If anyone is unsure what a great bow arm looks like, check out violinist Hilary Hahn playing the Shostakovich Violin Concerto.
Note the height of her elbow, how her wrist leads to her nose, the roundness of her hand (the tunnel of space between her thumb and fingers), how her finger balance changes a split second before changing bows at the frog, and how she's playing really close to the bridge.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tension in playing
Here's an excerpt from an article from violinist.com where the interviewed violinist speaks about studying with Nathan Milstein, and her views on tension.
Dylana did spend time with some of the great violinists of the 20th century, for example, Nathan Milstein.
"It was like sitting in front of God," she said of the two-week stints she would spend with Milstein in the summer. "It was profoundly life-changing in so many ways. Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, the only thing he encouraged me to change was to bring my fingers back together in my bow hand. I had met Itzhak Perlman when I was 10 or 11, and Perlman suggested I separate my fingers and use my index finger more to help draw out the sound. When I went to see Milstein, he was playing the way I had grown up playing. So I changed that back. It took a little while to be comfortable with that, it was like I was holding a club in my arm, it was not refined in any way."
By fingers together, Milstein meant, "together, touching. If you look at Milstein and Heifetz, their fingers are squished together. I would say mine are not squished, they are just relaxed in that position, and touching," she said. "He was trying to encourage me to use back muscles for bow technique, to support the arm and to have greater control over small movements by using larger muscles, rather than trying to use small finger muscles to control a small movement."
Milstein often used the example of an eye surgeon. "When a surgeon would make an incision in the eye, which was very delicate and very tiny, that the surgeon would use a weighted scalpel, using the bicep muscles to make the cut, not using the fingers with a tiny little knife trying to make an incision." With the little muscles, there would be less precision and more error – when you get nervous, little muscles shake. "You gain a tremendous amount of control, I think, from using larger muscles."
Dylana enjoys teaching, and she addresses these kinds of issues in her own students.
"I'm setting up their body, so that they can practice and play as long as they want, for the rest of their lives without pain," Dylana said. "It has to be an evaluation of the different issues. I see a lot of problems in the left arm, in the left elbow, for instance; or in the neck, or twisting. Where teachers are recommending ice and rest, I'm saying, that's not really the answer. For instance, with the left arm: it would be bringing the violin more around to the front, untwisting the arm, bringing the violin down, getting the shoulder rest off, changing the way the thumb works so the hand can be straighter, facing you straight instead of twisting. In the right arm, in the bow arm: if the fingers are very separated, that creates a lot of tension in the hand.
"So I recommend – Suzuki always set up students this way – you shake the hand out and the hand falls – that should be the maximum you stretch the fingers apart. If you allow the child to stretch their fingers, then you have already set up a tension in the hand that's going to be there for however many hours they're practicing. So my whole approach is to get back to the the basics, to the tradition of what has worked for a long time and with a lot of wonderful great masters of the past."
You can read the rest of the article here.
Dylana did spend time with some of the great violinists of the 20th century, for example, Nathan Milstein.
"It was like sitting in front of God," she said of the two-week stints she would spend with Milstein in the summer. "It was profoundly life-changing in so many ways. Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, the only thing he encouraged me to change was to bring my fingers back together in my bow hand. I had met Itzhak Perlman when I was 10 or 11, and Perlman suggested I separate my fingers and use my index finger more to help draw out the sound. When I went to see Milstein, he was playing the way I had grown up playing. So I changed that back. It took a little while to be comfortable with that, it was like I was holding a club in my arm, it was not refined in any way."
By fingers together, Milstein meant, "together, touching. If you look at Milstein and Heifetz, their fingers are squished together. I would say mine are not squished, they are just relaxed in that position, and touching," she said. "He was trying to encourage me to use back muscles for bow technique, to support the arm and to have greater control over small movements by using larger muscles, rather than trying to use small finger muscles to control a small movement."
Milstein often used the example of an eye surgeon. "When a surgeon would make an incision in the eye, which was very delicate and very tiny, that the surgeon would use a weighted scalpel, using the bicep muscles to make the cut, not using the fingers with a tiny little knife trying to make an incision." With the little muscles, there would be less precision and more error – when you get nervous, little muscles shake. "You gain a tremendous amount of control, I think, from using larger muscles."
