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I know we have helpful tips & videos scattered all over the forum, but thought I'd try to make a few easy to find here.
Please add your favorite tips or links!
7 Struggles Small-handed Violinists Deal With Every Day
TwoSetViolin Yep... not so funny if you are the one struggling with these!
Violinna has some great tips for small hands & short pinkies - LOVE she has chapters time stamped in the Video description!
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ELCBK said
I know we have helpful tips & videos scattered all over the forum...
In the same way that there are trees scattered all over the USA.
Andrew
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I have small hands and a short fourth finger; the small hands never seem to be an issue, just the short fourth finger.
The tip my first fiddle teacher gave me for a short pinky (she started out as a viola player with a short pinky) was to use my ring finger as a pivot point. To go ahead and lift my first finger off the string and pivot on the ring finger to rock forward a little to reach your mark, then you don’t lose your finger placements and can rock right back down. That’s how she often reaches her fourth finger notes, and it is one of my go-to tricks.
this is generally how it feels, though, lol.
☆•*¨*•¸¸¸.•*¨*•☆•*¨*•¸¸¸.•*¨*•☆•*¨*•.¸¸¸.•*¨*•☆
World's Okayest Fiddler
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@damfino -
GREAT TIP! Thanks!
Cute video. You just reminded me of one I saw the other day, to help kids!
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I found myself staring at a couple close-up recordings on YouTube - just because the violinists had really LONG little fingers!
First thing that came to mind... I'll be checking each of Grandkids, when they come over next, to see if any of them got lucky enough to inherit a longer pinky! 🤭
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None of the Grandkids lucked out with long pinkies. 😒
I did watch a video of "Trill Exercises" from Eyal Kless, today.
GREAT tips on finger pressure, hand movement & finger action - especially beneficial for the pinky!
Don't be taken back by the word 'advanced' in the title - I think everyone can benefit here.
...my pinky is getting stronger!
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I had thought I was doing pretty well with my LH pinky, when I originally started this thread, but mentioned shortly after this (in several other threads) that I was catching my middle joint collapsing when applying pressure to my pinky - even on my violin!
The videos in this thread helped me tremendously & I realized during practice this last week...
I can finally use a strong, CURVED, 4th finger on ALL FIVE of my strings - with confidence! 🤗
This was NOT an easy task - it took me at least FOUR MONTHS of consciously working at it while I was practicing new melodies, plus the myriad of other things associated with playing the violin!
I have NOT managed to noticeably gain any more stretch between my 3rd & 4th finger, so I resort to allowing my 3rd finger to be somewhat free to follow the 4th - also doing similar to what damfino mentioned.
I'm still working to stretching my whole hand more. Finally got in some good days of practice, but I'm going to have to be more careful with warm-ups because more frequent warning signs have appeared - discomfort & swelling between the 1st/2nd knuckles and bones/tendons down in my hand, possible arthritis flair-up. Anyway, hoping it's only arthritis and a little overwork - I certainly don't need another affliction that ends in 'itis'! 😳
If you can't use your 4th finger like the rest of your fingers, maybe doesn't even look like how you use your other fingers - this thread can help!
- Emily
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I have some thoughts on this. I have actually never met an adult with shorter fingers than mine (I know someone who is 4'8" and has the same hand size), and I mainly play viola.
It's easier to find a comfortable hand frame by placing your 4th finger first and then reach back with your 1st finger; this is what Kim Kashkashian advocates, and I see that Violinna also suggests it. But apart from that, most of the technical adjustments I make are to avoid stretching rather than to stretch farther. It helps if the thumb is more mobile. I tend to slide my thumb subtly toward the center of the hand when I get to the 3rd and 4th fingers; I've repurposed Schradieck etudes by using them to practice coordinating that thumb motion as I go up and down the fingers. (There's another exercise I practice for thumb motion that may require starting out with a more flexible hand: alternating thirds and fourths in double-stops, going up the fingerboard and changing one finger at a time.)
I also do what @damfino does, either pivoting on my 3rd finger or allowing my hand frame to do a sort of half-shift toward my 4th finger.
Another way to get a little more reach, very common among violists, is by gently rounding your left wrist instead of keeping it straight; this allows you to rotate your hand a little more toward the fingerboard.
At intermediate and advanced levels, violists with small hands tend to do a lot of shifting in order to avoid 4th finger stretches. This is one reason I rarely use published fingerings, and often have to write in different fingerings from my stand partner in orchestral music. One very common technique for violists is the crawl-shift, shifting up or down one step by opening or closing the hand, placing the finger, and then pulling the rest of the hand along. That's especially useful for avoiding whole steps between the 3rd and 4th fingers, or for avoiding 4th finger vibrato (which is especially hard with a short pinky). You may find that you can actually reach farther with your 3rd finger than your 4th finger, which is a good reason for crawl-shifting.
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There's a story, probably concerning a Spartan boy, who says to his mother, "this sword is very short," and his mother replies, "so stand closer to your enemy."
If your pinky is short, either move your hand or your thumb or both closer to the bridge.
Put it another way, as you'll find in books, don't stretch from your index to your pinky, stretch from your pinky to your index.
Andrew
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@AndrewH -
Appreciate the insight!
I have been following your suggestions (thank you). I'm getting more intuitive about how to change my hand around as time goes by. Now that I have some control over my 4th finger, I'd just like to make things more automatic.
Think I try to fix too many things at one time.
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For octaves too, don't think of the index as an anchor and the pinky as the worker.
Think of the whole hand (you need to span that octave and the hand has a span) and think of its middle being balanced midway between the two notes of the octave. Neither pinky nor index is more important than the other and neither does more work.
Don't stick the thumb hard against the neck or it will drag behind, hampering your pinky. Try moving the thumb first so that it is ahead of the game. Start by keeping it always where the middle finger is or where you intend it to go. If your thumb has bad habits, then that might break them. After that you'll probably be able to find a less rigid and formulaic comfortable home for it.
Andrew
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@Gordon Shumway -
Thanks!
Think of the whole hand (you need to span that octave and the hand has a span) and think of its middle being balanced midway between the two notes of the octave. Neither pinky nor index is more important than the other and neither does more work.
Yes, that's what I've been doing.
I'm not quite out of the annoying stage where I have to 'think' about changing my hand that way, first... but my thumb moves freely.
During the time I've been changing my hand angle around to accommodate my 4th finger, I've still been trying to use vibrato where I can (not with two fingers down), but it's been challenging, because my fingers end up at a different angle.
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