A Video For St. Patty’s Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Here’s another side of me you haven’t seen before – unicycling while performing Irish jigs in Sedona’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday. I’m playing a ‘folk’ violin that has some innovative features which I’ll tell you about tomorrow.

Right now I’m in Los Angeles recording the action cues for Pixar’s ‘Up.’ The pace of the music is fast and furious.

Before leaving for the Hollywood Studios I received the following little note from Carla wanting some help with a reluctant vibrato. She writes:

“Dear Professor Clayton,

“I have been practicing my vibrato for several weeks now. I can do the wrist vibrato very well when I am resting my wrist against the violin in third position. But when I try to move my hand to first position and try to start my vibrato I have problems getting it going. My wrist seems to lock up and I end up shaking my whole arm, which I know I shouldn’t be doing. Do you have anyway to help with this?

“By the way, I really like all the things you put in your emails.”

Sincerely,
Carla

Carla, if you will recall, about a week ago I talked about a little move I called a ‘hand vibrato.’ The idea of it is to gently clench and unclench your hand while sustaining long tones. Doing this produces a very narrow vibrato effect and allow helps develop flexibility and control of the hand.

Now I want you to start slowly with this and keep it very light and gentle. Once you have the sense of it, gradually increase the speed and allow it to ‘fatten up.’ As you do this you will find that your wrist loosens automatically, and that you will transition into a wrist vibrato.

Keep practicing this approach as you warm up your hand on scales each morning and you will have a beautiful, effortless vibrato before you know it.

All the Best,
Clayton Haslop

P.S. There are still a couple of openings at the reduced tuition in my Turbo-Charge Your Technique Seminar. This is a terrific opportunity to greatly improve your playing in the company of other violin doers. So jump on board Now.