INTONATION AND LEFT-HAND FRAME
Set up your left hand to play in tune with all four fingers on a string; account for two whole steps and one half step, creating a perfect fourth from 1st to 4th finger. Your left hand frame should be strong and flexible, relaxed and reliable. Do not assume you are playing in tune in first position; listen closely, adjust as needed, refine your technique so your left hand is as efficient as possible. When you are playing a perfect fourth between 1 and 4 you do not have to be completely still, but it must feel as if it is simple to move back and forth between them. If you cannot find something that feels simple, it might be worth considering a change to your equipment.
Before you begin a structured left hand warm up exercise, reacquaint yourself with your left hand frame and all the supporting adjustments to the rest of your set up. Play 1 and 4, back and forth, wiggle around and find the neutral spot for your viola and bow (viola scan), your head, shoulders, elbows, etc., (posture scan), and make sure you’re not squeezing anything to support the set up (tension scan). You can take a moment to remind yourself for the day what it feels like to say hello to your viola for the first time, without harsh judgment or disappointment. Find the thing that feels good and then begin your left hand warmup.
It can be useful to spend a long time on this pre-warm-up part if it is novel for you. Invest in this. You will train your brain, train your ears, train you body, and get the permanent short-cut to left hand facility. A lot of people with graduate degrees cannot place their first finger in the same spot twice in a row. Figure out how to do it. If you need help, try this:
Exercise: Turn on a drone to the pitch of your first finger. E on the D-string is a good start. Put down your first finger perfectly in tune with the drone. Did it match the drone (the same level of precision as tuning your instrument)? Did you have to do something other than “drop” your finger? Once you have figured out how to match the pitch PERFECTLY, try to repeat the first finger drop so it goes back in EXACTLY the same place. Do not be discouraged if it is not EXACTLY in the same place. Tweak your set up so you can drop your first finger to match the drone without effort. (This turns out to be a sophisticated level of playing!) Next, consider the fourth finger. Change the drone or play a perfect fourth with the E. Repeat the level of precision and accuracy, and feel free to tweak your set up again if you need to accommodate 4. You may need to wiggle a bit to create a set up that allows 1 and 4 to drop reliably. The priority is a simply-dropped fourth finger that is meticulously in tune. Once you have 1 and 4, fill in 2 and 3. While you say hello to your viola for the day you are tweaking your set up to find the best one for you: the most relaxed, the most reliable, the simplest, all while scanning to make sure you are not integrating tension into your set up and training your ears and mind for meticulous pitch matching. This also trains your brain to manage in real-time to what you intend and compare that to what you actually hear. Hello, viola!
Some thoughts:
Your left elbow will not be in the same place on any two strings, but it should feel simple to move from string to string. Small differences matter in elite playing. Learn one of them really beautifully (it might be quite frustrating at first, or even for a while—hang in there!) and the other three will follow suit quickly because you have learned how to learn how to play in tune in one first position. It must feel neutral to you on each string, and simple to move from string to string.
The most important left hand finger is 1. The second most important left hand finger is 4. If you can’t play 1 and 4 with a feeling of stability you must consider a change. A small change might be tweaking where your elbow is or where you hold your viola in front of your body on different strings; a drastic change might be finding a smaller instrument. But you must be able to play first finger and fourth finger in first position on the C string without feeling like you are playing in two positions. It is totally fine to rebalance your hand on your pivotal thumb to play 1 and 4, but you need to be able to do the “siren” without shifting.
Practice something that keeps your hand frame in tune but changes your finger pattern and dropping order. Some people practice Kourgeoff, others do Schriadieck. I play the first page of Ševčík op. 1 part 2 every day. I set the drone to my first finger’s pitch, and then turn on the metronome and go. I used to start with the bottom of the page and move up, string by string, because the C-string is also the 4th finger series, both of which felt quite hard to me when I was a student and I wanted to play the whole page. Now, I start my day with one of them. Sometimes I switch the patterns/strings (for example, do the C-string series on the A-string, 4th finger on the beat on f-natural), but mostly I don’t really care which one I do. The most important thing is that your intonation on 1 and 4 doesn’t change over the course of the series. You can do it in any position, on any string, in any order. The point is your standard: can you put all your fingers down in tune over and over again? The answer must be YES.
*A note on Ševčík: there is an augmented second in the exercise I start my day with. This is too big for my hand to stay still! I find it to be a good opportunity to practice re-finding my 1-4 every single beat while I am using a rocking hand position. This is the SUPPLEstrong, FLEXIBLEreliable hand position. You can skip this one if you don’t like it, add it in later, or jump right on in to see if you can build more flexibility into your reliable hand-frame. Find ways to make the exercise you choose serve your goals: reliable intonation from your left hand frame. My high school violin teacher included the augmented fourth (WWW) in her left hand warm up (alterations to Schradieck to account for all finger patterns) but after a while I decided to abandon it for myself since it seems counterproductive to my experience with a hand position that feels useful structurally. I don’t have any explanation for why I dumped WWW but practice 1/2 1 1/2 1/2. You can be quirky, too. Just know what you’re doing and why, and make sure you have the staples in order.
Name your finger pattern as whole and half steps while you are practicing left hand position. The staples are WW1/2, W1/2W, and 1/2WW. 1/2W1/2, WWW, and of course, 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 (Ševčík above!) are useful but exist outside the default hand frame. WW1/2, W1/2W, and 1/2WW are your go-to finger patterns for great intonation. Be sure you know which one you are playing. This becomes very important self-knowledge when you have mastered simple shifting and graduate to complex shifting skills.
Intonation is a compromise. Surrender to the reality of playing with other people (and yourself!) and tune your viola with tight fifths, and then use all your warm-up time to train your ears to listen for terrific intonation as an indicator of appropriate hand position.