Points of Refinement

Once upon a time I was having tea in the middle of one of my coachings with Nathan Milstein, and the talk turned to the issue of scratch.

No, not what chickens do whilst in the pursuit of nourishment; what too many violinists do when putting bow to string.

Anyway, Milstein told me about a time Perlman visited. He, himself, had asked about this very thing, feeling he ‘scratched’ more than he would like.

Milstein told me he said to him, ‘you scratch because you scratch.’

Pretty funny, as I think back on it.

What the master was really trying to say was that on some level an inattention to detail had become habitual.

Fortunately there is a way out of this, and I’ll tell you about it. But not before I add that Itzhak Perlman is definitely NOT a scratchy violinist. In fact, at the time I was quite surprised that he would have had any concerns whatsoever on the subject.

Now, scratch happens when the amount of pressure on the string is not matched by an appropriate amount of horizontal bow movement. Most often it occurs at changes of bow direction, particularly at the frog.

One of the things I stress from the first months of my ‘Beginners Circle’ course and through every course I have produced on playing the violin, is the importance of keeping the bow moving horizontally and evenly.

It’s one of those things you just cannot take for granted. And I myself find that I must slow down and go back to school on the specifics of doing this, from time to time, to keep my bow arm scratch free.

Yet there is another big producer of scratch. It’s the kind of splatting scratch heard when the bow is brought down too forcefully from above the string to create an accent.

I call this a ‘Hack-cent.’

The problem here is one of timing and control. The timing is in getting the arrival at the string to coincide exactly with the horizontal movement of the arm; of transferring the downward force into what I’d call ‘horizontalized’ force.

In other words, the energy makes an immediate 90 degree turn, the bow stays glued to the string, and the amount of vertical pressure arriving on the string matches the bow speed perfectly.

Now, again, this can be broken down and practiced quite slowly and easily. But one has to hear there is a problem before a problem can be fixed on the violin. And unfortunately, many players have come to accept certain ‘mannerisms’ in their playing to the point they no longer register consciously.

If and when they do wake up, however, I’ve got a good place for them to go to get back on track.

All the best,
Clayton Haslop

P.S. Want this kind of instruction, but aren’t quite up to Kreutzer yet? Here’s your ticket.

Jaganini, Paganini

Some of you might say ‘shame on you,’ after reading this. After all, ‘What’s a man in your condition think your doing runnin’ all over old Paganini like that.’

And you’d probably be right. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow when the violin reaches my shoulder.

But here’s what happened today, and I think you’ll want to pay close attention ‘cause it’s interesting.

After spending some time with Mister Kreisler this morning, listening to and identifying harmonies as I played, I moved over to Paganini #5. Now, most days lately it would hurt just thinking about roping this old finger-buster.

But for after my violin-ringing Kreisler tune-up, not today.

My Kreisler warm-up had done me a great service. ‘Playing the harmonies,’ as Milstein would have said it, worked some gently magic on my hands. By thinking about the music in an unfamiliar way – I’ve done it before with this piece, but not for a while – I opened up new channels from my brain right down to my fingers.

That then spilled over into Paganini – with an added development. Not only did I visualize the notes and analyze the harmonies as I played, I also began playing with all the possible bowings – i.e. 1+3. 2+2, 3+1. 4+4 – even carrying 2 beats in the flying spiccato strokes.

But again, seeing/hearing every note, not allowing any to escape unnoticed; which meant, incidentally, that there were some periods when I was playing extremely slowly whilst sweating bullets.

Pretty soon, however, it didn’t matter which bowing I wanted to use with any given beat. With my body and mind ‘juiced up’ on a clear draft of mental clarity it was easy to see why Milstein observed, ‘Anything is possible.’

What a concept. But you DO have to put something behind it. It doesn’t just happen by itself. And yes, you can get it to the point of being ‘automatic,’ if you happened to learn before the age of 8. But, barring that, you can expect to practice DOING if you want to KEEP IT, GET IT.

