Books › Modern violin-playing, 1920 › scan 32
Scan 32
Modern violin-playing, 1920
20 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1needed to keep it in position. And this is the proper way to hold the violin. It gives the instrument two points of support underneath, while the player's fingers are operating above. See Fig. 8 for its diagrammatic illustration.
3Finger
5Thumb
7Collar-bone
9Fig. 8
11It is important to observe that, if one wishes to rest the neck of the violin on the thumb without gripping, and if one wishes to guard against any tendency of the neck to slip down into the crotch, the thumb must be held relaxed, in order that a fleshy pad may be formed. With the thumb so relaxed and held, the neck of the violin rests on the pad at the lower end of the second phalange.¹ This position, which is easily found, will be more particularly described in the next chapter. When once it is found, the player will experience a feeling of ease and security, which contrasts strikingly with the sense of effort and danger which comes from gripping the violin between the thumb and the hand.
13Plates 10 and 11, which must be viewed as a pair, give an excellent idea of the difference between the two positions. Plate 10 shows the correct position, with the violin resting properly on the fleshy pad of the thumb; while Plate 11 shows the incorrect position, with the thumb clutching the neck.
15The whole art of the technique now lies in performing the finger-action in complete independence of the thumb.
17The reader must here differentiate between what one may call a pincerlike action and the action shown in Fig. 8. In the pincer-action there is pressure up as well as down. But, in the correct violin-action (Fig. 8) the thumb must not press up. It must act solely as a support; and the entire pressure must be from the finger downwards. The
19¹ The phalanges are the bones of the fingers and thumb. The first phalange is that next to the body of the hand.
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