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Can anyone tell me of any good exersizes I can do to improve my finger dexterity? After a lifetime of working on engines and holding steering wheels, loading and unloading 18 wheelers, well, my hands are great for a nice strong firm grip. I can do my job with ease. Making my fingers curl and stretch to reach the strings and still have control over them not so much.
I doubt there is anything that will give me the thin graceful fingers I see on practically all violinist and fiddlers while surfing youtube. But maybe there are some exersizes I can do to improve. Maybe after I also have years and years of playing the fingers on my left hand will be as dextrious and supple as theirs are. For now its like tryong to control four small bratwursts and about as effective lol. HELP PLEASE.. and god bless
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Start drumming your fingers on tables. Use patterns like 1st 3rd 2nd 4th 4th 2nd 3rd 1st, then move on to more complicated patterns.
Sometimes I will put a URL into a message only to find that the link does not work. I think URL listed below is one of the odd URL's.
The error messages I get often suggest that I am not able to link to the site.
So I have to leave the message blank because I can not just erase it.
http://www.sdmaus.com/violinbl.....speed.html
???????????????????????
After this message saved, when I click on given URL (.html) I get message NOT ACCEPTABLE but how can I abort?
The site is CANADIAN VIOLIN BLOG which acts entirely normal in all other respects. ????????????????
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1) Schradieck exercises! There is also books by Josef Märkl that I think can be good.
I think I got quite a dexterity by having an unrelaxed positioning of the hand where I always strech too much.
Its quite funny, a violin teacher who will watch my hand, will say that its unrelaxed due to the positioning. But fact is, that if you have been doing wrong all your life, you have trained it into stretching positions quite a lot, as a side effect not only have tension, but also have improved the dexterity considerable, so even if the teacher will be right, it will feel better for you than look for him.
2) Also: can you cross your fingers (2&3, 4&5) without help of other fingers? Practice this! And fingers 3&4. Dont use the thumb. Try to increase the speed and the smoothness for this exercise. Smoothness is the most important, the finger crossings should be legato 
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well if its a clue to what my benchmark is I just tried the finger crossing. 1&2 no problem 3&4 are rebellious and dont seem to like each other very much. Thank you I will be practicing that while I make my deliveries, it wil give me something to do as i drive that can help me in violin. Thank you for the idea
This was another brave attempt to link to CANADIAN VIOLIN BLOG but with no success.
Why bother? CANADIAN VIOLIN BLOG (CVB) has an exercise called SPEED which I think is intended for speed development. However, the fingering gets tricky enough to qualify as a useful finger dexterity drill. The music at first looks much too simple and probably is for many members but things change when attempts are made to increase tempo. There are a few configurations to the exercise which are defined in the instruction, some harder than others. As mentioned, this material will be more useful to learners than to the advanced players on the forum.
I practiced the exercises everyday for a week and I could tell a difference (improvement, I hope).
Being that I can not set up a link, the site can easily be reached with Google to CANADIAN VIOLIN BLOG, topic SPEED.
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Some things I do to warm up my fingers is to spin a bic lighter around them and also use balisong (butterfly) knives. It really helps me to get all fingers working on there own.
Can you make a video to demonstrate your technique? I know nothing about the marshal arts or butterflies 
Or are you talking about yoga 
It all sounds dangerous 
I thought they stopped making BIC lighters and wooden matches
I might have an old Ronson lighter 
Will that work
Do you have any knives sharp enough to carve ebony
"There own" is spelled "their own". Watch for new spelling icon if you're not sure how to spell
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I can spell "Oliver"
Balisongs are dangerous and that really helps your fingers to move on their own. For me. I'm sure you can find all kinds of videos on Youtube.
You can also spin a quarter, pencils, pens and whatever between your fingers. I do that too.
I never argue with success. If your routine gets the job done that is what counts.
One main advantage to warming up on a violin is to help establish position for intonation purposes by confirming muscle memory and, of course, preparing the pinkie for stretching.
The Canadian Violin Blog has a few very difficult finger positions which are tied into actual violin notes. The point of the site is not really a warm up drill.
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I was only trying to help Bob to do things with his fingers when you don't have a fiddle around.
I did check out that Canadian Violin Blog just now and can't really make sense of it. There's no pictures or videos or structure. It's just fragments of written words that won't help me much as a beginner on the violin. It reads like the person on that site is more interested in the way he communicates instead of teaching.
Go to the site and look down the second column from the right (blue letters) until you find DEVELOPING SPEED 3. Click on that and you will find music and instructions on what to do.
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OK, checked it. That's a good one. Saw the finger patterns.
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I haven't found that study yet but one of the all time best studies can be found on my SHEET MUSIC link under FREE VIOLIN STUDIES, ETUDES AND SOLOS
Schradieck, Henry
The School Of Violin-Technics
Start with printing number 1 and work it diligently 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Great stuff but one question. Are the long slurs just to indicate phrasing OR, is this a sign to play each line(s) under one bow?
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Very good question Oliver. I was just going through the lesson and wondering if I should do it in a long bow stroke or up and down bow strokes for each note. I'm doing it both ways.
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Good question. The slurs are more or less an indication that you can play it as you seem fit. Free bowing. When you play it slowly take 4 notes per bow and as you work up the speed combine 8, then 16 and lastly 32.
I spent the last 2 hours writing down an exercise that I did so much that I have it memorized. Perfect for dexterity and warm-ups. I don't know who the composer is but remember that it is #6 from some etude book. I can't find the sheet music but my memory is still OK. 
Originally it is only a part from this book and I wrote it out for EACH string.
I highly recommend you all print and play these every day
.
Dexterity Exercises and great warm-ups
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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