You know, it’s funny. When I send out these emails I often don’t have a clue how they are going to be received. Yesterday’s was a case in point. So I just want to take a moment and thank you for the many wonderful responses that appeared in my inbox through the day.

They ‘warmed the cockles of my heart,’ as my old benefactor, Richard Colburn, used to say!

This morning during my practice I used some of my down time – you know, the time spent shaking out arms and fingers, stretching limbs and the like – to consider all the ways at our disposal to affect what we call ‘phrasing.’

Of course we could probably exchange the word phrasing with expression without getting off track. Yet phrasing to me leads more directly into the particular concerns of music making; it’s certainly more euphonious.

Now bear in mind, as I go through the list that there is no real order in importance to these things. It all depends on the music being played.

So here’s my list.

The distortion of time.

Wow, what a concept to begin with. Yet it is certainly a fundamental aspect of phrasing. On a basic level you only have to think about so called ‘swing’ in jazz, where two written 8th notes are ‘phrased’ unequally; think of a triplet where the first two 8ths of the triplet are tied together as a quarter note, leaving the second shorter in duration by half.

Another way to bend time in the service of phrasing is through ‘rubato.’ Rubato simply implies the taking away of time in one part of a phrase and the adding back of time in another. This is very different from either rushing or dragging, mind you, where the net result is either less time or more time taken than the original tempo would allow. In ‘rubato’ a balance is maintained between the moving forward and the drawing back parts of the phrase. Needless to say the two can be reversed, one can follow slowing with a hurrying forward for a very different effect.

Dynamics.

An easy one, really. Yet certainly the way a line is shaped through the use of dynamic changes – i.e. conscious modulations in volume – will effect how the music breathes. What you don’t want are the unintended rises and falls in sound – what I call ‘unsightly bulges’ – which come from Unconscious changes in bow speed and pressure along the way.

Bow articulation.

Here I’m talking particularly about the beginnings and endings of notes. Many times I find that it is the ending of notes where attention fails. Notes must be brought to a close just as purposefully as they are sounded. And this, of course, this has a lot to do with the left hand as well.

Bow ‘color’.

Namely, the subtle trade-offs made between bow speed and bow pressure. If you mean to convey a feeling of a more dense, purposeful nature, then greater pressure with less ‘travel’ is the ticket. If a more buoyant, transparent tone suits then make the opposite compensations, less pressure and more travel. This is something to experiment with in extremes when playing scales, I find.

Vibrato.

Yes, this can also be used in a nuanced way to affect phrasing. The speed and range of your vibrato can both be altered with practice and used effectively in shaping musical lines. Again, I tend to use my scale and arpeggio practice to warm up and expand the limits of my vibrato. You just have to be a little careful, when attempting to speed up and/or narrow the range of the vibrato, that you don’t become tight in the process. Belly-breathing is a great antidote for this tendency.

Pitch.

Yes, subtle pitch manipulations can be a part of phrasing. Think of ‘blues’ notes in jazz, for instance. Milstein himself used to color harmonies, particularly minor harmonies, quite a bit in romantic music, I remember.

Left hand articulation.

This is perhaps the most subtle of elements, actually, yet it does contribute in a real way. Having control over the way your fingers address the string reinforces the message you are sending in the music. This is not only true of the raising and lowering of fingers either. I also will consciously get up on the tips of my fingers when I’m ‘hearing’ clear, bell-like tones, and I move to the pads when the mood becomes soft and gray.

So these are what we have to play with as we go about making music. And, of course, to a great extent you do them naturally as you respond to the music in front of you. All the same, scales, arpeggios and etudes are irreplaceable when it comes to developing real facility with these things.

Then, when it comes time for repertoire, just let the games begin!

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. In a couple of days I’ll be coming out with dates for my next master class. Meanwhile, resonate!

Do you remember the song from the old children’s film, ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘I Love to Laugh’? Well, today my practice was about ‘loving to shift.’

And I brought all the gusto to it that shifting deserves; which is to say, a lot.

So pay head, I only want to go through this once.

Most of us have one of 2 challenges; we either feel we are inadequate to the task – and thus are afraid, or we are lazy – our frustration transformed to apathy.

