How to have a stronger fourth finger on the violin
Find your fourth finger a useless appendage? Want to understand why your fourth finger is so weak and how to strengthen it? In this post, discover why your fourth finger is weak and how to strengthen it. Three key aspects for a healthier fourth finger: posture, intonation consistency, and strengthening exercises.
Posture
Posture is very key for your fourth finger to be able to work effectively. If your left hand isn’t set up quite right, you don’t have a proper left hand it’s going to make it very difficult for the fourth finger.
Need to check in with your left-hand posture? Head on over to my Proper Left Hand for Violin Playing post.
It’s normal for the fourth finger to be a weaker finger, it is a shorter finger. Naturally the fourth finger is smaller and thinner. It just needs some extra TLC in comparison to the other fingers.
Most of the time violinists actually learn the fourth finger last (if at all) and then that means that the fourth finger has not as much practice time as the other fingers. Because of this, it has to kind of play catch-up for all its life and we need to not have it feel like it has to play catch-up.
We need to set up the left hand to help support the fourth finger. When you set up your left hand to play, you want your fourth finger to be nice and rounded and curved. In order for this to happen, the palm of your hand needs to be facing the neck of the violin. If your hand is flipped out this sets up your fourth finger for failure okay because it has to really stretch.
What’s really key to watch for is that your base knuckle is parallel as possible to the neck of the violin. Now it’s not going to be completely parallel but it needs to be as parallel as possible. The base knuckle needs to be really as close to the neck as possible that’s comfortable.
Frustrated with your fourth finger? Ready to finally get exercises that are specifically devoted to your fourth finger? If you are frustrated that your fourth finger is not improving no matter how many scales you play or etudes you practice, Fourth finger Studies is for you!
Every exercise focuses on a specific interval occurring between the fourth finger and other fingers consisting of varying rhythms. Not only does Fourth Finger Studies cover fourth finger relationships on one string it emphasizes fourth finger practice for string crossings as well.
Buy volumes individually or buy all volumes in one packaged download at a discounted price.
Exercise time:
- Play fourth finger on the E string check your base knuckle is close to the neck of the violin. Check that your fourth finger is nice and rounded and curved.
- Check with your open strings that it is in tune.
- Proceed on other strings.
Next step:
While the four is down, go ahead and set down all the other fingers. You may find that you need to adjust the thumb a bit. Play a scale to check that you have a nice rounded fourth finger.
You may find that it feels a little different okay especially if you’re not used to setting up the fourth finger first.
This way it really helps your fingers to know okay hey this is what the fourth finger needs to have for support. The other fingers can make some adjustments if needed.
An excellent exercise to work this with is the first two pages (even the first two lines) of Schradieck. It’s one of my favorite all-time exercises. It’s a wonderful exercise for the left hand and a great exercise for you to focus that you’re palm is facing the fingerboard.
If you’re not used to having your palm facing fingerboard like this you may feel uncomfortable and you may get kind of like a strain here in your forearm. Playing the violin is an abnormal position for the left arm. We don’t have our forearm twisted in such a way like this all day so it is really unique to playing the violin. Do make sure you take breaks and stretch.
If you need to check out my stretching video I have some excellent stretches to help you out.
Intonation consistency
Your ear must tell you where the fourth finger needs to land. Your fourth finger will not improve effectively if your ear is not working. You can’t have your fourth finger just land and say okay great I’m working on my fourth finger. I’m getting in the exercises but if your fourth finger is not landing accurately and in tune then you’re practicing incorrectly and that’s not good for your fourth finger either okay.
How to know if your fourth finger is in tune?
- Check with your open strings (make sure that they are in tune.)
- Play with drones – you can easily find drone videos on youtube for the pitches of A, D, G and E.
- Always know the pitch name you are playing. Don’t let your fourth finger come down without knowing what note it’s playing.
Strengthening Exercises
A really great way to strengthen the fourth finger is to actually to make a relationship study on how the distances between the other fingers. If you would like to see this exercise written out on the page, grab my Fourth Finger Studies ebook here. It is immediately downloadable and you can get started RIGHT NOW!
If you are an intermediate to advanced player and you are currently working in other positions outside of the first position, I would highly suggest you take this study to other positions on the violin as well. Fourth Finger Studies is also available in second, third, and fifth position. You can grab the entire bundle here.
When you practice these exercises whether it be my Fourth Finger Studies or Schradieck, you want that fourth finger to come down nice and strong like a hammer with good speed. Placing it down slowly honestly is not what we experience in pieces so it is not the best practice method.
Practice the placement of your fourth finger without the bow. You can hear when your fourth finger is placed and if the pitch is in tune or not.
Be sure it comes down nice and rounded with a lot of speed yet relaxed.
You can practice your fourth finger in the example below:
4043424140 repeat and practice on all strings.
Strengthen your fourth finger with left hand pizzicato
No matter what finger you want to strengthen with left-hand pizzicato, you want to feel like you’re ripping the string off the violin. To help get the fourth finger really nice and strong, practice left-hand pizzicato with the fourth finger on all open strings.
BEWARE!!! You don’t want to do any of these exercises for a long period of time because you can injure your fourth finger. Listen to your body and take rest when needed.
Strengthen your fourth finger with vibrato exercises
Vibrato is also an excellent exercise for the fourth finger. Many violinists struggle with a weak fourth finger vibrato.
So how to fix it? Schedule fourth finger vibrato practice for at least three minutes a day in different positions.
Strengthen your fourth finger with shifting exercises
Shifting up and down the instrument with the fourth finger is a great strengthening exercise as well.
Specifcally my one finger challenge that I wrote works on every single finger shifting through the positions including the fourth finger.
You can access this exercise when you enroll in Violin Technique Academy here.
You can find the exercise in the table of contents.
Fourth finger strengthening recap:
- Posture First
- Intonation Consistency
- Strengthening exercises will get your fourth finger completely transformed.
Wishing you wonderful wonderful magical practices and strengthening your fourth finger.
Do let me know in the comments below which strategies you will be implementing in your fourth finger strengthening journey.
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