The Bane of Progress

I have a word for you. It signifies what is the greatest slayer of excellence known to Man. Its definition – ‘simultaneous conflicting feelings’. So, what is it?

If you’ve thought to yourself, ‘Ambivalence’, give yourself a pat on the back.

The elimination of ambivalence, both psychological and physical, is the biggest challenge to face the mature violinist. Yesterday I spoke of ‘resistance’. Well, the source of resistance is ambivalence.

Now, You obviously have interest and passion for the violin; you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t. And you have made some, or maybe much, progress on the instrument.

But there are things inside holding you back.

Psychologically, they can take the form of doubts and second guesses – e.g. ‘I’m not capable of excelling at this’, or, ‘Other people aren’t really going to enjoy listening to this’.

Physically, they manifests in incoherent movement – e.g. extraneous motions, or background muscle tension.

I know I’m going out on a limb here, but I’ll even go so far as to say many nervous and repetitive stress disorders – yes, even focal dystonia – are byproducts of the long term, pernicious effects of ambivalence.

My own personal experience is bearing this out. Yet I’m amazed at what I’ve been able to learn from the process. I’m a better violinist and musician than I’ve ever been.

And I can tell you this much. Confronting the ‘bane of excellence’ requires a tremendous commitment to truth; both psychological AND physical.

You must have great patience and a burning desire to DO – I know I’ve said these things before. But the fact is, and you must be relentless in embracing this next statement, where there is a Will there IS a Way.

I hope you uttered a big ‘Yes’ to that. I also hope that you will be picking up you violin today with a renewed energy. The quest for pure finger, hand, and arm movements, and for pure, heartfelt musical commitment is the quest for the Holy Grail itself for a violinist.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. ”Kreutzer for Violin Mastery” is as good a map as you will find to guide you on this journey. It’s born of considerable experience. Trust in what it asks you to do and you will be greatly rewarded.

Some Questions Answered

I’ve had some questions regarding the half-day ‘intensive’. Specifically people want to know what I have in mind for them. Well, let me shed some light here.

What I’m finding is that many players have difficulty experiencing ‘flow’. They can’t experience it because they are prevented from attaining full consciousness when playing.

And they cannot be fully conscious because inefficiencies (bad habits) in their playing make it impossible to be so.

Think of it this way. Technical inefficiencies are like faulty connections in an electrical circuit. Until the connections are completely cleaned, the potential flow of electricity through the circuit is diminished.

Unfortunately for most of us, I include myself here, the power of resolution needed to seek out and eliminate that resistance (and enable ‘flow’) is simply beyond our experience. I was fortunate, however, and had three years with Milstein to put me a good way down the road.

Simply put, then, the ‘intensive’ is now in place to give players the power of observation needed to eliminate inefficiencies, and enable ‘flow’. Of course, there is quite a bit of pedagogy that will be included, but more importantly, it is the way in which the mind ‘observes’ the process of playing that is critical. And that is the primary focus.

Yes, you hear me talking about this on the DVDs (visualization). And I provide mental tools (breathing and counting) and technical details that are essential to the mix. But it’s a fact that most players require some measure of personal inter-action to Maximize the utility of all the above.

These are the gaps the Masterclasses, and now the private ‘intensive’, are there to fill.

I’ve also had questions about the logistics involved. Well, for some it may be possible to fly here in the morning, have an afternoon session, and get home the same day. For most, I imagine, an overnight stay and one-day car rental is unavoidable.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Don’t forget, the DVD courses are what make the difference between a one-on-one session being just another ‘lesson’ and being something that pulls it all together in a major way. As I said yesterday, I won’t even schedule a private session, or allow a player into the masterclass, that doesn’t at least have Vol. 1 of ”Kreutzer for Violin Mastery”.

Set Your Bow Free Part II

OK, couple more things about the ‘fast bow exercise’.

So, tip to frog, rapid strokes. You’re putting the tip where the frog was, the frog where the tip was, back and forth. No spaces between the notes. No finger movements. The wrist, elbow, and upper arm merely respond to the movement of the hand through space.

