Hi folks, this is Davide from Verona, Italy.

This gentleman on the left is Yehudi Menuhin; the illustration comes from a book of his called Six Lessons with Yehudi Menuhin. I am trying to shift to Menuhin's violin technique.

As you may have already noticed, his violin holding style is a very peculiar one; the violin is kept on equilibrium on the left thumb. Yehudi Menuhin didn't use any shoulder rest; his approach is aimed at giving the greatest freedom to every single limb. Without a shoulder rest, the left shoulder can swing freely.

There's another illustrations that shows more clearly Menuhin's holding style.

From this illustration on the right, the peculiarity of this holding style is very apparent. If you look carefully, you'll notice that there's a gap between the fiddle neck and the palm; the violin is kept on the thumb pad by a very delicate balance.

I've first met this approach in Ireland; my teacher of traditional Irish fiddle plays this way

Once mastered, this technique gives many advantages. The body is completely relaxed, since the muscles that are used are only the necessary ones.

I've set up this page in order to find people who play the violin by this technique, and exchange ideas and opinion with them; the learning path is a bit difficult, and a couple of suggestion would be very useful.

Do you play the violin this way? Do you know any violinist or fiddler who plays this way?
If so, mail me at nutsmuggler@hotmail.com
Bye :-)