Violin Video Lesson: Using different fingers to play diminished 5ths

Why don't we have a little talk about one aspect of Fingerings? Why don't we talk about Fingering Diminished 5ths, like this one, or this one?

My question is, why do we use the same finger when we play Diminished 5ths on two different strings? I mean, why wouldn't we use, why wouldn't make sense to use two different fingers? Well, this is simply a commentary on my laziness.

For example, suppose we have a D on the A string and a G sharp on the D string? Why not use a third finger on the D, and a fourth finger on the G sharp, or what if we start that with a G string with a C natural, and then went to an F sharp on the D string using a third finger on the G string, and a second finger on the D string. I mean, doesn't that make sense?

Why would this be important? Well, it seems to me that this would increase accuracy, and increase cleanliness. I mean, isn't there a big risk when using the same finger to go to two different spots on two different strings? This seems obvious to me or perhaps then I've lost it. Well, let's assume that I haven't, and look at some specific spots in the music to see if I can show you how one might use this not-so-new idea. The wonderful pedagogue I. M. Yampolsky talked about this concept years ago in his book "The Principles of Violin Fingering," which is unfortunately out of print today.

Let's look at the Bach D Minor Partita Number Two. You see, in this measure, we have a G natural on the D string and we have a C sharp on the G string. Some people might play the G natural and the C sharp with the same finger, the third finger. Well, what I'm suggesting is that we use our third finger for the G natural, and our fourth finger for the C sharp. Do you see how much more sense that makes? How much easier it would be...it will be to control the pitch?

Okay. How about a look into the Barber Concerto for violin? If in this excerpt we use a third finger for the D on the G string, then we use a second finger on the A flat on the D string and even a first finger on the D on the 8th string. It would be like this... This makes so much sense to me. What about you? Does this make sense to you?

From a practical standpoint, to do any of this, you cannot squeeze with the left hand. Not at all. I mean, consider the amount of strength required to move a finger that's stuck to the string. It's so hard to move. Can I get it to move? No, I can't. It's stuck.

Okay. Here, let's try another one. Let's try Ysaye's Second Sonata. The one that... That one. You see, from the G on the E string, to the C sharp on the 8th string, instead of using a second finger, a better way is to use the third. Not... But...

That's it for this video on Fingering Diminished 5ths. My name is William Fitzpatrick, and I'm the Artistic Director of the MusiShare Young Artists Program. I'm as well the Temianka Professor of Violin at the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music at Chapman University.

As always, I do hope this video helps your practicing to become more efficient and effective, helping you to learn to practice hard, but wisely. Hopefully this will lead you to giving even better performances.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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