Pay attention here. Do not put pressure on the string. If fact, think of playing at about a ‘mp’ dynamic. Make sure you go all the way to the frog and don’t crunch the sound at the change of bow. That means, Stay Horizontal.

Once you are ‘freed up’ try slurring 4 notes to a bow – your bow speed will now be one fourth as fast – while keeping the same mechanics in place.

If you are successful in doing the above, all the kinks and unwanted tension should have dissipated.

By the way, this exercise came back to me while preparing for a three hour, highly focused coaching I gave to one of my very special clients.

Dr. Taylor has a very successful ministry in which she incorporates her violin playing with special music she has created. What is truly remarkable about her, is this. She has played all her life; enjoys a very successful career; and yet is committed to rebuilding her playing from the ground up in order to progress to the next level.

Our session together was incredibly productive.

So productive, in fact, that I’ve decided to make them available to all who are currently working with one of my courses.

If you’re interested in such an ‘intensive’, contact me by phone or email to discuss the details.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. If you’re still without the program that banishes tension, builds highly effective and efficient fundamentals, and gives you rock solid rhythm and confidence in your playing; the kind of playing that melts hearts and wows fellow violinists, you may get started in a matter of days by ordering your copy today.

How To Set Your Bow Free

Many years ago I felt the need to ‘free up’ my bow arm. What I did was as simple as it was effective. Here’s what you do.

After you’ve warmed up on a scale for a few minutes begin playing the scale with separate bows. Begin at, say, 120 ppm with each beat getting a full bow. If you can’t control the bow at this tempo – it moves wildly between the bridge and fingerboard – find the tempo that’s right for you.

Now, once you have a tempo you can play the scale with separate, full bows tip to frog while staying relaxed, gradually increase the tempo.

Remember, the shoulder must be relaxed and down; the elbow joint fully relaxed; the wrist fully relaxed. What you will focus on is moving the hand up and down in a straight, horizontal line.

Perhaps first you want to use a two-octave scale and remain in first position. Once your pumping up and down quickly, and staying in control, move to a three octave scale. Then add arpeggios.

If you really think you’re hot, try doing it in harmonics – the contact with the string is much more ‘slippery’.

Do this for 5 minutes, several days in a row, and you will have yourself a much freer bow arm, guaranteed.

But remember this, you must stay relaxed, move the bow Horizontally, and use minimal – if any – finger movements.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. The above is just one of many, many techniques I have to liberate your playing. For a plethora of effective, there is not a more comprehensive DVD course available than ”Kreutzer for Violin Mastery”.

How to Draw a Living Tone

Just as the way we take someone’s hand in welcome reveals what feelings we hold for that person, the way we take up our bow to produce a sound determines what result we will achieve on the violin.

The other day I entered a recording studio in Los Angeles after an absence of several months. Needless to say I was seeing many colleagues I hadn’t seen for some time.

I did quite a bit of hand shaking.

Suddenly I realized something Very profound. I was sending a powerful communication through my handshake. Sometimes it was warm and embracing, and sometimes it was forced and quite artificially vigorous.

Once I realized this I took a nice deep belly breath. Then I asked one fellow, whose hand I had only moments before released, if I might take it again.

Yes, he was taken aback for a moment. But when I smiled at him and stated that I had something more to supply his hand, he smiled back and entered into the spirit of a new exchange.

During the moments it took to breath, I had given him my full attention and considered what my highest aspirations for him were. When I took his hand in mine for the second time, there was a difference.

Now, think of taking up your bow.

You want to have in mind your highest aspirations for your sound when you do. Anger, tension, insecurity, fear, judgment, all can be released in one good breath and replaced with whatever it is you desire in that moment; strength, flexibility, curiosity, caring, the list goes on.

The quality and quantity of energy you transmit through your hand and into the bow is the quality of energy that gets transmitted from the violin to the listener’s ear. It’s as simple as that.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. The Masterclass/Seminars are really taking shape now. Come get on board express train to virtuosity!

How to Create Meaning

If you want to sleep better at night, do more work.
If you want meaning in your life, work at what you enjoy.

Just thought I would put that out there. Also, I think many may not have received my first newsletter. Here it is once again, in case you missed it:

‘…Last night I asked a friend and fellow violinist what she thought was the most difficult part of playing violin. She thought for a moment and said, ‘keeping up my practice.’

