Now you are ready to intensify your violin experience through the use of the fingers on your left hand. You will use these fingers to press the strings to the fingerboard and change the pitch your violin creates. Your left hand will allow you to play your favourite melodies and add complexity to your accompaniments. Combined with your substantial bow skills, the wide world of music will now be open to you.
Using your fingers to change tones can be a significant challenge. Skilfully placing your fingers on the right spot on the fingerboard is critical. If your fingers go to the wrong spot, you will play out of tune. Placing your fingers correctly on the violin is much more challenging than on a guitar, because the violin does not have frets. While you can look and see exactly where each finger goes on the guitar, you must essentially use your ear to do so on the violin. However, we are going to mitigate this challenge with a little help. You will place strips of tape at precise points on your fingerboard.
These tapes will be a visual aid to help you place your fingers. Once you feel certain about where to place your fingers, you can remove the tapes. Colourful tape as recommended is the best option for taping the fingerboard. However, basic masking tape will do the trick well enough. Each strip should be roughly ¼ to ½ inch wide. Apply the strip of tape across the fingerboard and around the neck of the instrument. Be sure that each strip is fashioned as securely as possible to prevent slippage. Unlike colourful tape, masking tape will deteriorate and must be replaced regularly.
- The first tape should be 1 inch from the end of the violin
- The second tape should be 2 inches from the end of the violin
- The third tape should be 2.5 inches from the end of the violin
From now on, I will make references to the various fingers on your left hand. “First finger” (1) refers to your pointer finger. “Second finger” (2) refers to your middle finger. “Third finger” (3) refers to your ring finger. “Fourth finger” (4) refers to your pinky finger.
