Welcome to our forum. A Message To Our New and Prospective Members . Check out our Forum Rules. Lets keep this forum an enjoyable place to visit.
Currently working on getting badges to show up horizontally. Should hopefully figure that out within a week. Thanks for your patience.
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
(0 votes) 
Honorary tenured advisor
Offline
First, my hands are clean hehe.
What I mean is when I have to rapidly switch from one note to another one located on another string, often my finger is making the string make a sound. You know when you don't bow and just do finger exercises? You hear the strings a bit. Well it's annoying me because my song sounds bleh with that aftersound. What is the correct way to change strings very quickly without that sound please? It seems mostly a problem from the D to A string dunno why, A to E is fine, maybe the thickness?
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
Everybody is different so I can only tell you how I mess up the strings.
I come off the string at a VERY slight angle thereby creating a plucking sound.
I do not get the sound if I come off the string in a strictly vertical direction.
I guess it is a form of latent pizzicato going on.
I call this problem "lazy fingers".
Offline
Same here, I can only speak for myself! LOL
I have the case of "lazy fingers" as well! But other times, I have a bad habit of locking down my fingers and pressing really hard on the fingerboard. When that happens, my calluses tend to take over. If I don't lift my fingers just right, I'll get that "sticking" sensation because of the string imprints on my fingers! LOL
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
Honorary tenured advisor
Offline
Ah yes it makes sense! I will work on more verticallity. I get strings imprinted in fingers also EJ but I'm working on it I'm concious I put too much weight on them. My bow is lazy like my fingers when I switch strings quickly sometime I catch a bit of the previous one it's soooo annoying!
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
Offline
Me, too, to all of the above, but I find the bow problem the most annoying.
I don't think I'm catching the previous string but rather the next string because I think I'm anticipating the string change and changing the angle too soon. Hard to tell, though.
Maybe I need to shoot a close-up video of my bowing and slow it down to tell.
When the work's all done and the sun's settin' low,
I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow.
Honorary tenured advisor
Offline
I just adore how we all struggle over the same little things even if they are not exactly the same 
makes it more human I think, more real and understanding! 
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
Offline
NoirVelours said
I just adore how we all struggle over the same little things even if they are not exactly the same
Funny you should mention that! It reminded me of when I was a kid, taking trumpet lessons! We would all compare fat lips at the end of rehearsal! LOL 
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
Offline
NoirVelours said
Ah yes it makes sense! I will work on more verticallity. I get strings imprinted in fingers also EJ but I'm working on it I'm concious I put too much weight on them. My bow is lazy like my fingers when I switch strings quickly sometime I catch a bit of the previous one it's soooo annoying!
Ditto this!!! Lol
I am amazed at how old people of my age are.....
Offline
I don't think it's a case of "lazy fingers" at all! It's just that we as beginners haven't got that center bullseye ability to 'stick' a note with our fingertip, and the tips of pads of the fingers haven't built up a thick layer of skin or calous which doesn't indent as much.
My fingers a re a tiny bit fat if I dont keep reminding myself to play the tips and I find myself touching an adjacent string creating that weird sound you're talking about.
I just keep practicing and keep telling myself, it'll go away one day...if I remember to play the tips as much as possible.
"If you practice with your hands you must practice all day. Practice with your mind and you can accomplish the same amount in minutes." Nathan Milstein
Honorary tenured advisor
Offline
Callous? I... callous? 
oh well... there goes my manucured nails I was hoping to have for summer! If it can make the pain go away I think I'm ok with this, my fingertips are so sensible right now that I think my subconscient wants me to play on the pads instead!
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
When you figure out how to get callouses from playing the violin please let me know. I think it is a badge of "true grit".
I also have not figured out how to get a violin hickey but I've seen quite a few in high school age performers and I'll take it that their wounds are musically related.
It would really be cool if I had callouses AND a hickey at the same time. People would think I was really dedicated!
Offline
Oliver said
It would really be cool if I had callouses AND a hickey at the same time. People would think I was really dedicated!
That is very funny Oliver.... these kids nowadays are just so dedicated...
Offline
Try using some hand lotion that gets absorbed into your skin. That might help you with the sticky string sound when lifting your fingers and avoid dryness and future calluses.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Fiddlerman said
Try using some hand lotion that gets absorbed into your skin. That might help you with the sticky string sound when lifting your fingers and avoid dryness and future calluses.
Not trying to be argumentative, but I have to question the "hand lotion" solution to the problem.
Having been a carpenter for 42 years and working outside most of the time, the hand's tend to get pretty dry, rough and cracked. I have tried using various kind's of hand lotion which actually did soak into the skin, you couldn't feel it, until you began to perspire, then the skin excreted the lotion back out.
My thinking is that while playing, your hand's may tend to sweat / perspire bringing the lotion back to the surface transfering to the string's. If this happen's, the lotion can get absorbed into the micro winding's of the string's, deadning the sound of a clean string.
Wiping the string's with a dry cloth probably won't remove the hidden "crud" absorbed into the string's, therefore dust can be attracted to string's adding to the tonal problem.
My thought's only and I'm probably wrong again on this topic.
Honorary tenured advisor
Offline
Corn starch then? lol
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
Offline
Fiddlestix, here's an idea for you,,, virgin coconut oil.
Just recently, a dear friend told me about the many and varied benefits of coconut oil, so I bought a 10 oz. jar. I started trying it for EVERYTHING; hair, face, hands, everything (it's completely natural, no additives, for people with very sensitive skin), I've even used it to lubricate prongs that slide into [electrical] sockets. It has definitely made my fingers less scratchy.
And in regard to your issue of "sweating out" the applied lotion, I know EXACTLY what you mean; I never use lotion for that exact reason. But try virgin coconut oil; not the same problem.
In having said that, I don't know that lubed fingers have stopped that string catching for me; granted I don't apply oil to my fingers just before I play.
I've been tempted to buy metal thimbles for each of my fingers to see if that works!
ftufc said
Fiddlestix, here's an idea for you,,, virgin coconut oil.I've been tempted to buy metal thimbles for each of my fingers to see if that works!
LOL,, funny you should mention thimble's,,, I was going to be sarcastic and suggest that in my last post, but I forgot.
Offline
Haaaaa, Fiddlestix! I've thought of doing it soooooo many times. Now that you chimed in, I'm gonna get some and try it. I'm sure someone on here has tried it.... let me and Fiddlestix know the outcome we might expect! 
2 Guest(s)
Mouse
Fiddlerman
ELCBK
Strabo