By the way, I like ‘Jaganini with Paganini,’ it’s kind of an onomatopoeia of the first two beats of the Presto. And I’d also say the jag in Jaganini is a good description of the right forearm movements needed to get the bow jumping. And these are quite horizontal jags of the arm.

At the moment I only have 1 volume out on the Paganini Caprices, and there are some VERY useful practice tools to be had in it, speaking of ‘getting it.’ Maybe I’ll have to start the ball rolling on volume 2.

3 Tips for Your 4 Fingers

Beautiful day outside, yet here I am, banging away at my laptop to bring you the latest and greatest of my violin musings.

For the past week I’ve been getting myself prepared to film the lessons I send out to my Allegro Players subscribers each month.

Every edition tends to have a theme, which is usually some or other aspect of violin technique. I carry the theme through the scales, etudes and repertoire that make up each month’s learning materials.

During the past couple months I’ve focused a lot on getting around the violin. Most of us would say shifting, yet for me it is quite a bit more. It’s about coming to understand the fingerboard as a continuum. Appreciating the subtle movements in the shoulder, upper arm, and forearm as they travel along the fingerboard – providing a stable, consistent base for the fingers to operate from.

It’s about hand/ear coordination. And it’s about relaxation.

Today I want to focus on the fingers themselves and the 3 most important things you can do to keep them in time and on target.

Number 1 – the right position they hold relative to the string. You must have those little sausages out over, and close to, the strings, virtually all the time. Yes, there are some exceptional situations where, for a specific purpose, I will extend fingers high over the string – usually as a way to stretch, relax, or maximize a feeling of legato in slow music.

Yet MOST of the time fingers are right out poised over the strings ready to boogey – especially the fourth finger.

Number 2 – lightness. Many folks use far too much muscle to retain fingers on the string. Heck, most of the time I’m not even pressing the strings down to the fingerboard, even in first position.

Number 3 – considering ALL the fingering choices. Again, most folks – and I was guilty of this for years – don’t take the time to find the easier way. Instead, they either accept the often second rate fingerings provided by the editor or their teacher of 20 years ago, or limit themselves to ones born of laziness or fear.

I was quite lazy about fingerings for many years, until finally certain physical realities set in to rule out inefficient ones for me.

Now I look for every opportunity to go with the flow of my fingers instead of using my will to overpower them. And it’s amazing how many choices start popping up where I saw only one or two previously.

And there you have it: the 3 most important tools to make your fingers’ job as easy as possible.

If you’re an intermediate player and want to REALLY explore these concepts and a whole lot more up close and personal with me, then click on over to the website and take a good look at the Allegro Players program.

It may be just the ticket for you to break through the bad habits and misconceptions that are holding you back from reaching your playing goals.

All the best,
Clayton Haslop

P.S. Think you might not be far enough along for an intermediate program? Then go ahead and “take it from the top” with my Beginners Circle monthly program. This course is also a great way to take a step back and correct the bad habits of earlier years.

When a Dot Means Naught

An interesting question came my way a couple days ago. One of my faithful asked me, “so, what IS the deal with dots over notes? I have a couple editions of Bach that have many staccato indications over notes, yet in recordings I don’t hear any evidence of them.”

This is a good question, really, and there is no simple answer.

You see, articulation marks were virtually unseen in musical manuscripts before the mid-18th century. Even in the 19th they were a something of a rarity in the manuscripts of many composers.

It’s not that performers didn’t play staccato, the technique was well known, it was just that it was left up to the discretion of the performer when and where to do so.

However, as amateurism began to flourish in the 18th and 19th centuries, folks wanted to have more direction in manners of interpretation. And publishers of music were only too happy to oblige; hence editions.

Problem was, they didn’t always agree with one another as to what such things as a ‘dot’ over a note meant. Nor did many composers as they began adding them to their manuscripts.

Today we generally say that a dot over a note shortens the duration of sound by half it’s specified value – the remaining value taken up with silence.

And for much common practice of the 18th-20th century this works as a decent rule of thumb. But certainly not always.

In the music of Brahms, the master used dots over notes to indicate emphasis, rather than staccato. I myself was not aware of this until I brought the Brahms D Minor Sonata to play for Milstein in my early 20s. In the second theme of the first movement there is a great example of Brahms using the dot this way.

