A Technique Like Greased Lightning

Greased lightning, quite an image, don’t ya think? Fast as all get out, and smooth as silk. This is MY image of facility on the violin.

This morning I went through the 11 Kreuzter etudes that constitute volume 1 of my ‘Kreutzer for Violin Mastery’ series. My goal – to perform each one, at tempo, while counting, breathing from my diaphragm, feeling no tightness or fatigue whatsoever, playing with spot-on intonation, an absolutely clean and relaxed left hand, a purely horizontal right arm, and the room to enjoy each and every change of chord and harmony.

In short, Mastery.

It took about 75 minutes for me to satisfy myself. And at the end I felt totally warm, relaxed, and with hands smooth as silk and quick as a cheetah.

The process and practice techniques I used, though accelerated, are EXACTLY what I teach in my course. It was really quite rewarding, in fact, to remind myself how well they actually work.

Here I can tell you that the most important secret, aside from all the little details of form and how to think, is relaxation.

Only through total relaxation can violin playing be made easy. Yet many a violinist go day after day, week after week, and yes, year after year banging away without a clue as to what this really means and how to achieve it. Needless to say, the results are either mediocre or come at great cost down the road.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The expression ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ is very appropriate here. Coming from a point of relaxation is that first stitch. If you don’t have it NOW you will be going back for it at some point.

There’s just no other way to get stellar results.

And as I’ve always said, Breathing is the gateway to relaxation – maybe I haven’t said it that way before, but it’s absolutely true.

Once you’re relaxed all the other details, and you’ll find volume 1 of my Kreutzer series amply endowed with them, can sink in and make things happen in a beautiful and physically effortless way.

So here’s the link you’ll need, as an intermediate violinist to plug in to not only the relaxation, but all the other details you’ll need as well to high-tail it to the next level.

All the best, Clayton Haslop