Hi, after reading some of your posts on 'body pain' and 'shoulder rest or not'; I've decided to try and sort out my ache and pain once and for all! I've ditched the stiff shoulder rests and went for a small sponge. Wow! My aches are mostly gone, except for a tired shoulder (at the deltoid muscle). Thank you all for your posts.

Anyway, as I understand the violin is supported by the base of your first finger, the side of thumb and collarbone, if one is not using a shoulder rest. The problem is when I do arm vibrato, the violin will shake if I keep the contact of the base of my first finger on the scroll. If I release that contact, the violin will droop. What can I do to avoid this?

I think maybe you should try supporting the neck more from underneath and less as a clamp between the thumb and 1st finger. Also worth doing some shifting and vibrato excercises against a wall and if the scroll moves at all, you are using too much effort to shift/vibrato (basically the same action). it does just happen a bit though, in certain situations. I found my body sort of balanced itself out after 1/2 weeks of using arm vibrato and no shoulder rest.

Thanks, Bohemian. I will give it a try. Some of your posts on how not to use shoulder rest had been very helpful. Today I found that I need to stand straighter and stick my chest out (a bit like Joshua Bell, but not so extreme) and it's much better. No doubt, I still need to do some of the supported vibrato/shift exercises like you said. I find it easier to do wrist vibrato, but arm vibrato sounds more stable, so I will persevere.

Nononono plesase don't stick your chest out! Alexander Technique followers would have a field day (I am one). Your back should be straight, yes, but not curved inwards. You don't need to have your violin Heifetz height. Zimmerman I notice has his drooping a little in order to keep good posture (I assume) and seems to be fine for him. I would work around your posture with violin height, rather than alter your posture to make it higher. Consider having just 1 or 2 Alexander lessons to deal with this.

I had the same thing with arm/wrist vibrato not too far back. It's a complete pain learning arm but really worth it as it fixes a lot of other things like shifting and intonation (keeps a more stable hand position). Good luck! Let us know how it is going.

Funny you said that because today, chest out is not so good for me (upper arm and shoulder ache). Towards the end of my practice, I let the violin droop a bit and seems to have done the trick. Will try again tommorrow.

Yippee! I passed my Grade 8 violin. It wasn't an easy ride.

It's been a while since I wrote on this topic. I've been preparing for this exam and finding out ways to hold the violin better. First, I stopped using shoulder rests. Then to a sponge, but still didn't quite work. I increased the height of my chinrest as suggested by some of your posts. It worked better. Then, I added a sloped moon shape shoulder pad (sponges flatten too quickly after some usage). The pad is okay but prefer it a little bit flatter.

Anyone use the Huber pads? Are they less likely to flatten?

Congratulations on your Grade 8!
I've changed to using a Huber pad two or three months ago and no, I don't think it is flattening at all. It seems to be the right way to go for me, together with a heightened chinrest (I was using a Wolf rest before). Lots of things have improved but I'm still finding arm vibrato unreliable.

N

Thank you.
Yeah, I think I'll give the pads a try too. They're not going to break the bank unlike some of the rests I've tried before.