I have recently acquired a student who had already been entered for grade 2 violin. When he plays, his left thumb is above the A string where his first finger should be to play B. Nothing will make him move it. Any ideas?

Threaten to amputate it....

Have tried that already! - unsuccessful!

OK - failing that - how is he on using 4th finger? Does his hand suddenly zoom round into the right place? For most people (unless the violin is way too small) you have to hold it properly to reach 4th finger notes - particularly on the lower strings.

Get him to use 4th finger, and if the thumb goes in the right place then, point out how much less effort it would be if he kept his hand in that position all the time.

Or start doing some 3rd position stuff to get his hand moving.

And then nag. Every 2 seconds if necessary. He'll get sick of it eventually.

I inherited a few like that recently. Very annoying. I'm nagging and making them use 4th finger (which they'd never done before - how does that work??)

Good luck!

Yeah, my thumb sticks up a bit high. My teacher makes me stop every time and correct it before continuing.

He mentions it soooo many times in each lesson!

Yeah, my thumb sticks up a bit high. My teacher makes me stop every time and correct it before continuing.

He mentions it soooo many times in each lesson!

For his thumb to be where you say it is, I would guess his hand must be clamped round the neck of the violin. Is he a young student? For my young ones, I tell them them to invent a pet mouse (even to give it a name to make it more real) who likes to sit in the gap between the thumb and first finger underneath the instrument. For most, this seems to position the hand correctly. But for one or two, I have been tempted to buy a little stuffed mouse!

i used to do that. my teacher put a cork betwen my thum and the neck of my violin and i had to keep it there every time i practiced. it worked.

Maybe tell him that you can't let him use higher positions until he sorts it out?! He'll soon realise that he can EITHER keep his thumb up there like a lighthouse, OR he can reach the fingerboard in the higher positions, but not both!

Less of the threats, you need to follow these things through...



I'm sure he wouldn't mention it so much if you just did it!

Well now my teacher harps on about having a flat bow! At least I sorted the thumb issue.