Transcript
Okay, so now we’re going to talk about applying fingering tapes for young beginner violinists.
What they’re used for when, you know, a child first starts the violin, it’s very difficult to know where to put your fingers, your left hand fingers, on the instrument. Because, as you can see, if I took off these tapes here there would be absolutely nothing on the fingerboard. So, I mean, how, you know, can a child really know where to put them? You do want to use your ear eventually to know where to put your fingers, absolutely. But in the beginning, it’s a nice guide for them that you use for a short time so that they’re understanding good pitch and they’re getting used good pitch. And then, after a while, you can take them off.
So, this is what they look like. I get these at a company called Shar.com, S-H-A-R. Actually, I think it’s SharMusic now, .com, SharMusic.com. And they are a great company, actually, for a lot of different things. Sheet music, teaching supplies, a lot of different things.
They come in rolls, so this is already cut. And it’s a fingering tape. And you hold the violin in your lap like this and you put the tape between your two fingers underneath the strings, above the fingerboard like so. And you slide it all the way to the tape to the spot that you want it. Normally the teacher will do this for you. But if you have a good ear, you could also do this yourself at home.
So, now I put it on what I’m hoping is a good B. So, first, you make sure that all the strings are really nicely in tune. I’m going to try it with the bow. Okay. So, now I’m going to play a B on the A string and it sounds good to me. This is the first finger tape, so I’m playing the first finger on each of the strings. It sounds good, so I’m going to wrap it around.
And now, that’s how you apply the tape to the violin. This is the second finger tape that’s already applied, third finger tape, fourth finger tape and you did the same thing with those.
And that’s a little bit about applying fingering tapes for your little one.
