Books › The Violin: How to Master It, 1880 › scan 39
Scan 39
The Violin: How to Master It, 1880
8 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1is formed a slope on the string, and the weight of the bow naturally makes it slip away from the bridge towards the fingers and scroll. The fingers and wrist of the right hand have enough work of their own to perform—as the student will discover—without saddling them with the task of keeping the bow in its place on the string.
3The Position of the Hand and Wrist.
5The elbow of the left arm being brought well forward under the instrument, and kept from touching the body, the student may turn his attention to his hand and wrist. Most violin tutors simply tell him to hold the neck of the violin "between the third joint of the first finger and the thumb"—a direction so vague as to become positively misleading. The violin is not held at the third joint of the first finger, and "the thumb" is too indefinite, and might mean any place between the point and the socket. If the student will look at the inside of the first finger of his left hand, and count the third crease from the point, he will get the exact place at which to place the corner edge of the finger-board of the violin, close to the little bit of ebony called the nut, over which the strings pass into the box of the scroll. This crease is not a joint—the third joint, indeed, is half-an-inch further down, and is marked by a crease which runs right across the whole hand. The opposite side of the neck of the violin rests on—not against—the fleshy part of the thumb, between its point and the crease marking the first joint. The result of this arrangement is that sufficient space is left in the fork of the thumb below the neck, through which the point of the bow might be freely passed. By resting the neck on the thumb instead of against it, the whole of the fingers are brought over the strings, which may be commanded far up on the fourth string without the slightest contorting or inconvenience.
7Unless this position is acquired, a good shake, whether close or open, is an impossibility; and shifting, instead of being a pleasing change, becomes a dreaded task. To facilitate this freedom in commanding the strings—especially with regard to the fourth finger, the shortest of all—the wrist of the left hand is turned well out, so as not to touch the neck or ribs of the violin. The wrist, indeed, ought not to touch the violin at all until the third position is reached.
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