What Gets My Goat

First off, I send my greetings today from Loch Lomond, in the Northern Kingdom of Scotland. Spent the better part of yesterday at a real Scottish wedding, complete with bagpipes and lots of men running around in skirts.

I kept my pants on.

But I’ll tell you thing, these Scots do know how to party! And the live band was exceptional.

Speaking of exceptional, I will be rolling out my exceptionally comprehensive beginner/novice course just after our return to the states next week. If you have not begun to play yourself, or are yet in the beginning stages of playing, you will want to take advantage of this program.

Never taken a violin out of a case? No problem, it’ll all be covered. I even have a wonderful source for instruments to rent, purchase, or lease to own. This is a great opportunity coming your way, so stay tuned!

Now for ‘what gets my goat.’

Imagine this scenario. You’re playing along in 4/4 time at an allegro tempo and you come to a measure that begins with a half-note tied to a sixteenth, followed by a series of sixteenths completing the measure.

Conventional wisdom, and you’ve probably had many conductors, teachers, or coaches tell you this, is to stop the sound on the tied sixteenth in order to not be late on the following sixteenth notes.

Well, it gets my goat! What does one have to do with the other? Since when does taking the time to stop the bow make anybodies rhythm better?

In other words, the tendency for players to be late off tied notes is not a mechanical problem of changing bow direction, but a internal problem with time-keeping.

And it is easily remedied.

Rather than putting holes into the music where they are not indicated one needs only to have a strategy for maintaining a constant awareness of the flow of time.

I can assure you that if you get in the counting habit, and specifically the one I advocate in my courses, you’ll never get caught flat-footed after a tie ever again.

But don’t expect conductors to stop requesting the ‘drop-out’. It’s a little like asking a cat to stop biting at fleas.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. There is much more to be gained from putting Kreutzer for Violin Mastery to work for you than coming off of tied notes in time.