One More Left Hand Exercise

Now I know that you all rushed to try out my exercises yesterday, right? I hope you didn't sprain anything! After I posted the exercises I realized that I left out an important preliminary one. Before the exercise with two fingers swapping strings (originally from Abel Carlevaro), you need to warm up with a similar exercise with three fixed fingers and one finger moving. That gets you ready for the harder ones. Here is how it looks:

Click to enlarge

The first measure shows which fingers you fix. I have shown it in fifth position, but you can do it anywhere. Fix three fingers on the third string without playing them and leave them while you move the remaining finger, playing the eighth notes. Starting with the first finger, you jump from the fourth string to the second, the fifth to the second and the sixth to the first, then return. Play slowly and cleanly. Do this with each finger in turn, as shown. This is the necessary preparation for the exercises with two fixed and two moving fingers.

As an envoi, let's have another Villa-Lobos study. This is the Etude No. 5, which has some interesting left hand challenges. This is Andrea Dieci again with a very fine performance: