How to Play for Hollywood

Yesterday I received an inquiry from a gifted 17-year-old violinist looking to play for motion pictures. Here’s what I have to say about it.

First off, it’s important to know that there is no formal audition, as there is for regular orchestral positions. A recording artist in Hollywood exists in the business solely by the regard orchestra contractors and other players have for his or her playing and ability to work productively with others.

Naturally your playing must be ‘top drawer’ to become a regular. Yet equally important is the ability to be a team player; to take an interest in each and every project you are called for.

Sometimes this can be difficult, believe me. The temptations are many that lead to complacency and indifference in the often tedious process of making movies.

And once you have let your professionalism slip, even a little bit, it can be difficult to recover.

Especially in the eyes of your colleagues.

Now, to get a reputation in town one must get out and play concerts. Contractors and colleagues DO appreciate those who are out in the ‘real world’ proving and improving themselves.

For a young violinist, playing in the local professional ensembles is a must, as are participation in chamber music and solo recitals.

I was 18 years old when I began working in film. And largely it came about from my successfully becoming a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Granted, I may have gone a little over board when I showed up at the first rehearsal in a suit and tie – one of my colleagues gets great amusement out of recalling that day.

Yet my enthusiasm and respect did not go unnoticed, and within weeks I was being called to play on major motion pictures.

Now, I feel compelled to let my young friend know that things have changed in recent years. The number of major motion pictures and television shows being recorded in LA is down significantly – we can thank the globalization of the musical market place for that.

My hope is that things will swing back our way soon, at least to some extent. Hollywood is still the center of motion picture production. And it remains THE place where you can find an incredible diversity of highly talented musicians ready and able to record a score in very short order.

In fact it is just that ability, to read and come to terms with complex music quickly and efficiently, that is the recording artist’s greatest calling card.

This largely acquired skill comes by constantly refining how and what you think about, when music is set in front of you.

Toward this end I advise advanced players looking to increase their game to really consider investing in my course, Paganini for Violin Virtuosity, Vol. 1. In it you will learn the kind of thinking that enabled me rise to the top of a very challenging and competitive area of music making.

Oh yes, and since we’ve been speaking of music in film, this year you might just want to check out the Academy Award show. I will be the concertmaster of the orchestra providing music for the star’s on this grand occasion.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. You know, Milstein used to talk a lot to me about efficient practice. A lot of the advice you will find in my Paganini course came straight from the master himself.

Go Finger

In the US of A we are celebrating a national holiday in honor of the civil rights movement and its central figure, Martin Luther King, Jr.. The Holiday exalts the finest achievement of Man; namely, the triumph of spirit over flesh.

I find that it means more to me with each passing year.

And I do pray that our new administration and too profligate nation rally now to the cause, as never before

Now let’s talk violin playing.

These days I’m finding the line – no pun intended on my last newsletter – between what is appropriate to do with a separate finger versus the same finger is becoming increasingly blurred.

Now it’s good, me thinks, to receive a solid foundation in position playing; that is, in changing pitch through changes of finger. One should know first position, second position, third position, etc. as well as one’s hand will possibly allow. There are plenty of places where digital facility is a godsend.

Yet when the digits can’t or won’t play ball – as can happen in cases of arthritis and focal dystonia – it’s nice to have alternatives.

Two alternatives, actually.

There’s the use of ‘same finger playing,’ and there’s the clever art of string crossing. Both can take up the slack, or even out perform the digital approach when it comes to getting around the violin.

This is not the end of left hand technique, mind you. It is really multi-dimensional expansion of technique. Each direction you move in has its own set of rules. The more pure and efficient are your rules the greater the rewards you reap.

Now, where it comes to position playing there is no better place for an intermediate player to ‘cut his/her teeth’ than with the Kreutzer Etudes. My course, Kreutzer for Violin Mastery will liberate your left hand digits to realize their fullest potential. It’s an important, important step in the process.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. If you’re a lower intermediate player, however, you may want to join the Allegro Players program of violin learning. Over the course of a year’s study you’ll get a foundation to serve a lifetime of playing.

