Left Hand Conditioning

Before I get into the main subject of this newsletter I’d just like to say a few more words about the June Seminar and Masterclass. This event will absolutely be ENABLING and INSPIRING for players of ALL levels.

Now, I won’t go into WHY I know this, you’ll just have to trust me.

You know, just a few hours ago I concluded one of my ‘Intensives’ with a gal who flew out from Connecticut to spend a couple days with me.

She’s a professional player who also teaches. And she’s planning to come back for the seminar because she knows how much it will add to her teaching skills; above and beyond what she will take away for her own playing.

And if you’re a beginner, well, I think you should be beating down the door to get into this event. After leaving here you’ll have a terrific overview of violin playing; literally from how to lift your arms when putting it to your chin to all the ‘tricks’ of bow mastery.

It will be a breathtaking panorama, an unforgettable vision, and an event that will inform your practice for many, many years.

So let go of that self-doubt, there is no need for it. Just come, and have a ball!

Now, today I want to say a few more words about vibrato. Recently I suggested you use some warm-up time playing scales and arpeggios while measuring the vibrato, either by counting the oscillations as duplets, triplets or quadruplets.

What I’ve done in recent days is to bring that same discipline to actual pieces. In other words, playing phrases while maintaining and tracking the vibrato through every note and every shift. If you are ‘hearing’ the vibrato as triplets, then each beat of music must have one, two, or however many triplets of vibrato is appropriate to the tempo.

Just remember, you cannot play faster than your hand can execute a full, down/up oscillation of vibrato on the shortest note value. If the shortest note value is a sixteenth then you will be playing rather slowly and deliberately, even if only one oscillation is given to each sixteenth.

Now, as you get control over the music in this way you can begin to narrow the range of the vibrato, quicken the oscillations, and advance the tempo at which you are playing.

And if you do this with focus and discipline you will see how quickly your hand and vibrato can become ‘toned’, and how much more rhythmically accurate and ‘singing’ your phrases become.

Now if this seems a little out of reach for you at the moment, not to worry. At the Art of the Violin Seminar/Masterclass I’ll plot a course of action for you to get you there in no time.

All the best, Clayton Haslop