But getting back to Bach, and baroque music in general. Here I would take anything you see in most editions – urtext editions less so – with a grain of salt.

When I asked Milstein about some of his slurrings in Bach that didn’t match Bach manuscripts he said, ‘well, I think I’m a better violinist than Bach, and besides, Bach was an improviser. He would not have done the same things every time.’

End of discussion.

This reminds me of an interview I saw on DVD last night with famed film director, Howard Hawk. He said that he would play with scenes until they just ‘”work for me.”’ So there wasn’t any set formula for his creative process, other than being true to some deeply felt, non-quantifiable aesthetic sense within himself.

This must be true of music making.

For a while ‘period practice’ specialists used to criticize Fritz Kreisler for his interpretations of early music. Yet today you hear period performances that are all over the map. There is, and never was the kind of a set formula for the performance of music.

If there was, it would be a dead, wooden thing for sure.

And it’s not that I think everyone should turn a blind eye to musical scholarship. In fact for some this kind of exercise stimulates and enriches creativity. It’s just that one must not mistake ‘knowledge’ for ‘meaning’, if you know what I mean.

So the bottom line is this. If your Bach E Major Preludio wants to come off the string now and then, let it. If not, enjoy playing ‘a la corda’ from top to bottom.

All the best,
Clayton Haslop

P.S. Speaking of Bach’s “Preludio”. I’ve got quite a nice little course to help ‘get your hands’ around it and Kreisler’s “Praeludium and Allegro” that you might just want to check out.

The Left Hand Paradox

Something struck me as a practiced yesterday afternoon. No, it didn’t come flying at me through the air.

It was, rather, a sudden moment of appreciation racing through my brain. And it was quite dizzying, to be honest.

As many of you know, lately I’ve had to ease up and slow down to rehab my left side. Appears I pushed myself too hard too soon after dislocating my shoulder last June; this an added insult to the effects of focal dystonia already challenging my left hand for the past decade or so.

And this brings me to the point of my appreciation. You see, I was playing Kreutzer #2, you know, the one Jack Benny made famous.

And I was playing it real slow and real light.

My goal was to bring every movement within my hand under the conscious control of my mind – one’s muscles and nerves can get to acting quite ‘funny’ after the kinds of trauma I’ve experienced.

Not only that, I wanted my left hand to be absolutely still, relaxed, and well-formed – that is, wrist pretty much straight, fingers curved and out over the string, yes, even the 4th finger.

Then, I asked my fingers to reach to the notes, even when separated by two or three strings.

And that’s when it struck me. The number of finger movement possibilities that exist, in even a relatively simple etude, are mind boggling.

Think about it, let’s say you’re on 1st finger ‘B’ on the ‘A’ string. Now consider the location of every note your fingers might be called to reach from that ‘B’. Then consider the same number of possibilities that would extend from the next note you do choose to take.

So in just four notes of music, one beat of time, perhaps, there must be tens of thousands of possible finger arrangements that can arise – I’ll leave to my father, a mathematician, to do the math.

The point is, the control and flexibility we ask of our hands are extraordinary. It’s a wonder anybody can play in tune or play with any kind of velocity when viewed at such a level.

But we do.

So the question is, how best to assist our body in accomplishing this amazing feat.

This is, in fact, what intelligent practice is all about. So you can forget about the Nike slogan, ‘just do it.’ I mean, that may be fine for a weekend warrior, but it’s not going to do a thing for a real, honest-to-god ‘Yehudi wanna be.’

No to develop real technique you’ve got to get Principled.

And I’m not talking about micro-managing every movement of every muscle forever and ever either. Yet at certain times – say, beginning stages of violin study; and under certain conditions – recovering from injury, or inability to play in tune with velocity – you’ve got to slow down, get clear about what’s what, and put your house in order.

The good news, as I’ve said many times before, is there is nothing quite as rewarding, or feels so good, as making this investment in your musical development. No matter what stage you’re at in the scheme of things.

In a real sense we don’t practice to be perfect. We must practice BEING perfect in order to improve.