It wasn’t really what I expected, and I was a little taken aback. But after sleeping on it, I think she hit on a dilemma that touches us all, at one time or another.

You see, my friend is really saying the following. ‘The violin does not hold enough meaning for me. And I don’t have a strong enough reason to maintain the dedication it requires to excel at it.’

If you can relate to this you’re definitely not alone. I myself have felt these sentiments on occasion.

What I have learned about this is that I am the only one that can create the meaning. And the key to meaning, ironically perhaps, is meaningful doing.

When we talk ‘meaningful doing’ on the violin we’re talking about opening hearts. Yours, of course, is the most important one. A close second, however, are the hearts in the community which surrounds you.

No matter what your technical ability, you can find music, even the simplest of melodies, with which to unlock the heart of a fellow human being.

If you saw the Academy Awards show you heard the absolutely sublime melody Morricone wrote for the movie ‘The Mission’. Incredible.

Remember, putting it out there is important. And it’s not difficult to do it. Call the nearest nursing care facility and I guarantee you can have a performance set up in a matter of minutes. If that’s too much for you, take your fiddle the next time you go to a friend’s home. They will love you for it.

Now, if you get paid for touching other people, all the better. If you don’t, and Need to, find a way. People will shower you with support if you speak to their hearts. You can trust me on that.’

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Don’t forget that my mastercasses are currently available at a very special rate. What you take home with you will inform the fruits of your music making for a lifetime. All you need think about is, ‘who will I be sharing this joy with?’

Silence the Critic Within

The critic I’m talking about today is not the constructive evaluator that assists you in making forward progress in your playing.

No, the critic I’m talking about is the one the sits in judgment, depleting and disabling your passion and confidence. The one that isn’t interested in helping you improve. Only in tearing you down.

I can’t tell you how many times, in my younger days, I allowed that voice to turn a minor error into a major derailment. I’d be playing along in a concert, make a small error, and find myself drowning in a raging sea of self-loathing and inadequacy.

If you have one of those critics inside, you have my permission and whole-hearted encouragement to fire him/her, effective immediately.

For most of us, however, that’s easier said then done. The little bugger was born of some past authority figure, after all.

It doesn’t listen to YOU. You listen to IT. You don’t have the real power, IT does.

So, chances are you will never silence the critic by pushing it out. In fact, the ‘will-power’ approach will often lead to further frustration and greater feelings of powerlessness.

What you must do is suffocate it out of existence. You must focus so powerfully on your playing visualizations that there is literally no air left to sustain a competing voice.

In short, you’re going to grow your way out.

And many a fiddler are doing just this at break-neck speed by using the practice strategies, focus techniques, and detailed playing images found in ”Kreutzer for Violin Mastery”.

If you don’t have it, you may be pushing a locomotive uphill. And unnecessarily at that. After all, this program is the fruit of four decades of my playing experience and includes much wisdom passed to me from one of the greatest ever.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

When Your Practice Begins

I would venture to say that most violinists think that their practice sessions begin after the violin the case has been opened, the violin tuned, the music set out on the stand, and the first note has been drawn.

Not me.

My practice sessions begin in the very instant the decision to practice has been made. Right then and there the mental ‘warm-up’ begins.

As I climb the stairs to the second floor of our house I’m hearing tone and feeling the horizontal travel of the bow. As I unzip the case I feel the strings under the fingers of my left hand, the rate of oscillation my vibrato will take when I draw the first tones.

As I’m doing the above, or some variant of them, I’m also sensing what the most appropriate music is for me to begin with. Most often it is some form of scale playing, but certainly not always.

Sometimes I will begin with a Paganini Caprice, or a tricky concerto passage that has been on my mind.

You never know, after all, when you’ll be called on to play. It’s good to be flexible, and to know how to connect with your hands without benefit of a physical warm-up.

Over the weekend I was asked to play several times in the course of a non-music seminar we attended. With one exception – I did insist on a little warm-up before the 24th Caprice – I had to take the stage absolutely cold.

