Reducing thumb counter-pressure

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To stop squeezing the neck too hard between the thumb and the fingers, play this fingering pattern
(which includes every possible combination o f any two fingers) without the thumb touching the neck.
Capture the feeling of the thumb's independence from the fingers, and then find the same feeling with
the thumb i n its usual position.

Play with the thumb well forward, somewhere opposite the third finger, and about a centimetre away
from the neck (Fig. 33). Keep the side of the first finger lightly touching the neck.

Playing with the metronome, first play in eighth-notes (quavers), then sixteenth-notes (semiquavers)
and thirty-second-notes (demisemiquavers).

For the purposes of the exercise, 'hang' the arm from the fingers, using arm weight to stop the notes.
Relax the entire weight o f the head into the chin rest to hold the violin firmly. Or rest the scroll against
the wall.

Example
J=66

On different occasions play through the sequence with different tone-semitone spacings between
the fingers:

Play the same sequence on each string.

F i g . 33

Practice method
Play phrases, whole passages, or whole movements
without the thumb on the neck, as in the exercise.
Rest the scroll against the wall to avoid having to
press on the chin rest for long periods.