Now if you think you might need a little assistance figuring out what ‘practice being perfect’ is all about I might be able to help you. After all, it’s kinda what I’ve spent the past several decades looking into. And what, in the past 3 years, I’ve poured into quite a number of instructional DVD programs geared to all different levels and abilities.

So come, take a look at the whole list ofone-of-kind instructional DVD programs I offer. Then, go get on with practicing.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. And don’t forget about the Violin Mastery Masterclass/Seminar. This is a great time to come and get some ‘up close and personal’ time with me in awesome surroundings.

Fiddle Swapping

I’m sitting at my desk with my daughter watching videos of her earlier days. Pretty cute.

Got a note from a new member of the Violin Mastery clan asking about my violins. Funny thing is, I was going to write about the acquisition of my first ‘concert’ instrument today anyway.

For the first two years of my ‘concert’ career I was very fortunate to have the use of some wonderful violins. The first was a ‘golden period’ Strad belonging to the great American patron of the arts, Richard Colburn.

This was a short loan, specifically to solo with Neville Marriner and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Afterwards I was given the use of a beautiful Carlo Bergonzi. I played it for 2 years, during the time the Los Angeles Piano Quartet came into being.

After that period of time, however, the foundation through which Colburn lent out fine instruments to young players asked for the instrument back. Once your career was launched, or you were out of school for a year or so, the instrument had to be returned.

So the hunt for a violin and financing began.

After a search for several months, the violin I set my sights on was a Josef Guarnerius ‘filius Andre’ – he was the uncle and teacher of ‘Del Gesu,’ the greatest of the Guarneri family.

The violin, and this is in 1982, was priced at $90,000. Fortunately I had the full support of my parents in this, and between them, an aunt, and her little investment group, financing was arranged.

This violin was smooth as silk and even as could be from top to bottom. And it projected very well, even over a full orchestra, due to the remarkable richness of
its overtones.

Yet, just over a year later, I fell in love with another violin – a Carlo Tononi from 1736. It had a wonderful richness to its G string, something lacking in the Guarneri.

And so the buying and selling began. Until I came upon my present beaut, made by Lorenzo Storioni in 1782. This violin, though not quite a ‘golden period’ Strad, is about as close as you can get to one, without spending 3 plus million dollars.

I’ve played on it for 12 years, and I’d say we’ve come to be pretty good friends. One excellent way to enjoy its delicious tone is by investing in the DVD we’ve made available of my most recent recital.

All the best,
Clayton Haslop

P.S. I also play this instrument in my performances of all 42 Kreutzer Etudes.

How to Get a Spic-tacular Spiccato

Just got home from a 3-day spell in Tinseltown, where my colleagues and I put the finishing touches on Michael Giacchino’s wonderful new score for the movie ‘Up’. The score truly is delightful, a throwback to the era of Paul Whiteman and the tuneful music of the ‘30s. Violin solos sprinkled throughout.

Pixar’s ‘Up’ will be coming to theaters near you on May 29.

Speaking of Paul Whiteman. His orchestra gave the world premiere of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, back in 1924. Fifty years later I was privileged to play a recreation of that premier at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, CA. Would you believe, the concertmaster, Curt Diterle, fulfilled the same roll at both performances.

Anyway, let’s talk about spiccato. The secret of this bow stroke lies with timing and form. All too often folks try to force the bow to jump from the string before the real basics are in place.

As you might imagine, the results are less than spictacular.

The ‘jump’ of a spiccato must happen as a natural result of 2 elements – amount of bow and amount of pressure. When the amount of these reach the right proportion, bingo, the bow jumps as if by magic.

If you’re having trouble producing a spiccato you can do nothing better than practice on the string – right around the middle of the bow where you expect it will ultimately bounce the best – with a very concentrated, purely horizontal, detache stroke. The bow should travel the minimum possible distance in each direction to get a clear tone.

Do this practice until the strokes are absolutely even and dependable. Once you are there you may begin to experiment with the amount of arm weight you are providing, the amount of bow used, and the location of the stroke within the bow.

