Working with the 4th finger on the violin

Hi and welcome to VirtualSheetMusic.com's Meet the Expert. My name is William Fitzpatrick and I am the Temianka professor of violin at the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music which is located on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California. I am as well Director of MusiShare in Irvine, California. Well, what I'd like to about in this video is how we learn to stretch your fingers in the left hand, particularly your fourth finger. In my generation - you see, I, 64, and about to turn 65 - so, I come from an entirely different generation. We grew up using the fingers, or learning to use the fingers in this order: First finger, then second, then third, then fourth. This resulted in a lot of people having, or started to have, or allowing pain when extending the fourth finger, or even placing, sometimes, the fourth finger on the string.

Now, when I was exploring the fourth finger issue, I came across Schradieck and especially in the lower parts of it when it's in the lower positions, there were three to four extensions. Now, those extensions did cause me a lot of issue and I always sort of wondered, "Should it be this painful?" Well I came across this book by a Mr. I. M. Yampolsky called 'The Principals of Violin Fingerings'. The book was printed in 1967 and he talks about the natural position of fingers, which he describes as a whole step, then half step, then a whole step. Whole step, half step, whole step. Well, I took this to heart and for many, many years, I taught it this way. I even discovered octaves this way from a whole step- I used that idea. But though I think the idea is correct, I actually have come to understand or to believe that that natural position is actually a whole step, half step, and a half step. Whole step, half, half and this creates a major third from the first to the fourth finger. So, with this in mind, if I move my fourth finger up to an E, I can stretch backwards to the B and guess what? There's no pain. Here. Now I'm going to stretch my fingers back... and I'm not stretching. I'm going the other way. In fact, I'm sort of doing it backwards. Rather... I'm going... Now, what about those extensions? Suppose I had to go to the left. Well if I target that F, I move backwards. Again, no pain. Well, the implications are enormous. At least, I think so. As then, the finger octaves, tenths, etcetera, are now in our grasp, not only limited to those with very large hands.

Let's take a close look at tenths. In particular, why don't we say from a B to a D. Now, that's a fairly, fairly large distance. Normally, we would go from that B and stretch up to that D. Well, what would happen if we did it the other way? What would happen if we started from the D and stretched back? What do you know, it's so much easier. Well, if it works for tenths, what about fingered octaves? What about a B, to a B, and a C#, to a C#, oh my god. What if I did it the other way? I'm hitting the octaves, a little out of tune, but I'm hitting those fingered octaves much easier and with much less pain than I would if I tried it the other way. You know in Wieniawski's D-minor concerto, there's a passage where everybody seems to have an issue. Some people... We do it all kinds of ways. What about with fingered octaves? Now that my finger can do it... It's just easier to do, but it's backwards.

Now, it's quite the mind change to come to grips with this set up but once you've accomplished this, well, I really, really believe it's worth the effort. Well that's it for this video. If you have a comment, question, or special request please feel free to post it. See you next time.

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