Left Hand Technique (for a left handed player)

[Drew Moores]

Hello,

I am a beginner player. I also happen to be a left-handed player, so in my case I am actually refering to my right-handed technique (fretting hand). I own a right handed violin, and am purposely trying to learn to play it upside down.

Because I have been playing a right-handed violin, the chin rest is on the wrong side of the violin, making it difficult for me to support the instrument with my shoulder and chin. Therefore I have fallen into the habbit of supporting the instrument with my arm near the palm of my hand. Much like folks would hold it in the “3rd position”. I understand that this is not the proper way to hold it, but I wonder if it is a very bad habbit, or not so bad. I see some fiddlers doing this here and there, such as Ashley Macissac (a Lefty Cape Breton Fiddler), and they seem to get on just fine.

Does anyone have any input on this? Any Left-handed players?

Drew

[Casey Willis]

Hi, Drew. Thanks for posing the question. Maybe a left-handed player can offer some insights specific to those challenges. As to your question regarding if it’s an acceptable solution to develop a technique in which the fretting hand collapses to support the instrument, I would recommend doing anything you can to avoid it. I agree that there are some players who play this way and they seem to do great. But I can tell you that your intonation, speed, and most importantly, tone will suffer if you go this route. It might help in the short term, but you will most likely struggle to get crisp tone as you can’t finger notes with the tip of your fingers when collapsing the wrist to support the instrument. Another issue you may have if you support the instrument with the wrist vs the neck is shifting technique. All in all, I think you will be better off in the long run by switching the chin rest over to the opposite side , using a good shoulder rest. It may be more of a struggle at first, but I bet you’ll be glad you put the time in….

Any lefties out there who can advise Drew from experience with this???

[Roland White]

Hi Drew, I would agree with Casey to get as close to holding it right by switching out the chin rest. If you want to see an incredible lefty check out our former National and current Grand Masters Champion Katrina Nicolayeff on You tube. She plays a right handed fiddle left handed but does have the chin and shoulder rest in the proper place. She is one of the sweetest sounding fiddlers I have ever heard playing the string in reverse to what a righty would do. Good luck and in agreeing with Casey I think you will be glad in the long run.

[Drew Moores]

Thank you for your advice. I have gone out and bought a shoulder rest and have been working to change my technique. Already I can notice that the tone sounds more crisp, as Casey mentioned. I am however finding tremolo nearly impossible, but I am sure that will come once I am more comfortable holding the instrument that way.

Thanks for your advice everyone.

[Roland White]

Hi Drew, Glad to hear that changing things up has helped you. Tremolo is used on the plectrum instruments mostly mandolin,and vibrato is used on the violin. It takes a while to develop a good vibrato so study all your favorites and you can check Casey’s suggestions and youtube some basic vibrato lessons to get started. In fiddling its used more on the slower tunes and waltzes as the breakdowns have so many notes its hard to get in much except your occasional long notes at the end of phrases or if you can do some double stops instead of busy notes. But keep at it and Katrina has some of the sweetest tone even on fast tunes. You can develop that by hitting your notes clean and in tune. A lot of fiddlers think scale practice is for sissies but if you want to improve your overall tone its good to practice them and not listen to those that think its of no value. All good fiddlers have a clean and excellent tone to even their fast notes. Keep up the good work and let us know how you’re doing. Thanks for checking back in.

[telln]

This is a few years late, but in case you still have trouble, I am a left handed player but have a left handed fiddle. Even with the chin rest on the proper side, as mine was made, it just didn’t work. I now use a center mount, which is actually for right handed, but it works for me.

[Casey Willis]

Cool, Telln. Not many people can chime in on this, so thanks!!

C

[Author]

Posts