Once you find the happy intersect of these three elements, the bow will do the rest for you.

Now, it’s one thing to get the bow bouncing on one note. It’s another to do it while moving around the violin. Yet the underlying mechanics are the same; bow speed, pressure, even-ness.

An excellent and challenging etude for this is Kreutzer #2. Just remember, you must begin with a spot-on, dead-accurate, detache. The kind you will learn in Vol. 1 my course Kreutzer for Violin Mastery.

And one further thing. Once you’ve got the feel for spiccato you’ll find that you can get it going either from the string or by dropping the bow down to the string. In either case the jump will be maintained by doing what I’ve outlined above.

All the best,
Clayton Haslop

P.S. There are yet a couple of spots available to the Violin Mastery Masterclass/Seminar at the reduced tuition. This is a terrific opportunity to greatly improve your playing in the company of other violin doers.

A Video For St. Patty’s Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Here’s another side of me you haven’t seen before – unicycling while performing Irish jigs in Sedona’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday. I’m playing a ‘folk’ violin that has some innovative features which I’ll tell you about tomorrow.

Right now I’m in Los Angeles recording the action cues for Pixar’s ‘Up.’ The pace of the music is fast and furious.

Before leaving for the Hollywood Studios I received the following little note from Carla wanting some help with a reluctant vibrato. She writes:

“Dear Professor Clayton,

“I have been practicing my vibrato for several weeks now. I can do the wrist vibrato very well when I am resting my wrist against the violin in third position. But when I try to move my hand to first position and try to start my vibrato I have problems getting it going. My wrist seems to lock up and I end up shaking my whole arm, which I know I shouldn’t be doing. Do you have anyway to help with this?

“By the way, I really like all the things you put in your emails.”

Sincerely,
Carla

Carla, if you will recall, about a week ago I talked about a little move I called a ‘hand vibrato.’ The idea of it is to gently clench and unclench your hand while sustaining long tones. Doing this produces a very narrow vibrato effect and allow helps develop flexibility and control of the hand.

Now I want you to start slowly with this and keep it very light and gentle. Once you have the sense of it, gradually increase the speed and allow it to ‘fatten up.’ As you do this you will find that your wrist loosens automatically, and that you will transition into a wrist vibrato.

Keep practicing this approach as you warm up your hand on scales each morning and you will have a beautiful, effortless vibrato before you know it.

All the Best,
Clayton Haslop

P.S. There are still a couple of openings at the reduced tuition in my Turbo-Charge Your Technique Seminar. This is a terrific opportunity to greatly improve your playing in the company of other violin doers. So jump on board Now.

How to Tell a Muscle to Relax

Just spent an hour going back to basics. And I DO mean basics. Open strings, slow scales without vibrato, etc.

Now, before you think, ‘I don’t need this sort of thing, I’m beyond it,’ I’d listen to what you’re going to hear in this newsletter.

99% of violinists playing today would benefit from this kind of review on a regular basis. And I’ll give you an example of why.

In the world of recording for film, ask any concertmaster how to make even whole notes difficult and he or she will say, ‘write ‘solo’ over them.’

Yep, when adrenaline is pumping through your veins, something you’ve taken for granted for years can reach out and bite you, big time. I’ve seen otherwise extraordinary violinists develop ‘the shakes’ over such things.

Now, I can’t tell you how many inquiries I get the have to do with tension, and the results of tension – it’s the over tensing of muscles that gives one the shakes as well as all other many of difficulties on the violin.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the violin has 30% to do with learning how to flex muscle and 70% with how to relax muscle.

So if you want to improve, no matter what age you are, concern yourself with relaxation.

This being said let me try to give you some ideas – by the way, these are for my friend asking about ‘the shakes’ during shifts as well the gentleman asking about tremors in his up bow stroke. And, as I’ve said, 99% of anyone else reading this.

Number one, use the power of your breath. Yea, I know, you’ve read this before here. But I’ll bet most of you reading this forget to do it, or haven’t taken the time to master ‘belly-breathing’ away from the violin to the point it is easy to do while playing. Here’s where you can get some specific info on the technique if you need it. http://www.violinmastery.com/order_breathcontrol.htm

Number 2, slow down. Way down. Today I spent most of my session playing 16th notes as if they were half-notes.