How to Extend a Line

Here I am, sitting in my studio watching a great day take shape. Already got in a good practice before the sun came up. Hope you’re doing as well.

So here we go.

The art of ‘extending a line’ lies at the very essence of communication. Yep, whether you’re telling a joke, or playing the Op. 94 quartet of Beethoven – ‘Serioso’ – the way you play the line, the line of underlying sense, determines how effectively you will communicate with whomever listens.

When I study music, one of the greatest concerns I have is identifying the musical line of the music and doing my utmost to say as much as can be said with it.

You might just call it ‘modulating the line.’

In order to do so I’ve got to be as honest as is humanly possible with myself. I’ve got to want to explore thoroughly what lies in the darkest corners of my technique and my musical understanding.

Now, there are many banes to playing a meaningful line. The one that I’d like to focus on here, though, has to do with crossing strings. Especially when over 2 or 3 strings. And when a shift is involved you really have to watch this.

There is a great temptation to rush the string crossing; to leave the station early; to telegraph the punch.

Oh, does that ever let an audience off the hook. Whatever tension, expectation, suspense, or growing emotion that was there is suddenly broken.

All you’ve got left after such an event is polite listening behavior.

Yet when you’ve sought out every last string crossing or shift that breaks your line, and you’ve made transformed them into the opportunity they REALLY are, you’re ready for business, big time.

Kreutzer #9 is a great place to face down this little demon. There is no better Etude in the world to learn how to hold a line; IF, and this is a big IF, you know what you are looking to do. Utterly.

Volume 1 of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery covers this and all manner of other techniques you need to learn to play the violin in spades.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop
P.S. Etude #11 is the second best etude for carrying a musical line through shifts and changes of string

Gotta Love Those Wings

I’m pleased to tell, right now, that because you opened this newsletter you’re violin playing just got better. Read on.

A couple days ago I had an inquiry from one of my Violin Mastery Beginners Circle students wanting to know more about the one-finger playing and the shifting motion that makes it possible.

As a result I’m going to turn you on to something that’s not even in the ‘Allegro Players’; yet.

First off, let me ask you when the last time you tried to fly was. For most of you, some time, I imagine.

So it’d be a good idea if you rose out of your chair, bent over parallel to the floor, and got some air in your feathers, right now.

Go ahead, flap with an extended rigid arm a couple of times. Now slow it down and feel which muscle(s) raise your arm; those are the very ones you will use to move the left hand/arm up and down the fingerboard.

Only difference is, your upper arm is more wrapped around the front of your body to play the violin.

It’s a yoga-like thing; it all stems from the middle of your back.

Your arm, hand and fingers merely stay balanced. They maintain they’re ‘attitude’ to the string while your ‘wings’ do the flying.

Those muscles are very strong, mind you, once you have control over them they can do amazing things for you. And fast, too.

Now you have the real secret of legato playing, at least where the left side is concerned. You also have the secret of controlled, accurate shifts.

You see, it’s not ‘in the wrist’, as people like to say. So the next time someone compliments your beautifully expressive portamenti you will answer, ‘It’s all in the wings.’

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. I am going into this in considerable detail in the Allegro Players. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. Just imagine what moving pictures of one who slides with the best of them could do for you. Especially when I do it in slow motion.

Biava Quartet Scores Big

You know, Sedona isn’t all beautiful red rock views and crystal shops. One can also hear some pretty fine music making. Yesterday was a case in point.

The four players, Austin Hartman, Hyunsu Ko, Mary Persin, and Jason Calloway, gave sensational performances of Mozart’s ‘Hunt’, Ginastera Quartet No. 1,’ and Grieg’s ‘Quartet in G Minor, Op 27.’

With the exception of slight stutterings in the Mozart, a few beginnings and endings of phrases, the ensemble was spot-on the whole afternoon; their intonation in unisons, uncanny; and the energy, watch out.

Yep, two thumbs up. Go out of you way, if you have to, but get out and see them.

