Violin Forum/Message Board

<BL> Maros · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:30 am Post subject: Finger Strength and Agility?

Just curious if those little rubber balls or the grip master thing is worth it for building up finger strength / agility? or if anyone had any other suggestions for that?

SMaus · Junior Member Joined: 03 Aug 2008 Posts: 14

Best thing is to train your fingers by actually playing. If you use a grip master or powerball or whatever chances are good that it also affects your wrist. And that is absolutely not intended. Especially your agility will improve best when you perform exercices on your violin that are created particularly for this reason.
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Barry1963 · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:47 am Post subject:

I agree with SMaus. The best way to build strength and agility is by running drills on your violin.

<BL> Maros · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:13 pm Post subject:

Kk cool, Makes sense. I was just curious to see if there's anything i can start doing or working on NOW, since my first lesson is a week and a half away, and I havent played since middle school lol. Thanks for the help =].

Becky · Senior Member Joined: 09 Apr 2007 Posts: 83

I've never used anything you asked about to strengthen my fingers. Playing is great exercise. Also, another good exercise you can do pretty much anywere is to bend your fingers (excluding thumb) so the pad of your finger is on the palm on that hand. Then drag your fingers up and get the pad of your fingeras high on your palm/finger base as you can. (That's just the setup, not the exercise). Now, lift one finger up at a time; the goal is to straighten it completely while keeping the other 3 down. It might not sound like much, but it can give your fingers a good workout (especially the fourth finger)!

mshikibu · Guest

Slow practice is the best thing, IMHO. I'm very suspicious of anything mechanical; you are more likely to injure yourself.

Becky · Senior Member Joined: 09 Apr 2007 Posts: 83

You're right to be suspicious of mechanical things. One of the more famous composers whose name I should know but is escaping me at the moment invented his own finger strengthening device. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it ended up ruining his fingers to the point where he couldn't play the piano anymore. Not a fun lesson to learn the hard way...