The Left Hand

The main issue concerning the foundation of a solid and reliable left hand technique is the proper setup of the left hand, which begins at the earliest stages of the student's training. The setup is important so that all four fingers fingers can reach the appropriate points on the fingerboard in an efficient and consistant manner and can relate to each other for guidance and proper spacing of the various intervals.

While it is easy to get bogged down in debates on the proper positioning of the wrist, thumb, and fingers, it is important to keep in mind that the variables depend on the individual hand. Being static, the fingerboard dictates the position of the hand since hands of various shapes and sizes have to find the same points on the fingerboard. It is interesting to note that the hand position that works best for accurate and consistent intonation is also the hand position that works best for a smooth and controlled vibrato.

The first rule that I would postulate is that a hand position that can produce a clean major or minor third is the correct hand position. To say it in reverse, a hand position that has the fingers impinge on neighboring strings so that a clean third is not possible, is a position that does not work for either double stops or single notes. This is something that cannot be saved for a later stage of develpment. If a student has played for even a year with a collapsed wrist and the consequent "flat Fingers" (playing on the soft pad rather than closer to the tip of the finger) then it is difficult to retrain the hand. My strong view is that this should be addressed from the very beginning of the training, even if some of the more immediate gratification of playing tunes is delayed.

Another serious point that must be introduced and the very beginning is that the fingers should be kept down whenever possible. Fingers relate to each other for proper positioning and this is not possible if the student never has more than one finger down at a time. Aside from the likelyhood of poor intonation, the extra and unnecessary lifting motions slow down the finger action and place a barrier to achieving real velocity in passage work. Ask the student to play a scale and if they have difficulty in keeping the fingers down then this is a serious problem that requires immediate and focused intervention. What the teacher is likely to discover in the process is that the student has little or no awareness as to whether the fingers are up or down and is not likely to have given it much thought.

The Octave Frame 

The octave frame is the spacing between the first and fourth fingers and can either be a true octave, a fourth (same spacing but both fingers on the same string), or  a 2nd (example: B natural on the A string and a fourth finger A natural on the A string). The various half step and whole step configurations occur within this frame. This frame between the first and fourth fingers is crucial and gives most students difficulty because of a fundamentally improper setup of the left hand. With even a partially collapsed wrist and an extended and flattened fourth finger, an in tune octave is simply out of the question.

I have heard students who have played well over a decade and feel ready for substantial literature, come to grief in the first page of the Bruch or Mendessohn concertos because of the octaves. I may be a hard liner on this issue, but a student who is not able to play an octave scale has no business attempting to learn those concertos. It is not a fair demand on the student because they are being asked to do the impossible.

For every serious piece in the violin literature, there has to be a background and foundation, which is found in scales and etudes. Without that foundation, what is being built is a "house of cards" that will not withstand the challenge of the first technical demand.