Left Hand Technique

Mr. Ricci's contemplation about violin playing is full of wisdom and, in my opinion, based on firm ground. Together with his newly released "Ricci on Glissando", you will get a fresh insight of violin techniques. For someone who is trained along the Flesch's system, Mr. Ricci's ideas...

will not turn your world upside down, but help you understand Flesch even better, and lift you up to a higher altitude to give you a wider and freer view.

A superb collection of exercises covering all the major elements of left hand technique with some explanation of the logic behind his instructions. They encourage an "out of the box" and thoughtful approach to left hand problems. Some of the concepts are rather idiosyncratic and a lot of standard pedagogues...

who are fixated on the 1st, 3rd, 5th etc positions may not appreciate the value of his flexible approach via contractions and extensions and "crawling" rather than shifting. The distilled wisdom of one of the great 20th century virtuosi is very valuable. I wish he would write a similar volume for the Right Hand!

Very good book, used as a reference for years by teachers.