Books › Modern violin-playing, 1920 › scan 26
Scan 26
Modern violin-playing, 1920
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 16. See the scan on archive.org.
1knuckle and finger-tip must be in the "striking-plane," that is to say, on the horizontal line A C in Figs. 5, 6, 7?
3Let us suppose for a moment that they are not. What will happen?
5The string and finger-board (in other words, the line A C) can not move out of the horizontal. They are fixed. But the knuckle (that is to say, the pivot E) can and will move. It is not fixed. Consequently, when the blow of the finger descends on the finger-board, the knuckle will be raised; just as, when we strike a blow with a hammer on an anvil, the handle flies up and strikes back at our hand. So that, looking again at Fig. 6, the finger-tip would remain where the hammer-head is drawn, but the knuckle would be raised, and would take up a position somewhere between E and B.
7Now, this raising of the knuckle is the one thing to be avoided. Directly it takes place, the body of the hand will try to prevent it, by pressing the thumb against the neck of the instrument. And, when once that gripping posture of the hand is assumed, farewell all freedom and independence of finger-action. Nor must we overlook the fact that this loss of freedom will extend all the way down the fingers, from finger-tips to wrist. For the body of the hand is, after all, only a continuation of the fingers, enveloped in muscle, skin, and so on.
9It need scarcely be said that violinists do raise their knuckles. They raise them, and so become inevitably enmeshed in the consequences. The details of these struggles and miseries hardly call for description: they are so painfully known to many players. However, this may be said. That the attempt to prevent this elevation is always made by means of clutching with the thumb; and that one of the objects of this chapter is to show how the raising can be avoided without recourse to that faulty method.
11There is another reason why the knuckle should always be kept in the horizontal striking-plane. It is a reason rather of the mind than of the body. Yet it is of the greatest importance when we come to the practical business of playing the violin.
13The mind of course controls the finger-stroke. And, if the player is to have mental comfort and safety at his work, he must establish a sort of automatism in the finger-action. The finger, in a way, will expect to find the string at the point of its greatest efficiency in the stroke. If it does not meet the string there—that is to say, if the knuckle is either too high or too low—this automatic state will never exist. And the inevitable result to the player will be surprise, insecurity, and, in trill-work, actual locking of the muscle.
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