The best laid plans. This morning I was looking forward to getting my daughter off to school, having a nice, full practice session, and then sitting down to write.

It didn’t happen that way.

To make a long story short, I just finished a penmanship lesson with Claire, who convinced me that her ‘cold’ was worthy of a day away from school. Needless to say, it doesn’t mean we sit around in front of a tele all day. After I get this little note off to you we’ll turn our attention to reading.

My practice session will have to wait.

So here’s the deal with trills. I believe that the ultimate speed at which one is able to trill, is determined by God.

And yet more importantly, the Clarity, and ultimately the effectiveness of our trill, is up to us.

Now there are folks out there who, when you say ‘trill’, give the impression someone just pressed a doorbell. It’s that fast and effortless.

Yet often the challenge that falls to such people is that of getting control or variability to it; a blazingly fast trill can be out of character some music; a Mozart Andante being one good example.

Most of us are faced with the opposite problem; how to develop the finger reflex we’ve been given to convey an impression of something more.

There are two things that enable this; technique and smart planning.

On the technical side one must resist the urge to press the vibrato into service in an attempt to amplify the finger’s natural reflex. Invariably the result of this will be a muddy, featureless blur; I can guarantee no one is going to be fooled or impressed.

The best approach is always to stay with the finger; keeping it as light and clean as it can possibly be. The more relaxed you are the better will be the result.

What you CAN do, after you’ve isolated the finger motion to a high degree, is experiment with the height you take it above the string. Yet in doing so one must remember to keep the hand relaxed, otherwise it will devolve back into a knot of frustration.

The other side of the trill coin involves planning. If you focus on a given pre-determined of oscillations for the trill – assuming it’s duration is a beat or less, and allow yourself to visualize the entire event each time you arrive to it, you may find yourself ‘tricking’ your finger into doing more than you thought possible.

This requires patience, relaxation and focus, yet I myself am constantly surprised by the results I get from doing just this.

Now, there are countless etudes and studies devoted to trills. Yet there are none more enjoyable and satisfying than those found in Kreutzer. In volume 2 of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery I take you through all manner of possibilities; measured, unmeasured, prepared, with terminations and without terminations.

Though challenging indeed, these etudes can really clean and polish a trill beautifully.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. There are those that believe in practicing trills using various rhythms. I haven’t mentioned this here because I do not feel they really produce the results I’m after. Kreutzer for Violin Mastery does.

Ah, where to begin. This morning I continued my Kreutzer review focusing for some 40 minutes or so on #18 – it’s in volume 2 of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery.

On first glance it looks like just another trill study; there are 10 in this section of Kreutzer’s book of etudes.

On second, third, fourth glance, however, it becomes much, much more. And on one of the deeper levels it’s about leveraging ‘timing’ to create the complete illusion of force, or power.

In fact, powerful playing on the violin is almost COMPLETELY illusion. If, in the search for ‘power’ on the violin, one brings more and more muscle to bear, the results can quickly devolve into cacophony.

Not something most of us want.

Rather, the secret of creating power-full effects on the instrument lies in timing, and the very precise use of small, yet focused amounts of ‘muscle.’

Kreutzer #18 is a great case in point.

In the middle of the etude there is an extended passage of ‘prepared’ trills with little ornaments at the end of each that take you to the next one. The whole passage has the implied expressive marking of ‘con forza’ – ‘with force’.

However if physical force is what one brings to it, unless he or she happens to be a 20 year old dynamo, I can almost guarantee one’s left hand and arm will freeze up solid in short order trying to play this passage.

If, on the other hand, you use the muscle between your ears to ‘problem solve’ – i.e. Lighten the finger pressure to a minimum, and sharpen the timing of the grace notes, bowing accents and ornaments – something quite force-full can emerge.

Now, this is just one small example of using LESS to create the effect of MORE.

I do the same with literally every aspect of my playing, whether it’s vibrato, triple stopping or playing ‘gran detache.’

The real power comes from the powerhouse lying between my ears. Of using it to maximize the efficiency of every inflexion and movement my arms, hands and fingers make.