Dylana enjoys teaching, and she addresses these kinds of issues in her own students.
"I'm setting up their body, so that they can practice and play as long as they want, for the rest of their lives without pain," Dylana said. "It has to be an evaluation of the different issues. I see a lot of problems in the left arm, in the left elbow, for instance; or in the neck, or twisting. Where teachers are recommending ice and rest, I'm saying, that's not really the answer. For instance, with the left arm: it would be bringing the violin more around to the front, untwisting the arm, bringing the violin down, getting the shoulder rest off, changing the way the thumb works so the hand can be straighter, facing you straight instead of twisting. In the right arm, in the bow arm: if the fingers are very separated, that creates a lot of tension in the hand.
"So I recommend – Suzuki always set up students this way – you shake the hand out and the hand falls – that should be the maximum you stretch the fingers apart. If you allow the child to stretch their fingers, then you have already set up a tension in the hand that's going to be there for however many hours they're practicing. So my whole approach is to get back to the the basics, to the tradition of what has worked for a long time and with a lot of wonderful great masters of the past."
You can read the rest of the article here.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Great student concerto
I just found a great student concerto to feed my students with! (I think of their needs as like watering plants - when they need sun, shade, and fertilizer!)
A concertino by Oskar Rieding is the piece I found on www.violinist.com. I studied his e minor concertino when I was growing up, and I used it as my de facto showpiece on violin for many years. It was all about tone production and energy.
If you read music, watch the violin line and keep the beat while reading it. If you're a student, imagine playing it as you read through it.
Pros might enjoy sawing through this once in awhile as a warm-up. It's a really well diguised etude, so you can use it to practice anything from spiccato to double-stop intonation to exploring vibrato and articulation. It's very simply rhythmically and harmonically, but is very engaging for a student who is still in the process of finding a level of finding a true comfort of facility with their instrument, or a pro who wants a fun way to brush up in a technical area once in awhile.
A concertino by Oskar Rieding is the piece I found on www.violinist.com. I studied his e minor concertino when I was growing up, and I used it as my de facto showpiece on violin for many years. It was all about tone production and energy.
If you read music, watch the violin line and keep the beat while reading it. If you're a student, imagine playing it as you read through it.
Pros might enjoy sawing through this once in awhile as a warm-up. It's a really well diguised etude, so you can use it to practice anything from spiccato to double-stop intonation to exploring vibrato and articulation. It's very simply rhythmically and harmonically, but is very engaging for a student who is still in the process of finding a level of finding a true comfort of facility with their instrument, or a pro who wants a fun way to brush up in a technical area once in awhile.
Viola da Gamba
I've been watching the TV show the Tudors lately, after getting home from teaching, and it inspired me to look up music of that period (they featured historic composer Thomas Tallis as a character on the show, which was most entertaining).
Being a string player, I searched youtube for clips featuring a viola da gamba, an ancestor of the modern cello. I found a performance of a piece by Abel, a contemporary of Mozart (about 200 years later than Henry VIII)
This piece features performer Nima Ben David, and she is just out of this world. Watch the bow speed for how she maximizes the ring of the instrument. The structure of the piece itself is meant to maximize the resonance of the instrument.
Check it out here.
Being a string player, I searched youtube for clips featuring a viola da gamba, an ancestor of the modern cello. I found a performance of a piece by Abel, a contemporary of Mozart (about 200 years later than Henry VIII)
This piece features performer Nima Ben David, and she is just out of this world. Watch the bow speed for how she maximizes the ring of the instrument. The structure of the piece itself is meant to maximize the resonance of the instrument.
Check it out here.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
February's concert season
The next three weekends are concert weekends for me, and since February has Valentine's Day, that means all three concerts are pop music!
I think the Timmins Symphony concert this weekend will have the least amount of pop music - we're doing the overture to the Barber of Seville which is great fun. Does anybody know where the english version of this is hiding on youtube?
We're also doing Hoe Down from Copland's Rodeo (and it not pronounced "rodeo" as in Calgary Stampede, but ro-DAY-o. It's just one of those classical music things).
North Bay is doing a "Broadway Heroes" show next week, and Sudbury is doing an Elton John Tribute concert.
