Left Hand

Articles and videos to help improve all aspects of left-hand technique, from mastering fast passages with evenness and clarity, to building finer strength and flexibility, and achieving confident chords and double stops.

Latest Left Hand

6 ways to improve left-hand flexibility

Tips from The Strad’s archive on increasing suppleness of movement and reducing tension

Dealing with Dystonia

Violinist Bernard Zinck shares his experiences of his devastating diagnosis of focal dystonia in his forties and his rehabilitation process to resume playing

More Left Hand

Numbness of the fingers in violinists: what causes it and how can you fix it?

8 May 2024

J.L.H. Thomas delves into a physical exploration of what causes numbness, as well as exercises to help strengthen muscles to alleviate its symptoms

Geminiani’s scales: a portal to the past

7 May 2024

Geminiani’s scale exercises in his seminal 1751 treatise The Art of Playing on the Violin may look puzzlingly random to modern eyes, but violinist Benjamin Shute argues that they can reveal useful insights into the thinking behind performance practice of the time

Flexibility

Technique: Left-hand lightness for cellists

27 June 2023

Richard Tunnicliffe on how to develop healthy and sustainable habits in the left hand

Strength

How to develop left-hand finger strength

20 August 2022

Up and down movement is the basis of left-hand technique and many pedagogues have invented fiendish exercises to improve it. Rok Klopčič takes a look at some of them

Warming up

Slow practice should be used only when needed as a learning tool

19 August 2022By Paul Neubauer

Are you wasting your time? As musicians we should be doing more to question the standard warm-up and practice regimes, writes violist Paul Neubauer

Fast Passages

6 tips for improved coordination

8 May 2024

Guidance from The Strad’s archive for greater synchronisation between left-hand fingers and bow

Chords and Double Stops

How Bach enhances right-hand dexterity: Violinist Rebeca Nuez Suarez

23 February 2023

Rebeca Nuez Suarez discusses the contribution the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Bach can make to gaining dexterity and strength in the right hand

Harmonics

How harmonics and singing can help to build a sound technique

10 January 2023

Violin and viola pedagogue Jane Metcalfe discusses using techniques inspired by Kodály and Colourstrings methods