Keep your attention on this and your playing will take off like gangbusters, only to be outpaced by the pleasure you’re getting from it.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. You know, there’s a very nice discount to take advantage of when you invest in all 4 volumes of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery.

This morning I was doing a little viewing on Youtube for fun. In the course of things I listened to Perlmann play Paganini’s Caprice #5. I say listened because his performance of the Caprice was taken from a LP recording done some 35 years ago.

Youtube wasn’t around then, as you may recall.

And in case you don’t know the tune, the bulk of it is a running stream of 16th notes that are performed quite rapidly. The tempo indication is ‘presto.’

And the effect of a brilliant performance such as Perlmann’s on a casual listener can be quite exhilarating indeed.

Yet this morning I didn’t listen casually. I became an ‘informed listener,’ a participant, if you will. I stayed with him, in my head, playing right along side him, note for note.

And as I did so I was aware of a very pleasurable ‘tickling’ sensation inside my brain. A sensation clearly produced by the firing up of the neural networks I’ve set in place for this piece of music over the years.

There was a brief section, however, where the party stopped. It was only for some 5 seconds or so, and had I been actually playing along on my violin my fingers would have carried me right through.

But there it was, made all the more apparent by my NOT having the violin in my hands.

So after he finished I resisted the urge I had to grab my violin and play it. Instead I retrieved the music – which I haven’t looked at in quite a while, sat down, and re-entered the missing data.

Then I put the music aside and rehearsed it a few times. Again, only in my head, going back several measures in front and ‘playing’ right through the offending section.

After I became satisfied I could nail it, I hit the play button once again on the maestro’s performance.

Ah, sweet success.

Just goes to show that some of the most useful practice time you will ever spend is time where you only Think of playing. When you do so you are perfecting the art of visualization.

And you’ll really know you’re getting somewhere when that little ‘tickle’ starts flitting around inside your skull whilst doing it.

Why, I had one go through now just thinking about thinking about playing.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

Several days ago, whilst still in LA, my little family and I spent an evening at the home of a remarkable musician/song-writer/producer. Now, as if playing five or six instruments weren’t enough, Chris recently decided it was time to tackle the violin as well.

In the course of the evening our violins came out and I had a look at what he was doing. His bow-hold, and upper arm were working quite nicely.

What needed serious attention, however, is what connects the constellation of Orion to one’s bow arm, at least in my mind.

As he drew the bow up and down there was a glaring problem. His wrist joint was almost frozen; not a particularly good thing if you care to use the entire length of the bow without it weaving across the strings like a snake on steroids.

So what I said to him is what I say to everyone viewing month 1 of ‘Beginners Circle.’ That is, ‘imagine three points; one on your hand just below the wrist joint, one on the first knuckle of your index finger, and one on the second knuckle of your index finger’ – just below where the bow stick crosses the finger.

Then I said, ‘I think of them like they were the 3 stars that make up Orion’s belt.’

Now, as soon as I said that I thought to myself, ‘He’s going to think THAT a strange comment.’ Yet I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chris said, ‘Great, now I’ve got stars in my hand. What a cool thing.’

You see I find poetic metaphors like this one to be most useful in my practice. If I’ve got stars traveling through space in my bow arm I imagine they add a little radiance to the tone I’m making.

In short, such images inspire me to take what could be a rather pedantic concept magnify it to where it does more than just straighten out a bow stroke.

Now some folks might find such thinking burdensome or unnecessary. They may only want to understand what to do with those 3 points.

Something you just might care to know as well.

What is done with those stars, or points, is to draw them through the entire length of the bow stroke without them changing their orientation relative to the bow stick – using the middle of the bow as the point of reference.

If one does this the wrist will flex forward and backward the way it should, staying within the two dimensional plane of movement for each string.

Now, if this kind of basic instruction is what you’ve been missing – and a little poetic imagination appeals to you – then I think you an excellent candidate for my instructional DVD course called the Beginners Circle.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. One or two more things. We are never talking a ‘death grip’ on the bow. Nor are we talking about making a religion out of what I just talked about. We’re talking, rather, about relaxing and allowing the bow to travel from stem to stern in the most efficient manner possible. With all the arm joints flexing to accommodate a stable bow hold in the right hand.