Those Annoying Little Finger Sounds
Just returned from the City of Angels last night. No recording sessions this time. Just a special screening of the movie ‘Up’ – for the orchestra – and some family time.
‘Up’ was indeed an up experience; a touching, genuinely funny, worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours.
And the music was more effective than even I thought it would be.
Anyway, this morning I took a look through emails piled up from the past days. A few came with questions. Here’s one you might find interesting and relevant to yourself.
“Hi Clayton. Greetings from Singapore!
“I received your Kreutzer for Violin Mastery (1+2) last week and started viewing them. From the intro, I read that you are willing to entertain our questions via email. I jumped with joy as I am currently without a teacher (though I do try to practice “with much thinking” 2 hours a day in addition to taking care of 2 young kids).
“Please enlighten me regarding my long-standing difficulties:
“1) e.g. first playing a G (first pos, D string) then a B (first pos, A string). Short, detache strokes. Somehow when I lift the 3rd finger (which corr. to the first note), it will make quite a very audible ring.
“I have seen this discussed on Youtube, but the answer didn’t really help me.
“What is the fundamental technical flaw there? I always thought I was quite good in finger lifting, putting down and articulation in general.
Thanks for your help,
Renee
Ok, no problem. There are 2 possibilities here. Renee, either you are drawing your finger slightly sideways as you lift it, hence the little pluck, or there is ‘surface tension’ developing between your finger and the string, resulting in a ‘pop’ when the finger is lifted.
In both cases I would take a look at the amount of finger pressure you are bringing to the string.
The less pressure you can use, and still maintain the tone you want, the better.
That being said, in humid conditions a little ‘tackiness’ between finger and string may be unavoidable. In recording sessions, in fact, I’m very careful not to lift fingers from the string at the end of quiet cues – many times I’ve heard sound engineers complain of having to trim those little sounds away.
As far as plucking the string goes, the cure must be pretty self-evident – lift straight up. But again, using less force on the strings will make everything more relaxed, fluid and clean; and you may find that just doing this one thing remedies the problem.
Now, in my Beginners Circle program I do teach a little left hand pizzicato exercise; it’s excellent for developing control and flexibility in the small muscles of finger and hand.
It is not, though, meant to be the model for left hand articulation in general.
And one last thing. In slow, quiet sections one can avoid the surface tension I talked of by sliding the finger slightly up or down the string as you lift it. Obviously one’s bow cannot be in motion as this is done. We’re talking the ends of phrases or before rests here.
So, this evening you do have my permission to take the night off to see ‘UP’. In fact, it’ll make my day if you do. Enjoy the violin solos too!
All the best, Clayton Haslop
P.S. Developing ‘touch’ in one’s left hand is essential to the full enjoyment of the violin. That’s why my Beginners Circle program, for those new to the violin, is filled with in-depth demonstrations and explanations of just how it can be cultivated and maximized.
