Fearless Shifting

It’s early morning here in Los Angeles. A layer of fog covers the San Fernando Valley, which lies just below my perch in the Santa Monica Mountains. Imagine it will burn off soon and turn into another day of hot weather.

In any case, I’ve been thinking about violin playing, as the sky brightens, particularly of those things that separate the well-trained player from the rest of the pack. One that came to mind immediately, perhaps because I think of it often in practice, is the way in which we get from position to position; shifting.

Shifts often bring with them a certain kind of anxiety, or insecurity, do they not? We all miss the mark at one time or another.

Now, if the root cause of a miss isn’t dealt with quickly and effectively, the insecurity will take hold, along with the potential bad habit(s) that led to the error.

Here is the chain of events. The eye sees, in the music, a large interval jump that requires a significant shift. In a flash you realize, “I really don’t know the position of that note or what it feels like to get there!” There is a fear response.

Adrenaline races into the bloodstream, the “fight or flight” decision must be made. There are two possibilities.

One can run away from the shift; either stop playing or skip over a note(s).

Or, one can go for it – project the hand toward your ‘best guess,’ and hope for the best.

Neither scenario sounds or feels appetizing to me now. Years ago I had some good instruction, you see. And I invested time and money, building an understanding of what “deliberate practice” is all about as it pertains to shifting. There are a number of critical elements that apply.

A sense of the “timing” of the shift (how much time is allowed for it) is imperative. Of course, the distance must be known quite intimately for us to set the timing. Knowing the distance is a matter of learning the fingerboard with as uniform a hand position as is possible.

In my two weekly instructional DVD courses, “Beginners Circle” and “Allegro Players,” these and other fundamentals aspects of good shifting are covered in great detail, beginning with simple shifts and moving forward. I can’t imagine a better investment of time and money for beginning and intermediate violinists wanting to improve.

Click here for more info on Beginners Circle.

Now go shift yourself into HIGH gear!

All the Best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. Learn more about Allegro Players for Intermediate Players and Above

Practice Versus Learning

Just now I was listening to my 11 year-old daughter “practice.” Trouble was, she was confused about the process she was engaged in. It wasn’t practice, it was “un-practice.”

You see, we can only practice what we know. The creative work we do before getting to the practice stage, is learning. And what we do when attempting “practice” while the learning stage is incomplete is what one might call “un-practice.”

Mind you, there is a time for playing through pieces before they are thoroughly learned. We do this to identify sections where, in fact, the learning stage is incomplete.

Yet a little of this goes a long way, as I reminded my daughter a few minutes ago. Un-practice, if not indulged in sparingly, and for only the purpose I mentioned above, will lead to all manner of bad habits and slip-shod performance.

So yes, the goal is to practice, and you want to get to that stage as efficiently as possible. How? By stretching your mind before stretching the fingers.

In my “Beginners Circle” course I assist the novice in doing just that. Clear instructions lead to clear understanding. Clear understanding leads to clear practice. And, of course, clear practice is what leads to mastery.

The secret of violin playing lies first in cultivating a rich, dynamic stream of mental pictures – full of SENSATION. This is an step by step process using simple movements that we all can relate to; one that should prove relaxing and enjoyable, with just the right amount of stretch – i.e. challenge – to keep it interesting.

Come see how my weekly program of instruction can put, and keep, you on the road to mastery.

All the Best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. I am hosting a two-day Orchestral Repertoire Masterclass intensive on July 28 and 29. There are a few details yet to be worked out before I can make it official. Simply giving you a heads up now, so you can do a little advanced planning.

Becoming Touch Sensitive

As we all know is, it’s a virtual given that when we step in front of an audience to perform the whole game seems to change – even to the point of “all bets are off,” for some of us.

Must it be like this? Of course not! And here is one hot tip to help you.

You see, one of the drawbacks of having adrenaline coursing through our veins is that we tend to loose sensation and control at our extremities, and those little sausages at the ends of our hands are certainly out there.

The antidote is the rigorous practice of a form of sensitivity training – all the rage in American workplaces these days.

Of course, what I’m talking about is increasing the physical sensitivity of our digits. If we become acutely aware of how we move and place them, through practiced attention, a kind of headroom can be opened up such that the presence of adrenaline has less, or NO impact on what the audience hears.

Are you with me?

One of the move effective tactics I use to accomplish this has a secondary benefit. It requires the fingers to address the string with very little pressure whatsoever, increasing the efficiency of my left hand.

So here’s what I do:

I play in such a way, slowly, as I can feel the vibration of the string traveling up through my fingers on each note. The sensation is akin to having a little electrical energy flowing into the fingers when contacting the bowed string.

Breathe from you belly as you do this and the effect is even more potent as an adrenaline buster.

All the Best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. In a short while I will be giving a Skype Coaching to a gal living an ocean and a continent away. She will perform the etudes found in the first volume of my instructional DVD program, Kreutzer for Violin Mastery. These prime studies can be used to develop just the kind of touch sensitivity I’ve been discussing here.