Best Violinless Exercises you can Do While Idle

[B.Ceruti]

A long time ago, when I was first really learning about the suppleness of a good bow-hand, my teacher was trying to get me to feel the "paint-brush bristle" finger motions of a bow change. One exercise he taught me was that I should place a pencil on a desk any time I was bored/idle/not-being-watched-by-boss and, using only my fingers, to pick the pencil up horizontally as one would a bow-stick, over and over.  In time, this proved to be very beneficial, as it taught me the sensation of using all joints in my fingers in a smooth way, and it helped to form the requisite  nerve-connections.

In that vein, are there any other exercises for anything, bow-hold, vibrato, left-hand frame etc. that you can do without a bow or violin, say, while sitting on your lunch break? I really enjoy these little things because it gives me a sense that I am not wasting time with life and associated niceties when I could be doing something beneficial to my violin-playing!

[gowan]

It's not a physical activity but you can practice mentally just by reading the score, not actually playing.  This would include determining fingerings and bowings. Of course this could be done at your desk during lunch break. 

[B.Ceruti]

43 minutes ago, gowan said:

It's not a physical activity but you can practice mentally just by reading the score, not actually playing.  This would include determining fingerings and bowings. Of course this could be done at your desk during lunch break. 

Yes, that's always a good one. It's good practice. I like the physical exercises because you can slip them in during a meeting, while waiting for coffee etc. I like these little "found time" things. 

 

I was thinking that perhaps some vibrato exercises might be achievable; for instance, in Fischer's "Basics", there are a series of bow-less exercises, of which one in particular surrounds practicing finger flexibility by repeatedly collapsing and curving the last finger-joint to a rhythm. I think this could be easily done without the violin.

[PhilipKT]

4 hours ago, B.Ceruti said:

A long time ago, when I was first really learning about the suppleness of a good bow-hand, my teacher was trying to get me to feel the "paint-brush bristle" finger motions of a bow change. One exercise he taught me was that I should place a pencil on a desk any time I was bored/idle/not-being-watched-by-boss and, using only my fingers, to pick the pencil up horizontally as one would a bow-stick, over and over.  In time, this proved to be very beneficial, as it taught me the sensation of using all joints in my fingers in a smooth way, and it helped to form the requisite  nerve-connections.

In that vein, are there any other exercises for anything, bow-hold, vibrato, left-hand frame etc. that you can do without a bow or violin, say, while sitting on your lunch break? I really enjoy these little things because it gives me a sense that I am not wasting time with life and associated niceties when I could be doing something beneficial to my violin-playing!

I have a large number of finger independence exercises for both hands that you can try, however they are much too complicated to describe. They are however extremely simple to explain with just a four or five second video, so if you will email me or send me a note with your address, I will be happy to send you two or three very simple finger exercise videos that you will find not just very productive but lots of fun.