Now, this morning I was continuing with an experiment. It’s progressed from hypothesis, through research and development, to laboratory testing, and is almost ready for field-testing.

Not to worry, I’m not going to blow myself up.

What I’m doing is learning my repertoire in a new way. I’m playing it with one finger.

Yep, one finger, and I plan to do it on the unicycle too, eventually.

Now, before you commit me to an asylum or the wastebasket of your email program, hear me out. This is not the screwy machinations of a Sedona crystal hugger – in some of the shops they ARE big enough to hug.

If you remember Bobby McFarrin you’ll know where I’m going with this. He used to vocalized all manner of instrumental music. And it was Spectacular, from my view.

So here I am, playing the instrument closest to the human voice, and hardly EVER taking advantage of the greatest advantage the two share; pure legato. That is, one pitch can flow seamlessly to another.

Now, the thing is, for it to really work, at the artist level, one has to understand something of process. You’ve got to have technique.

And to acquire the technique you’ve got to understand a thing our two about body control, and how to get it.

It’s the kind of technical understanding I’m getting into deeply with my Allegro Players program these days.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to turn everybody into one-finger-wonders here. It’s all part of liberating yourself to learn the violin.

But what you will take away, with even a basic understanding of the principles involved, is a much greater ability to express yourself on the violin. Your technique will just be BETTER, plain and simple.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Now for those of you still learning to WALK around the violin, you may get your steps in Ballroom shape by heading over THIS WAY.

The Art of the Sidestep

Don’t know how the weather looks for you, today, but out here in paradise we’re looking at another day of weather perfection; sunny, and in the mid-fifties.

Now, I know you weren’t looking for a Sedona weather report when you opened this, yet I had to throw it in. It’s just too beautiful out.

In any case, today I’m going to talk about one of the greatest lessons I learned from Milstein. You could call it ‘the art of the sidestep.’

This is where you see that you have a difficulty. In fact you’ve examined your difficulty from many angles; slowly, lightly, forcefully, with this in mind, with that in mind. To no avail.

Now enter the sidestep, if up-bow spiccato is not your thing you say to yourself, ‘Is there anything else a can do here that creates as good or better an effect.’

Milstein did just much of his repertoire, most folks just don’t know where to listen. ‘After all,’ he would say the case of a non violin playing composer, ‘who knows how to play violin best?’

Sir Thomas Beecham, to digress, I know, was famous for changing the music. He even said, ‘I always made changes.’

Now don’t get me wrong. I only change the music when I perceive a violinistic or musical reason for it. And if I can’t come with something that sounds as good or better, and is easier for me to execute, I pick up a new piece of music.

Let’s take stiff fingers that find reluctance playing the ‘Minute’ Waltz’ of Chopin. Guess what, it’s possible to play 99% of it with one finger and be effective. In some ways more effective than ever.

The thing is, though, you have to think how to do it.

This is just the sort of thing I bring to my teaching philosophy; how you think when you do something. We all have physical limitations. Yet it is amazing how many you can sidestep, or give very little impression of when given the full intention of your mind.

In practice I sometimes call it, ‘smoke and tears.’ But there’s nothing wrong with a ‘conjurer’s’ smoke and a supplicant’s tears.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. We are just now getting caught up with our 2009 restocking, so it pleases me to say we can get any of my courses to you now in record time. Here’s where you can get a quick summary off all Violin Mastery’s instructional DVD courses.

Playing Beyond Your ‘Headlights’

Yesterday I recall finishing my newsletter by saying I’d have some more to say about shifting. This is what came to me during that extra time practicing.

Imagine you’re driving on a moonless night high in the mountains. You’ve never been on this stretch of twisted road in your life.

Bear, Cougars and Elk are known to be the majority species in area.

Given that scenario you’re going to be very conscious of speed and timing. You’re not about to drive faster than you can react to anything that comes into your headlights. You will be quite focused on the farthest reach of your headlights, in fact.

Your pulse is in high gear. You are more excited than afraid. And you rarely feel so alive.

