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Hi Beth, I noticed that in the vibrato lessons, yours and Dr Redfield's words are conflicting in terms of whether the hand should rock forward from a neutral position or backward. Why is that? In practising, I find that for 2nd and 3rd fingers, it's easier for the hand to knock forward. But with the 1st finger there's little room of motion and I prefer to use Dr. Redfield's method. Is it ok to use different motion for different fingers?

1 Responses
Posted: February 19, 2011
Last Comment: February 19, 2011

Beth Blackerby
Posted: February 19, 2011
Hi Michelle - welcome! That's a great question. I can absolutely see how that sounds conflicting. In my demonstration, the forward motion is from a non-neutral position. It's from the rocked-back position moving forward to neutral. I spent so long analyzing the basic pulse of this motion. Many teachers describe the motion as one that starts neutral, then rocks back. That is true, but I like to describe the impetus of the motion. There is a quick contraction of the forearm muscles on the underside of the arm. Those muscles pull the hand forward. Then when they relax, the hand flops backward. And the harder and quicker the contraction, the further the hand will rebound back.

We are talking about the same hand position, from neutral to backward, but are describing the motion differently, hence the conflicting terms.

As for the 1st finger (always the hardest, BTW), as there is less room as you stated, you can get more vibrato motion with the give and take of the knuckle itself. Also, I often knock the E peg when I'm vibrating 1st finger in 1st position. That's actually a good exercise goal: Try and hit the peg when you vibrate 1st finger.

Without seeing what you're doing, my only word of caution is to make sure your not vibrating above the pitch. Other than that, whatever compensations you're making for the 1st finger is probably ok. I'd be happy to take a look if you want to post a video ; ^)