How To Strengthen Your Pinky (6 Ways You Can Improve Your Fourth Finger) | Violin Pinky Exercises

How To Strengthen Your Pinky 🤘
6 Ways You Can Improve Your Fourth Finger on the Violin and Viola
Violin with Dr. Lynn

This is the companion video to my April 18, 2020 Instagram post: ‘Pinky Progress’ in which I explain how I work on my fourth finger:
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Here's what I've learned:

0:00 Violin Pinky Exercises: Introduction

1:26 Set it up for success:
✅1. Place the fourth finger first on the fingerboard first (and in a good arched shape), then form the rest of the hand afterwards.

2:53
✅2. Rotate the radial arm bone (thumb side of the arm) clockwise/away from the fingerboard in order to deliver the pinky side of the hand closer to the fingerboard. You want to guide the inside of the palm closer to the fingerboard.

5:10
✅3. Re-balance the weight of the hand to the pinky side:
Ask the whole arm to deliver the hand up so that the weight is more centered over the pinky. I relax from the chest and bring the forearm towards my body, rebalancing the hand so that there is more weight over the pinky and it feels like it’s “standing” on top of the fingerboard. I do this “re-balancing” particuarly from second finger up to fourth inside of scales, Schradieck, and in Kreutzer #9.

8:16
✅4. Experiment with thumb position. It might need to be further up the fingerboard so that the opposing thumb and pinky feel like one relaxed team. I’m still experimenting with thumb position and I find it needs to go up or down the fingerboard depending on what exactly I’m playing.

9:47
✅5. Nathan Cole’s ‘Pinky Power’ exercise (   • Pinky power: how to tame and strength...  ): Roll up a small tissue into a ball and squeeze it inside of the pinky dragging the pinky up the palm. This reinforces and strengthens the arch shape in the fourth finger. I do this without the tissue too. I think of it as “cleaning the palm”.

11:08
✅6. Pinky Tapping: While maintaining an arch shape with the fourth finger, tap on all strings. You could also do it on your lap.

Please share in the comments what you’ve discovered about the fourth finger and what tricks you use! I’d love to learn from you.

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Background music 🎼:
Erwin Schulhoff Duo for Violin and Cello
Lynn Kuo, violin
Winona Zelenka, cello
   • Erwin Schulhoff Duo for Violin and Ce...  

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