Now think of how you practice. Are you putting all your attention to ‘what’s at the edge of your headlights’; are you that alive.

My major focus practice and performance now, from note one on, is to recognize the ‘throw’ of my headlights and stay within them.

That means that when I’m playing I’m also conjuring the coming musical landscape in my minds eye. And I’m keeping my ‘vehicle’ under control to the extent I CAN ‘drive’ it cleanly.

If I screw up, so be it. I will bring something new to that passage on the next go.

That simple fact is, we just don’t understand how much we rely on autonomic memory to carry us through; autopilot.

Now, in some cases you may recognize that playing ‘clean’ requires you to play at a snail’s pace. So be it.

But don’t EXPECT to be there tomorrow. You’ve got to push a little bit each day, some days more than others.

I am as apt a case-in-point as you are ever to be, trust me on this. The advantage I do have on most is that I not only received some good training early, which I USED to rely solely on, I also have applied myself over many years to understanding what lies beyond mere good habit.

Good habits will only take you so far. It’s like being a good driver, but your headlights aren’t switched on.

So as much as I talk about and demonstrate the movements of arm, hand, and fingers in all variety of shifts, I also emphasize the importance of imagination in the mix.

When the imagination gets switched on and understands WHAT needs conjuring, watch out, good things are going to happen.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. This month my Allegro Players students will attend the reach of their ‘headlights’ like they’ve never been extended. Particularly where it comes to shifting and the legato potential of violin. Why not join us?

The Seven Elements of Phrasing

You know, it’s funny. When I send out these emails I often don’t have a clue how they are going to be received. Yesterday’s was a case in point. So I just want to take a moment and thank you for the many wonderful responses that appeared in my inbox through the day.

They ‘warmed the cockles of my heart,’ as my old benefactor, Richard Colburn, used to say!

This morning during my practice I used some of my down time – you know, the time spent shaking out arms and fingers, stretching limbs and the like – to consider all the ways at our disposal to affect what we call ‘phrasing.’

Of course we could probably exchange the word phrasing with expression without getting off track. Yet phrasing to me leads more directly into the particular concerns of music making; it’s certainly more euphonious.

Now bear in mind, as I go through the list that there is no real order in importance to these things. It all depends on the music being played.

So here’s my list.

The distortion of time.

Wow, what a concept to begin with. Yet it is certainly a fundamental aspect of phrasing. On a basic level you only have to think about so called ‘swing’ in jazz, where two written 8th notes are ‘phrased’ unequally; think of a triplet where the first two 8ths of the triplet are tied together as a quarter note, leaving the second shorter in duration by half.

Another way to bend time in the service of phrasing is through ‘rubato.’ Rubato simply implies the taking away of time in one part of a phrase and the adding back of time in another. This is very different from either rushing or dragging, mind you, where the net result is either less time or more time taken than the original tempo would allow. In ‘rubato’ a balance is maintained between the moving forward and the drawing back parts of the phrase. Needless to say the two can be reversed, one can follow slowing with a hurrying forward for a very different effect.

Dynamics.

An easy one, really. Yet certainly the way a line is shaped through the use of dynamic changes – i.e. conscious modulations in volume – will effect how the music breathes. What you don’t want are the unintended rises and falls in sound – what I call ‘unsightly bulges’ – which come from Unconscious changes in bow speed and pressure along the way.

Bow articulation.

Here I’m talking particularly about the beginnings and endings of notes. Many times I find that it is the ending of notes where attention fails. Notes must be brought to a close just as purposefully as they are sounded. And this, of course, this has a lot to do with the left hand as well.

Bow ‘color’.

Namely, the subtle trade-offs made between bow speed and bow pressure. If you mean to convey a feeling of a more dense, purposeful nature, then greater pressure with less ‘travel’ is the ticket. If a more buoyant, transparent tone suits then make the opposite compensations, less pressure and more travel. This is something to experiment with in extremes when playing scales, I find.

Vibrato.

