Placing the left hand fingers on the strings.

Hello again I want to congratulate you for keeping up. Now that we know how to move the boat let’s learn how to use the left hand fingers and play different notes on the fingerboard. You will see that on this violin. I have put a sticker which tells me where are the notes on the fingerboard are. Do I need it. No not really at least not anymore. And as you will discover with the practice comes a moment when you can control every note just by hearing it you’ll be able to tell immediately if it’s in tune or needs correction. But this is a good way to start. And also it’s an easier way for me to show you what I’m doing. If you think you need one of those I have provided a link in the court documents section. They’re very handy at the beginning. Just be very careful if you use them not to change your hand position when you try to look at them like this. As much as possible keep the natural violin hold which by now you should have learned very well. Before we continue you may want to go back and quickly review the poacher and the left arm and sizes where we also talk about the rotation of the arm and the angle of the wrist. It will give you a very good start as in this videos will be using the left arm and fingers how Remember when we talked about the ball hard. We said how important the position of thumb was and that we want to have the thumb free so it can move as we need it for different strokes. In many ways it is the same situation here with the left hand the thumb counteracts all the finger pressure and that’s why it needs to adjust continuously. The general direction is that the thumb position is opposite of the index finger. But I don’t want you to take this literally and you try to keep the thumb there even if it feels uncomfortable. Smaller hands will look differently than larger hands maybe having the thumb closer to the middle finger. But they can be both correct and sometimes even same size hands can look different but be perfectly comfortable and in perfect balance don’t think of this as a fixed position. It’s just a starting point. Also as you bring that down opposite to the index finger make sure that you’re moving the thumb all the way from the base Joint all the way from the wrist. We’ll talk about this in a if you don’t do it. It will be very hard to get the right angle and be almost impossible to keep the fingers free and relax. Now let’s look at the placement of the things. Different traditions have different ways of teaching finger placement of course and since in this course we are following the idea that the most natural position is best for you. I’ll try to help you find the one that works. So if you see that I’m doing something and it does not feel right to you feel free to adjust it slightly. Keep looking for a way that response to your body to your hands. OK. So first let’s clarify how we count the fingers in violin. We started with the index finger is number one middle finger as number two ring finger is number three and Littlefinger as number four for three two. And what in the first song we are going to learn the first third and fourth fingers are going to be in the same position. But the second finger will be moving. We will start with what we call the second high finger. When the second finger touches the third and then you learn the second low finger. When the second is closer to the first finger Raimunda the x ray of all right hand from few videos back here it is again same as the right hand. It is very important that we make use of the whole length of the fingers all the way from the rest. This makes pressing the strings so much easier. And this way we get much better results with less effort. Let’s do a quick exercise so you can feel the strength of the fingers especially in the lower part of your hand. So find the correct posture check your balance bring the violin to your body lift your head up move it to the left and place your jaw on the chin raise rotate the left arm so the palm of the hand faces up lift your hand and touched the violin with the thumb and the base of the first finger thumb touches with the first natural. Now we’re going to place all four fingers on a string. Don’t pay attention when they fall. We are doing this for a different reason and it won’t matter if they’re not in the right places. Now picture your fingers in there full length starting all the way from the rest and start pushing very slowly so the fingers press the string down to the fingerboard. Keep them there pressing the string and now check and feel each finger. All four fingers are pressing equal. If you press with all the forefingers equally then even if each finger presses just a little the pressure will be enough to bring the string down to the fingerboard. Now relax this pressure Maling the palm of the hand very slowly to the back just enough so the string gets back to the normal position. Let’s do this action. If you press the string to the fingerboard feel as if the fingers are not going up and down but to the back end to the front to the back. And to the front the back. And to the front. When moving the fingers all the way from the rest this will be the most efficient way to press the strings down. Practice said before you get to the next Vidia and try incorporating it each time you use the fingers of the left hand.