Put Your Fingerings to the Test

When I was a much younger lad, I spent a few years studying with Eudice Shapiro at the USC School of Music. When I arrived there I was very gung-ho and jumped right in by preparing several works on my own, only taking them to her after I’d done a considerable amount of practice.

As part of my preparation I made what I felt were worthy attempts at providing good fingerings for what I was playing – many editions of violin music contain really antiquated fingerings, I knew that.

But when I appeared for my first lessons Shapiro quickly began dismissing my work and inserting her own fingerings into my music.

Within a few weeks I gave up even trying to finger repertoire. When it came time to play a new work I just brought the fresh music to my lesson, sight-read it, and let her go to town.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Eudice Shapiro is one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, and I know she felt she was doing what was best for me. But in hindsight I can say it resulted in my being behind the curve when it came to the fingering game. She did too much of the work for me.

Much changed when I arrived at Milstein’s door. He was much more open-minded about fingerings, and was himself constantly looking for new and innovative ways of doing things.

For my part, however, I was so focused on changing my playing mechanics during my time with him that a lot of his fingering nuances went right by me.

It took the onset of Focal Dystonia several years later to really open my eyes to the full potential in the ‘fingering game’.

Suddenly I was investigating three, four, or more ways of fingering a passage before coming to one that allowed for the right musical impact as well as a fluid execution.

Occasionally your fingering options are limited, and you must rely solely on technique to get the job done. But that is a more rare situation than most student violinists realize.

So, when you run into a problem playing a passage, stand back and take a fresh look at the fingerings your using. Chances are, with a little investment of time you’ll gift yourself with a much more effective way of getting the job done. And you’ll save valuable practice time in the long run by doing so.

And if you really want to develop your ‘fingering vision’ in a hurry I suggest going through a piece you think you know and come up with two or three new ways of fingering each passage. Some may make you laugh, but with a few you might strike pay dirt!

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Now, the fingerings you find in Kreutzer for Violin Mastery are the result of considerable attention on my part. I do challenge you to improve upon them if you can. If you can’t you will also learn a great deal regarding what makes for a good fingering.