4/6

I taught another beginner yesterday, who received some instruction, which she had forgotten. As a result, she had poor posture and position as well as a bad bow hold. However, she was very willing to change. I really emphasized in a comically intense way how important relaxing was, saying no squeezing and no straight fingers. She went through violin "rehab," so I fixed her crooked bow, straight pinky, and straight thumb using a relaxed hand demonstration, draping the fingers over the bow. I also corrected the stiff elbow movement, which caused her crooked bow, and her violin hold, which had no space between the neck and the crevice between the thumb and first finger and was too high up. A common problem was that the hand knuckles were turned away from the fingerboard, almost perpendicular to it. This causes straight fingers that can't reach the notes. I fixed her finger posture by telling her that they needed a squarish shape and needed to stand on the tips of the fingers. She also needed to stretch out the knuckles in order to reach the notes.