I've been playing viola for about 9 months. I'm self taught. Everything is going well (vibrato even came naturally) except my left pinky finger.

When I lift my ring finger my pinky moves with it and flies way up from the fingerboard. Then it's hard to get my pinky to land properly. I don't seem to have this problem with my other fingers, they hover right above the string waiting to drop. But my pinky wants to fly away.

Any one else had this problem? Anything I can do to fix it?

Thanks

Two things come to mind:
1. need strengthening exercises for your pinky finger;
2. make sure your left hand is rotated towards the fingerboard so that the palm of your hand faces the fingerboard. If your palm is rotated away from the fingerboard, even just a little bit, it will make the stretch for the weak pinky even harder and it will want to fly up.

On the website www.ashmontmusic.com/mccarty/faq.html a violist named Patricia McCarty addresses some questions in a Q&A format, one of which pertains to what you describe. In part, this is what she says:

Keeping the 4th finger aligned over its next notes and close to the strings is an issue which nearly everyone needs to address in the daily warmup, and even a professional player returning from vacation may focus on special exercises for this purpose to get back into shape quickly. Violin and viola pedagogues over the past two centuries have designed many such exercises for all levels of player; it is extremely important to find one appropriate for your degree of left hand strength and experience, and to gradually progress through the pedagogy to more demanding ones over time in order to prevent frustration and/or injury. My notebook of these exercises breaks down into two categories: 1) exercises which train the 4th finger to stay down by making you hold down fingers 1&4 in either an octave or a second configuration while moving the others, and 2) finger combinations which try out the skill, played very fast with light touch, or in rhythms to force them into fast tempo. Combining these two categories is not unlike the combination of strength training and aerobic exercise done by many people for general fitness of muscles and areas well beyond the fingers... Make sure that your left wrist keeps a straight line (does not bend outward) in the lower positions. Basic strength exercises: page 4, Whistler's book Essential Exercises & Etudes for Viola Ex. of Independent Fingers, first exercise, Samuel Flor's book The Positions Try these out in: Hans Sitt - Practical Viola Method Dancla - School of Mechanism etudes such as Mazas #19 selected Sevcik op. 1, parts 1-2 Schradieck, vol. I, first position exercises first four of the Carl Flesch ex. in his Art of Vln. Playing, vol. I

Visit the website for more exercise suggestions and other info. You may want to consider getting a book of exercises and etudes. You could also book a few lessons with a teacher to check your hand positions to correct any bad habits you may have picked up.

Keep up the good work and enjoy!

And visit www.violaforum.be for more insight from other violists.

Thanks for the link!

I'll look for those books. On another website I read where someone said "a violist needs to balance thier hand frame on the third finger instead of the first."

Can someone expand on this?

Thanks again

I fixed it! I watched my hand in a mirror while playing a scale very slowly. When it came time to lift my pinky my wrist twisted my palm away from the fingerboard.

Once I became aware of this my problem went away. It also made me much more aware of my posture.

Thanks for the help!

yep that pinky finger used to be a killer...just keep using it and practice with it. Use fourth finger instead of an open string..