Come out and see the Timmins Symphony Saturday night at 8pm at Theriault High School.
Local talent Adrianna Ciccone is one of our guest soloists, doing some fiddle music, backed up by the Timmins Symphony. We also have Nigel Robbins playing an oboe d'amour concerto, which is not something you'll have many opportunities to hear, so it's definitely worth catching this concert.
An oboe d'amour is like a viola-oboe.... . It's the middle instrument in the picture.
I think the Timmins Symphony concert this weekend will have the least amount of pop music - we're doing the overture to the Barber of Seville which is great fun. Does anybody know where the english version of this is hiding on youtube?
We're also doing Hoe Down from Copland's Rodeo (and it not pronounced "rodeo" as in Calgary Stampede, but ro-DAY-o. It's just one of those classical music things).
North Bay is doing a "Broadway Heroes" show next week, and Sudbury is doing an Elton John Tribute concert.
Come out and see the Timmins Symphony Saturday night at 8pm at Theriault High School.
Local talent Adrianna Ciccone is one of our guest soloists, doing some fiddle music, backed up by the Timmins Symphony. We also have Nigel Robbins playing an oboe d'amour concerto, which is not something you'll have many opportunities to hear, so it's definitely worth catching this concert.
An oboe d'amour is like a viola-oboe.... . It's the middle instrument in the picture.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Accidental Music Lesson
An article from a New York Times blog by composer Micheal Gordon, who recalls learning musician's life lessons.
You can read the article here, and I've excerpted my favorite part below:
Once, at my last piano lesson before heading off for vacation, I asked Mrs. Kutzen what her plans were for the summer. Her reply: “Michael, musicians don’t take vacations.” I filed this line away in a special part of my brain, an informal collection of “accidental music lessons.” My interpretation of Mrs. Kutzen’s words has changed through the years, like a Talmudic discourse that is argued from different points of view:
1. Musicians just don’t ever feel quite right going an extended period of time without playing their instrument.
2. Music isn’t a job that you punch in and out of. It’s an obsession, a calling and your purpose in life.
3. Musicians don’t make a lot of money and you’re not going to be able to afford a vacation anyway.
You can read the article here, and I've excerpted my favorite part below:
Once, at my last piano lesson before heading off for vacation, I asked Mrs. Kutzen what her plans were for the summer. Her reply: “Michael, musicians don’t take vacations.” I filed this line away in a special part of my brain, an informal collection of “accidental music lessons.” My interpretation of Mrs. Kutzen’s words has changed through the years, like a Talmudic discourse that is argued from different points of view:
1. Musicians just don’t ever feel quite right going an extended period of time without playing their instrument.
2. Music isn’t a job that you punch in and out of. It’s an obsession, a calling and your purpose in life.
3. Musicians don’t make a lot of money and you’re not going to be able to afford a vacation anyway.
Rhythm Exercises
Becoming comfortable with feeling a beat and different rhythms can be quite difficult when playing a string instrument because so often our attention is taking up with just trying to figure out the notes, work the bow and our left fingers.
It can be helpful to practice rhythm without the instrument, as well as with it.
Here are a few places on the internet where you can practice developing your sense beat and rhythm.
www.tedviera.com
emusictheory.com has one of the best collections of exercises I've seen. You need to have Java enabled in your browser for this site to work.
More later!
It's time to go practice now!
It can be helpful to practice rhythm without the instrument, as well as with it.
Here are a few places on the internet where you can practice developing your sense beat and rhythm.
www.tedviera.com
emusictheory.com has one of the best collections of exercises I've seen. You need to have Java enabled in your browser for this site to work.
More later!
It's time to go practice now!
Welcome!
Hello students, teachers and fellow musicians!
My name is Ariane Alexander and I am a professional violist living in Northern Ontario, Canada.
I'm starting this blog as a place to post exercises for students, discussions on violin and viola technique, classical music, and to help young musicians find helpful resources on the internet.
A little about me:
I'm originally from Saint John, New Brunswick, and I studied violin in Newfoundland with professor Nancy Dahn and now I live in Timmins, Ontario, and play with a number of orchestras in Northern Ontario, including the Timmins Symphony Orchestra , the Sudbury Symphony, and the North Bay Symphony.
You can read more about me here.
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