Books › Modern violin-playing, 1920 › scan 123
Scan 123
Modern violin-playing, 1920
20 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 59. See the scan on archive.org.
1Now, let us first state quite clearly that we have to use positions higher than the third: and that, in those positions, the body of the violin does prevent the hand from functioning in exactly its former position.
3But this fact does not mean that we must discard the principles that we have already learned. They are certainly not vitiated by the physical fact that the body of the instrument juts out sideways from the neck. The knuckle must still be kept in the striking-plane: the thumb must continue to support the violin. But, for the higher positions, we must arrange the hand so that it passes round the body of the instrument.
5Let us first take the positions, and then go into the matter of shifting from one to another.
7There is a preliminary observation to be made here. Within the limits of each position there is one series of available notes. And the student is earnestly desired to make a study of what these notes are in all the positions, so that he may never be at a loss to know the fingering of any note in any position.
9If this study is undertaken—and it can quite well be made away from the instrument—he will gain an instinctive appreciation of the location of all the notes that are across the strings, but in the same position. He will have, in fact, a sort of group-perception for each position.
11As an example: he will instantly sense the fact that, after having played E-flat with the third finger on the G-string in the third position, the note D-flat on the E-string is played by the fourth finger very close to the place where the third finger would lie if it were moved straight over to the E-string.
13A second example will bring home to him the importance of training the fingers to move straight across the finger-board, without getting too high or too low. Thus, if he plays the four notes E-flat, B-flat, F, C, on the four strings with one finger, it is essential that the tip of that finger should, in each case, be at exactly the same distance from the bridge.
15We now have to investigate the method by which the knuckle is kept in the striking-plane while passing through the higher positions.
17Plate 29 shows the hand posed for the first three positions.
19Plate 30 shows the knuckle still in the striking-plane, while the wrist has been drawn back from the knuckle to make way for the body of the violin.
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