Books › The Violin: How to Master It, 1880 › scan 40
Scan 40
The Violin: How to Master It, 1880
6 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE VIOLIN: HOW TO MASTER IT.
3The hand and wrist are now in their proper position, the neck of the violin resting on the fleshy part of the thumb, with that member kept well below it to support the weight of that end of the violin, and leave the rest of the hand comparatively free of contact, the point of the thumb on no account to rise above the back edge of the finger-board. The wrist being kept straight, and the whole of the hand being so sunk that the space already alluded to at the fork of the thumb and forefinger is clearly defined, the gratifying result will at once appear. The whole of the fingers are brought nearer the strings, and the little finger, or Fourth, as it is called, and which every beginner pathetically bewails as too short, is found to be quite long enough to reach B, E, A, or D without the slightest wriggling or moving of hand or wrist. As the pupil progresses, indeed, and the hand becomes set to the position, he will find that practice will enable him to stretch easily, in certain passages, a semitone or a whole tone above these notes with the same much-despised little finger, no matter how short and stumpy it may appear, which, with the violin held in the third joint of the first finger, is an impossibility. I once detected this fault in a very diligent student, who had spent many a hard-earned dollar on a teacher who knew perfectly well the principle which I am here trying to demonstrate, and who therefore must have wilfully kept his pupil in ignorance. I was not teaching him, but playing with him and some other amateurs, and chanced to notice a peculiar jerking and wriggling of his hand every time he used his fourth finger. I examined his hand and found the neck of the instrument sunk into the fork of the thumb — literally below the third joint of the finger — and how difficult it is to get the little finger to even approach the fingerboard with the hand in that position, any player or student may easily ascertain for himself by testing. I tried to correct this curious blunder, but was innocently met with the rejoinder, "It should be held between the third joint of the first finger and the thumb, shouldn't it?" and it took me some time, with practical illustrations of the evils of the habit, to set him right. That student is now a teacher, and I hope he is grateful to me for the hint, which cost neither of us anything, but at once laid the foundation of a rapid advancement on his part, which otherwise would have been impossible.
5I have now put the holding of the violin as clearly as I
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