Number 3 – and this is a big one – once you’re in motion on a note and breathing from your diaphragm, be alert for muscle contractions that ANTICIPATE your next move. This is the greatest single obstacle you must overcome as you progress.

There are two reasons this is so. Let’s say your first challenge on the violin is to draw open strings with a good tone. The greatest challenge to doing this is at the extremes of the bow, one finds.
And as a result there is a certain amount of apprehension that develops over it.

Apprehension breeds tension. Yet most of us, in the impatience to move forward, find a way to relegate that fear to the unconscious. The tension and poor habit that result for it remain, but the conscious marker of fear has been dismissed.

Then comes string crossing. Again, there is apprehension, which gets sublimated, and the adoption of poor habits, which form as the body compensates for something not fully mastered.

And this process, continued over years of study, in some cases, leads to where you are today. What I see in the form of ‘mannerisms’ in many professionals, even, are the artifacts of missed opportunities, really; that is, missed opportunities to fully ‘listen to’ and address apprehensions fully as we go about learning.

The good news is, it’s never too late to go back and address the effects of ‘bodily apprehensions’, if you will.

As I said above, the first step is getting into a relaxed state to begin with. Hence the breathing.

Then play slowly, and evenly. Yes, my counting technique can be used to excellent effect here. It’s a way of getting yourself focused ‘on the now’ – a rather clichéd expression, but true nonetheless.

Once you’re in this space you can open your feeling sense to the ‘anticipations’ that lead you into tension. Even in attempting to hold a note steady you may find unwanted muscles turning on, especially if you’ve begun entertaining the note to follow.

And there is your opportunity, handed to you as if on a platter. Now you can breathe and exercise the power of your mind to let go.

Be patient, sometimes the offending muscle(s) will come back at you after you initially direct it to relax. This is VERY common.

Once this process becomes a hallmark of your practice your results will skyrocket. And if you’d like a good companion in the process I can’t think of anything better than a review of my Beginners Circle course which, by the way, has just been reduced 11% to make it even more of a value in these challenging times.

All the best,

Why I’m Following My Own Advice

I’ve been behaving a little bit silly the past couple of months. And the reason I say this may have something very worthwhile for you to consider.

You see, a couple of months ago, as my left side felt like it recovering from my accident of last May, I began to push myself on the violin. I thought it was time to get back to my usual playing diet, consisting of much Paganini, and Bach.

After a while I began to feel things were requiring more effort, and my discomfort while playing was increasing. Having some film commitments to meet I ignored the signs and tried to – and I dislike admitting this – force my way through.

Big mistake.

By the Academy Award show I felt like my left arm was being put into a meat grinder every time a lifted the violin to play. Yet not feeling I had any choice at that point, I did my best to ‘grin and bear it.’

After I returned home I took several days away from the instrument. I think this helped me come to my senses.

Now I’ve ramped down my physicality on the instrument by a couple orders of magnitude while at the same time maintaining or even increasing the use of mental imaging I teach in every course I’ve ever put out.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying that all physical discomfort one experiences while mastering the violin is to be avoided. After all, most of us have some ‘stretching out’ to do as we improve. And that can feel uncomfortable, at times.

But discomfort that does not ease, or even increasing, is to be ignored at one’s peril.

Yes, it is an easy trap to fall into, especially when some kind of deadline looms in front of you – performance, audition, recording commitments, what-have-you.

And the older we are – I forget I’m not 20 any more – the more vigilant we must become.

In a way I feel like I’m eating a little ‘humble pie’ here; and it actually tastes pretty darn good. My practice session today felt quite productive, just some slow, quiet scales, Kreutzer #9, and some glissando work, in fact.

Getting back to these basics, in the way I’m doing them, has been a fresh reminder of how good my advice to you has been.

Sure glad I’m back to following it myself!

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. For those of you who are intermediate players and are having tension issues in your left hand, you will find what I have to say in volume 1 of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery very helpful.