Bob Dubery wrote
So I am quite intrigued that you now run into "finger fitness" issues. Is it that a guitar, even an electric, is significantly physically more challenging than a violin?
A very good question Bob.
A few parts to this answer:
a) Many years since I played violin - so am 'finger unfit' (refer Ray's expression of 'waaaay younger')
b) Fingerboard is much wider - so requires a much wider 'sideways' stretch
c) Notes are further apart on a guitar - a 'natural' gap on a violin covers a full tone; requires a bigger gap than this to cover a semi-tone on a guitar
d) Chords - other than a bit of double stopping on strings that are very close together, the violin doesn't require you to hold many fingers down simultaneously; especially separated by so much real estate ?
(I have jokingly referred to this as finger "Twister")
Violin (and cello I imagine) worries more about:
- finger speed
- accurate placement on the (fretless) fingerboard
- vibrato which is backwards / forwards; as opposed to side-to-side on guitar (although I think violin style vibrato also gives a nice effect on guitar)
Main one is a) though ... much older, unfit and finger joints are fairly 'frozen'
Using the same exercises I used way back then are yielding the same rewards now.