Yes, this can also be used in a nuanced way to affect phrasing. The speed and range of your vibrato can both be altered with practice and used effectively in shaping musical lines. Again, I tend to use my scale and arpeggio practice to warm up and expand the limits of my vibrato. You just have to be a little careful, when attempting to speed up and/or narrow the range of the vibrato, that you don’t become tight in the process. Belly-breathing is a great antidote for this tendency.

Pitch.

Yes, subtle pitch manipulations can be a part of phrasing. Think of ‘blues’ notes in jazz, for instance. Milstein himself used to color harmonies, particularly minor harmonies, quite a bit in romantic music, I remember.

Left hand articulation.

This is perhaps the most subtle of elements, actually, yet it does contribute in a real way. Having control over the way your fingers address the string reinforces the message you are sending in the music. This is not only true of the raising and lowering of fingers either. I also will consciously get up on the tips of my fingers when I’m ‘hearing’ clear, bell-like tones, and I move to the pads when the mood becomes soft and gray.

So these are what we have to play with as we go about making music. And, of course, to a great extent you do them naturally as you respond to the music in front of you. All the same, scales, arpeggios and etudes are irreplaceable when it comes to developing real facility with these things.

Then, when it comes time for repertoire, just let the games begin!

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. In a couple of days I’ll be coming out with dates for my next master class. Meanwhile, resonate!

Last Day for 35-40% Off

Well, the 12 days of Christmas have come and gone, and now I really must bring the big Holiday Sale to a close. My web master will be pulling down the sale sign tomorrow, which leaves less than 24 hours to take advantage of the lowest prices on my learn to play the violin instructional DVD courses ever.

I’d stock up now ‘cause it could be June before I’m tempted to do anything like this again.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. I do have a couple more things to say about shifting. They’ll have to wait, though, as I’m needing an extra hour or so in my practice time today. Here’s where you can make the make the most out of yours.

The Biggest Shifting Error

Do you remember the song from the old children’s film, ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘I Love to Laugh’? Well, today my practice was about ‘loving to shift.’

And I brought all the gusto to it that shifting deserves; which is to say, a lot.

So pay head, I only want to go through this once.

Most of us have one of 2 challenges; we either feel we are inadequate to the task – and thus are afraid, or we are lazy – our frustration transformed to apathy.

Both involve fear, when you look closely. And fear leads to the biggest shifting error folks trying to learn the violin make; Anticipation.

You really see this when you ask someone to slow down a shift he or she feels insecure about. The mind just doesn’t want to Deal with it.

So, whoop, the brain switches to autopilot and the hand bolts up or down the string, with nothing more than a prayer to land in the right place.

I’m know I don’t feel good playing that way – or praying, either – and I’m sure you don’t care much for it.

The fix is to reach in with your mind and take control of the situation, no matter how uncomfortable it might feel, at first.

When I say, ‘don’t move until you’ve got a mental picture of where you’re going,’ I mean don’t move a muscle.

You must be firm with yourself – No good picture, no good shift; want good shift.

Start by getting a clear image of the new note. So clear you can lift the violin and take the note out of the air with security. This may take some study. Good, pleasing study, actually, because it must involve recalling positions and sounds that are ‘just so’; until they are ‘second nature’ to you.

Next you’ve got to get interested in the real estate lying between the two notes. Remember, you’re dealing with a continuum. At every point along the way the sensation(s) must be graduated such that you remain ‘on balance’ from one end to the other.

So go ahead, make your day by taking pleasure in the whole journey.

And test yourself, play expressive shifts quickly. Play quick shifts slowly and expressively. Notice that, either way, the arm/hand/fingers must move succinctly and ‘knowingly’ from one note to the next.

Now, there are things to say and demonstrate about playing positions and such that can be helpful. These I cover in every course I’ve put out.

No, not in the same way. I’m constantly coming up with new angles and ways of experiencing movement. Plus, I expect an advanced player to have a different level of connectedness than I would a beginning player.

But the underlying fundamentals remains unchanged.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Can’t believe I’m saying this. But I still have the Holiday Sale up on the website. You know what That means.