Both involve fear, when you look closely. And fear leads to the biggest shifting error folks trying to learn the violin make; Anticipation.

You really see this when you ask someone to slow down a shift he or she feels insecure about. The mind just doesn’t want to Deal with it.

So, whoop, the brain switches to autopilot and the hand bolts up or down the string, with nothing more than a prayer to land in the right place.

I’m know I don’t feel good playing that way – or praying, either – and I’m sure you don’t care much for it.

The fix is to reach in with your mind and take control of the situation, no matter how uncomfortable it might feel, at first.

When I say, ‘don’t move until you’ve got a mental picture of where you’re going,’ I mean don’t move a muscle.

You must be firm with yourself – No good picture, no good shift; want good shift.

Start by getting a clear image of the new note. So clear you can lift the violin and take the note out of the air with security. This may take some study. Good, pleasing study, actually, because it must involve recalling positions and sounds that are ‘just so’; until they are ‘second nature’ to you.

Next you’ve got to get interested in the real estate lying between the two notes. Remember, you’re dealing with a continuum. At every point along the way the sensation(s) must be graduated such that you remain ‘on balance’ from one end to the other.

So go ahead, make your day by taking pleasure in the whole journey.

And test yourself, play expressive shifts quickly. Play quick shifts slowly and expressively. Notice that, either way, the arm/hand/fingers must move succinctly and ‘knowingly’ from one note to the next.

Now, there are things to say and demonstrate about playing positions and such that can be helpful. These I cover in every course I’ve put out.

No, not in the same way. I’m constantly coming up with new angles and ways of experiencing movement. Plus, I expect an advanced player to have a different level of connectedness than I would a beginning player.

But the underlying fundamentals remains unchanged.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Can’t believe I’m saying this. But I still have the Holiday Sale up on the website. You know what That means.

So, the holidays upon, which sometimes has folks feeling their purpose is to get frenzied and stressed out.

Not here, they don’t. And if you’ve been a practicing with my instructional DVD materials I bet you’ve got a pretty good handle on things as well.

Now, this is a gem today so pay attention. When you play for an audience you MUST see yourself mind/hear/soul-linked with them. And for the time you’re playing you are nourishing them with the developed contents of your being.

The Etheric contents, that is. You know, airy-fairy stuff. Stuff that many don’t like to use words for, in some cases, because the naming of this stuff has been the fuel for conflict from time immemorial.

Especially when talking about the spiritual realm; the meat of the matter.

Point is, it’s real, however you talk about it, and as a human being playing an inherently soulful instrument you’d better deal with it.

Now, those of you working with me are on the right track. The reason I can say this is, in order to make a connection you must have technique. It’s like the radio signal coming into a radio receiver. When it’s obstructed or distorted you’ve a problem getting a message anywhere.

Course technique is about a lot of things. Not too many to number, perhaps, but too many to write here, that’s for sure. Yet I can name the Biggest constituent of a fluent technique.

Abundant consciousness.

You can only play with utter conviction that which flows through your consciousness in each moment. You must be, in a real sense, channeling and translating the Truth in real time.

There cannot be a greater argument for the visualization, relaxation, and consciousness-increasing practice strategies I bring to the violin.

Relaxation is the key to projection, rhythmic awareness is the key to clarity of signal, and visualization is the way-station of content.

So, keep it up with the belly-breathing, counting and visualizing. This winter can be the Spring of your Creative Life.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. VERY IMPORTANT, I am leaving the Holiday Sale open just a couple more days. This IS the best time in the 3 year life of Violin Mastery for investing in one of my instructional DVD courses.

Many years ago I brought ‘Introduccione et Rondo Capriccioso’ to a lesson with Milstein. About 40 or so measures into the Rondo there are a couple of passages calling for up-bow staccato. Many a violinist – and at the time I was one of them – have found these a source of great frustration.

Sure enough, when I got to the passages my staccato was anything but brilliant.

Milstein stopped me. ‘The point is to make a brilliant effect here,’ he said. ‘I do not get on well with up bow staccato, so I do this.’ He then proceeded to play the passage using broken arpeggios, detache, rather the written scales.

