I have just started playing the violin and although I love playing it a lot, my main worry is that my left hand wrist and thumb are starting to hurt when I have been practicing for a while. Is this normal? At the moment I am practicing for several hours a day as it is half term. I did go to a teacher for one lesson about posture and he noted that my fingers were quite short and thick and I'm wondering whether I am causing an injury by trying to force my fingers over. When I do this, the inside of my thumb sometimes presses hard against the neck of the fingerboard and it becomes quite sore. I must say at this point that my left hand thumb does have a large burn scar on it which I got as a baby when my hand accidentally fell in the fireplace. Luckily, although my thumb was badly injured, the tissue grew back fine but has left a large scar there. I'm wondering whether I'm aggravating the tendons in this area where there may have been some damage. The injury is 37 years old and I've never had problems with it before so it seems pretty unlikely.
Is what I'm experiencing normal for someone who has just gone from doing nothing to doing several hours a day practice on the violin? Maybe I should ease off a bit. The worst case scenario is that I just dont have the right hand shape to play the violin to a good standard!

Gae

Not that I am an expert but I think it could be one of two things ( or perhaps a little of both).

1) as you are new to violin playing maybe it is over work on the hand, especially if you are practising for long hours. The way we have to hold our bodies to do this is not at all natural and it must take the body and muscles some time to adjust to the regime.

2) it could be that you are not relaxed enough when you practise and you are tensing your muscles too much.

You say you have had one lesson, why not ask your teacher, or go back for a top-up to make sure you do have it right. And practise in 20 min spells with a break in between to relax you and your muscles (try some tai chi in the breaks???)

I don't think it can have anything to do with the old injury after all this time

Let us know how you get on

Jane

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Is what I'm experiencing normal for someone who has just gone from doing nothing to doing several hours a day practice on the violin? Maybe I should ease off a bit. The worst case scenario is that I just dont have the right hand shape to play the violin to a good standard!

The left arm and hand position for playing the violin (or viola) is one of the most unnatural positions to hold. Having only just started playing the violin you are also pulling on a lot of tendons and muscles that just aren't used to being pulled in a rather alien direction.

I would suggest you ease off a bit and try to perhaps do two 15 minute practice sessions a day - at the most - until your hand gets used to it. Increase your practice time gradually thereafter. The other thing you must remember to do is to move the left elbow underneath the violin, esp. on the G and D strings. This will lift the hand naturally over the strings helping to form the correct hand shape - irrespective of hand size. And don't support the violin neck with your left hand!! - that alone will restrict finger placement, not to mention make you look like you're holding the handle of a saucepan.

Is the neck of the violin quite thick? For small hands this can be something of a problem. If the instrument is a student violin, then there isn't really much point in having things altered, but if you are playing a decent quality violin, then it might be worth taking it to a luthier and seeing if the neck can be reduced a little so that it fits your hand better.

Hand size should not affect your playing - other than for big stretches like a 10th or awkwardly spaced triple/quadruple stops. If it's any consolation the violinist Tasmin Little has small hands, and for that reason she simply avoids playing Paganini, but having small hands didn't stop her becoming one of the Britains top soloists.

Thanks for the advice and I think I will take it a bit easier.
A good sign is that my hand doesn't hurt when I'm not playing so I dont think I've damaged anything. I do play in about 20 minute sessions, as suggested, but I do them about 10-15 times a day!! I suppose I should expect some reaction in my hand/arms because it is the most unnatural position to have them held in. I have also tried this business of moving my elbow further under the violin to get to the G string but I must have short arms or a wide chest because I struggle doing this and have to angle the violin in order to reach comfortably. It's still a bit of a struggle though and at the moment I dont enjoy playing on the G string. I suppose I could do with losing a bit of weight as most violinists I see seem to be quite slim looking with long slender fingers.

Gae

Seconded... not that I am a violin expert. But I have been playing it for almost twenty years, and after almost 2 years of basically not playing (long story - my fiddle spent quite some time in the worship) except once or twice on others' instruments, I find that playing for any length of time is hard work, and my LH pinky especially just goes "stop!" after a while. And I did start when I was about 7, so my muscles and hands are pretty used to the instrument! Take it gently... you don't want to damage yourself!

Perhaps it could be just getting used to the weight of the instrument, and how it balances. Perhaps you are a bit tentative to relax? I think this was mentioned earlier...

It happened to me with the trombone, I really gripped it hard. But then I got used to the balance and it wasn't really a problem...

Keep it up!

Just another thought on the relaxing theme. As you are new to this are you at all worried (even subconsciously) about dropping it. Does it sit comfortably under your chin such that you could leave it there and wander about the house confidently doing other tasks?

You might be tensing up as a result. If so, try practising over a bed so if it drops it doesn't get damaged.

Jane

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Does it sit comfortably under your chin such that you could leave it there and wander about the house confidently doing other tasks?

Yes, I managed to keep it under my chin while I washed the dishes the other day! Just kidding!
I have a shoulder rest for it and yes, I can hold it under both chins so that my hand is free to move. I really dont think its to do with tension to be honest more anatomy. I have no problem playing on the A and E string but sometimes when I move for the D and especially G string, as my fingers are quite short, my thumb presses quite hard against the neck and puts pressure on it causing the pain after playing for a while. I'm sure one way or another I will sort it out and as I get more used to playing I will find more time to concentrate on my hand/elbow position.

Gae