Catalogue, then Keep Score

Yesterday I wrote of Kreutzer #1. Today I spent time whirling through #23, a close cousin. You might call this Caprice, ‘flights of fancy.’

The utility of it is in developing skills for cadenza playing. Held notes, with fermatas over them, are followed by extended flurries, sometimes called ‘melismas’.

Many require quick shifts of the hand. Many have an abundance of fast string crossings. And all must come off fluidly and effortlessly.

The game of mastering #23, and I assure you it’s a lot of fun to play, has two parts. One, is take the ‘flurries’ apart, piece by piece, catalogue them, and store them up in your mind.

Part two has to do with keeping score.

When it’s time to put all the pieces together and give it a whirl, you’ve just to conjure those catalogued ‘bits’ and tick each one off as it flies by.

‘But I’m sure it’s not so easy as all that,’ I hear you object.

Well, not quite. You DO have to understand how to shift with absolute efficiency. You DO need to know how to cross strings without creating huge waves in your wake. And you DO need to understand some rather important things about bow control and finger velocity.

But those secrets are the very stuff of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery volumes 3 and 4.

Now there IS a small fee involved, ‘tis true. But violinists of a certain accomplishment, who nonetheless lack critical bits of insight, will find them worth every shekel.

And, as I said yesterday, there’re another 20 Caprices in the volumes. Should keep you growing as a violinist for some time to come.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. After getting my juices flowing on old #23 I skipped over to Paganini #16 and had a more stormy romp. Got some secrets to share with you on that in Paganini for Violin Virtuosity, Vol. 1. Are you game?