it's a
little more lengthened and straighter
never locked but unfortunately I have to
kind of reach for my pinky okay and now
I want to caution you that sometimes
beginning violins have weak knuckles and
when they place their fingers down the
knuckles collapse okay if this is the
case with you then you need to work on
strengthening those knuckles and so if
they collapse just work on popping them
back up okay and you might want to apply
just a little pressure to the fingertips
to keep that squared shape with the
finger again if they do that and you pop
them back up and kind of just do little
presses this will start to strengthen
those knuckles okay now do this several
times with me okay drop your hand down
to your side okay and then bring the
thumb up to the side of the neck okay
and as you do make sure you have the
proper rotation again noticing how
straight the forearm is that you're not
doing this or this okay now this is the
posture for the left hand okay and we
want to you want to do this several
times many times throughout the day
so that you can again this this can
become automatic it's something that you
won't have to think of in the future but
it starts to feel very natural okay
great job
you