The effect was thrilling AND virtuosic.

After that, I virtually stopped using up bow staccato for many years. I thought, if Milstein didn’t have a good one I could be excused from possessing one myself.

Then, about three years ago, I set about learning the 5th Caprice of Paganini with the original bowing – three notes down, Sautille, one note up. It isn’t a staccato bowing, yet it was a bowing I’d previously thought impossible for me to do.

It took some 6 weeks of daily practice using the mental and physical techniques I’d developed to combat the effects of focal dystonia in my left hand – I spent some 20 minutes a day on it.

Today I can play that Caprice with greater velocity and ease than ever before. And I use that bowing.

This accomplishment led me to return to up bow staccato. And sure enough, I’ve found that it too has given way to the same kind of approach.

The secret to it is this. There are two things that must be combined. The motions of the right arm must be absolutely free of extraneous movements – in this case the technique can be reduced the technique to a single muscle.

And you’ve got to get consummate control over the firing of that muscle – your timing must be impeccable. Once you have muscular efficiency combined with fine motor control you’re assured success.

But only if you KEEP these in tact as you build velocity.

This is the last stumbling block. Many folks think that once they put out a certain amount of mental effort they should be able to ‘just do it.’

It doesn’t work that way. You can only play Reliably as fast you can think.

Now, if you think that is a drag, well, you’re going to find the violin and a whole lot more in life a frustration. And if you step back and say, ‘Wow, I really CAN DO anything I set my mind to,’ you’re going to feel blessed indeed.

And that, my friend, is how to live the violin.

All the Best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. So many folks have been taking advantage of the Holiday Sale we’re having that I’m going to leave it open for a couple of more days. There isn’t a better way to learn the violin, but you’d better hurry on over before it’s too late to take advantage of this great prices!

A couple days ago I mentioned having made my debut as a unicycling violinist. For the event I’d worked out my own arrangement of ‘Jingle Bells’ – complete with harmonies and counterpoint all the way through.

Yet during the event I found myself connecting more with the audience when I simply played the ‘Greensleeves’ melody, without adornment – I did manage a little choreography as I ‘strolled’.

The point is, while fast, complex music can surely impress, it is one’s Adagio playing that most directly reaches the hearts of an audience.

A few times I got the feeling that people were so into the beauty of what they were hearing that they momentarily ‘forgot’ that I was riding a unicycle in front of them.

In any case, I just received a couple emails asking about the most important aspect of adagio playing. Namely, how to draw a smooth, beautiful tone.

You’ve heard me say many times that violin playing is a horizontal game. And this is very true. To a great extent the more conscious you are of moving your right hand and arm through space in one plane of motion the more successful you will be at drawing the pure tone you want.

Along the way it is important to remember that the wrist flexes forward at the frog and does not rise up like a cork bobbing to the surface of a pond.

Equally important is the quality of one’s breathing. Got to breathe from the belly so those shoulders stay relaxed and down.

Now, I recognize that some folks have a greater challenge achieving the fine motor control necessary for smooth bowing than others. Nervousness can produce the same loss of control even amongst the normally steady of hand.

When I find myself in this condition – it can happen to anybody – I will do two things. I will go back and forth between drawing the bow as slowly as I can, whilst breathing and consciously directing myself to relax, and drawing fast, vigorous full bows.

The former is a form of meditation, the latter a way to increase blood flow, warm up muscles, and dump adrenaline. Again, while I do both I am breathing from my belly and Consciously moving the bow in one two-dimensional plane – the wrist flexes forward at the frog, not up. Ridding myself of the ‘shaky bow syndrome’ can take half an hour or so. Sometimes more.

If you are challenged this way you must tell yourself three things.

One, my body is fully relaxed. Two, I am in control of my own body. And three, I will not give up.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Now, if you would like some more insight and help into the mastery of the bow arm as a beginner player I believe you could do yourself no greater favor than invest in my Beginners Circle which is currently on Special along with every other course and program I have produced. But you’d better hurry over Right Now to take advantage of this great deal.