Let me tell you, the mental game becomes very important in these situations. And that’s why you want to practice ramping up your mental engagement any time a decision to play has been made.

One last thing, in a few hours I’ll be sending you another email. It’ll be something to consider very seriously.

Keep a good look-out.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Hopefully the U.S. Postal Service is getting back to normal after the tremendous volume of Violin Mastery shipments last week. I think the coast is clear now for those sensitive types out their who haven’t yet ordered ”Kreutzer for Violin Mastery, Vol. 3 and 4” out of regard for the backs of mail carriers.

Magnify Your Intentions, Part II

Just looked up the definition of ‘intention’. He’s what it says about it in my Webster’s – ‘a determination to act in a certain way.’

Now let me tell you what I did in my practice session this morning.

I processed, and I trotted.

Sounds odd, doesn’t it; but here’s what I really accomplished. I enlisted the aid of my lower body to bring greater intention to the task of playing the violin. I felt incredibly strong and vitalized after doing this. And the music making went Deep, let me tell you.

There was, actually, an additional reason I chose to move during my practice today.

Tonight I will play the Adagio and Presto movements of the Bach G Minor Sonata for attendees at a seminar being conducted here in Asheville by a friend. Most of them won’t be what you might call ‘classical music affectionatos.’

But all of them will have some familiarity with breathing, movement, and using their imagination.

This is what I have in store for them.

In the Adagio movement I will have them visualize a large pendulum swinging back and forth at the rate of the quarter tempo – it’s Very broad. Simultaneously they will be encouraged to ‘belly-breathe.’

In the Presto movement I will suggest they visualize themselves riding in a horse-drawn buggy. The horse will be moving at a quick trot – e.g. the eighth note tempo of the movement.

They will be invited to allow these to inform their experience of the music.

As they do those two things I will be processing, and trotting, around the room playing the movements.

In essence, the experience will be a meditation – listening consciously to great music always is, actually.

I don’t know about you, but I think Bach would approve. He certainly wrote plenty of processionals in his time. And I bet the various gaits horses move in were an integral part of his life experience.

In any case, try bringing a little lower body movement into your practice. See if it doesn’t magnify your intentions.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Well, volumes 3 and 4 of ”Kreutzer for Violin Mastery” are spreading out all over the globe, even as I write this. If you did not order yours during pre-publication I can still assure you it is a tremendous bargain; even if I’d doubled what I ask for it – don’t worry, I didn’t. And the fee fo

Have No Fear When Shifts Are Near

A student of ‘body language’ knows that a person telling you a lie, especially a child, will have great difficulty looking you in the eye when doing so.

It’s simply a natural instinct within us to avoid, or deny, what causes us discomfort. For most of us lying is quite uncomfortable.

This reflex plays out in violin playing as well.

The other night my wife quartet received its second performance; this time in Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress – by the way, I learned after the concert that Bartok’s 4th string quartet and Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’ were both commissioned by the Library and given their world premieres in same venue.

As a group the quartet plays quite wonderfully. But looking at the first violinist’s technique there is one area in which he is in need of work.

You guessed it, shifting.

From an early age many of us acquire a fear surrounding playing out of tune. Shifts magnify that anxiety, for obvious reasons. This anxiety leads to a ‘fight or flight’ response.

The ‘fight or flight’ response results in decreased body awareness. Decreased body awareness results in unattractive body movements that in turn result in unattractive sounds coming out of the violin.

The player may end up playing ‘in tune’, but yet ‘tuning out’ the unsightly bulges of sound proceeding the shift movement.

Here’s the good news. You can have your cake and eat it too.

With a combination of patience and awareness you can transform shifts from ‘stabs in the dark’ to highly efficient and/or expressive devices.

Of course in the Kreutzer series I talk quite a bit about this. But just to get you started, remember that the shifting movements of your left forearm must not affect your bow speed. Nor should the downward pressure on the bow change at the moment of movement.

Whether you make a lightning fast and seamless movement from one position to another, or a slow expressive slide, the right arm must go about it’s business supplying a constant and even stream of sound.

Plain and simple.

Tune in to these and you will spare your audience the effort of ‘tuning out’ in order to enjoy the music coming from your instrument.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop