The Vibrato Twitch, part 2

Don’t know if you tuned in to the Oscars last night. It was great to see the very talented Michael Giacchino take home the award for best musical score. There is FEELING dripping from every note of the score to the movie ‘UP’.

This morning finds me still thinking about vibrato, however. You see after my last newsletter I received one response that seemed to question the sense of starting the motion from below the pitch.

And the writer is right in noting that this does not conform to traditional thinking about vibrato. I, myself was taught to start at the pitch and oscillate down and back up, in fact. And it worked for me.

Yet it is clearly not working for a number of folks out there who have tried this for a considerable amount of time and still can’t make the ‘jump’ from slow, measured motions to quick, automatic ones.

So I did more experimenting over the weekend. And I noticed two additional things. First, when I ‘twitch’ my hand toward my body it more readily reassumes a relaxed state on the rebound than the reverse; something that is very important.

And secondly, if you think of the vibrato as a series of automatic ‘twitches’ of the wrist, you will hear the strongest sound indication at the apex of the twitch. If the twitch energy is sent downward, then, the result is a note that sounds flat and best.

Combine that with a reluctance of the hand to relax on the rebound and the effect is even worse.

Now, having said that, bear in mind that the twitch upward is quite rapid and coincides right with the first beat of time. In other words, the apex of the first twitch and the beat are simultaneous to the ear.

Once you can do one ‘twitch’ quite cleanly, as I outlined in my last email, you indeed have the beginnings of a fine vibrato – if you missed my last newsletter you may see it at http://www.violinmastery.com/violinsecrets/index.html.

So yesterday I experimented further with this twitch approach. At first I measured and ‘counted’ each one, pretty much as I outlined in the last newsletter.

Then I counted on every OTHER twitch, every third twitch, every fourth, and so forth.

Doing this had the result of giving little pulses to the twitches. And the ‘weak’ twitches – or rebounds – became the ‘automatic’ motions that I think are so elusive to some players.

So you see, it’s never a bad thing to pulse your twitches!

Yet seriously, even if you have a decent vibrato, this sort of practice and control is useful. It ensures that the hand remains relaxed as you vibrate, and that the vibrato is even and purposeful when it is used.

Now all this being said it is important that the twitches I’ve been talking about have a certain form. And that form is what I demonstrate quite clearly in month 7 of my Beginners Circle program.

Of course the program provides a whole lot more instruction than what you need to master a beautiful vibrato. In fact it’s truly a one-of-a-kind resource for the novice violinist who wants to PLAY the instrument and not just dilly-dally around with it.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

The Vibrato Twitch

The past few days I’ve been doing the spring cleanup around our property. And let me tell you, there isn’t a plant in Arizona that doesn’t have at least two ways to scratch, poke, bite, or otherwise draw blood from you if you try to alter their personal destiny in the slightest way.

Fortunately, none of the insults to my physical being have proved life threatening, so far.

Now, during my off time I’ve been taking another look at vibrato.

It seems that some folks have difficulty going from the slow, deliberate motion to the quick, automatic oscillation that characterizes a true vibrato.

Today I believe I have an approach that will solve the matter, once and for all.

Here’s what you do.

Place your hand in first position and take a pitch with one finger, you choose.

Actually I want you to begin with that finger ‘rolled back’ slightly, on the pad of the finger, with very light pressure on the string. And since the finger is ‘rolled back’ the pitch should actually be about a quarter of a tone flat from what it normally is.

Ok, now, with your hand and arm relaxed, I want you to send a quick impulse to your wrist such that it gives a light, fast twitch toward your nose.

When you make this twitch you will notice a couple things; the finger you’re playing will be pushed into the string slightly and released, the pitch will rise to ‘in tune’ and fall back down, and your wrist will return to the relaxed state it was in just before the twitch.

This little ‘event’ should be like the blink of an eye.

Now, once you have done this a few times without trying to measure it in any way, see if you can repeat it once a second.

After this is managed, on each finger, move to twice a second.

Up to this point each twitch, or pulsation, is controlled consciously.

Now you are going to twitch four times within a second. And at this point the first impulse will be given consciously, yet the second will be almost a reverberation. And as such, it will be automatic.

The final step, and one you may already have taken, is to string several beats together. And there you have it, vibrato.

Now, one of the mistakes people make in trying to master vibrato is to force it. Uh-uh.

Start flat, toward the pad of the finger, relax everything, and pulse. Each pulse should be clean, quick, and return the finger to the starting point; that is, BELOW the pitch of the note. And everything is relaxed.

You see, the pitch level that is audible to the ear is the one where the finger is at its apex. Why this is so is simply that that is where the finger is most pointedly in the string. If you start from the pitch and go up from there, as some folks do, you will have a tendency to sound sharp to everyone else.

Good luck, and…

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. If there are any questions remaining after this explanation, I hope I will see you at the Art of the Violin seminar/masterclass in June, where I’m going to illuminate every violin technique in the book. Please come join in the fun!

Imagine, Experience, Think

This morning, as we do every morning, ‘Star’ the dog and I went for out for a little walk/run about. In the course of it we did 4 hill sprints; about 600’ of vertical climb.

It was enough to trigger an endorphin rush in me. Star just wanted to eat.

So then I pick up my violin. Now, you might think you can imagine what I experienced when I lifted it to my shoulder.

I don’t think so.

My fingers felt so stiff and slow I thought I thought of calling 911. Fortunately, things got better. And fast. Over the course of an hour-twenty I went from playing ultra-slow scales, with measured wide vibrato in triplets, to whizzing around Sarasate’s ‘Zapateado’ like a liquored up Marti-Gras celebrant.

And this is how I did it.

I imagined. I experienced. And I thought.

And then I did it again. And sometimes, again.

You know, it’s a good policy to give yourself a maximum of 3 tries to execute what you have in mind before making a conscious decision to change the picture.

That really ties in to the ‘thought’ side of the process.

Now with a completely new skill the ‘imagine’ part will be pretty sketchy; unless, that is, you’ve really done your homework and reviewed my DVD instructions on the matter.

Yet nonetheless, once you have an working image of your goal you must ‘put one down’. You must ‘experience’ it. And what I mean by this is to execute the skill based on your image of it, while really paying attention to the actual physical feelings generated by the doing.

Stage three is merely to reflect on the difference, should there be one. If there is you go back, refine the image, and experience again.

As I say, sometimes the brain doesn’t grab anything ‘new’ from an experience, even though the result is clearly not up to snuff.

In such cases I give myself one additional try. If, after 3 tries I’m not making progress, either I change the context of the image – i.e. go slower – or I move on to something else, temporarily.

Now I recognize that this is very likely ‘old hat’ to you. Yet when a skill we are seeking feels ‘out of our depth’, it is tempting to abandon imagination and thought altogether. And ‘practice’ quickly becomes one empty repetition after another.

The good news is this needn’t happen. Yet if it is, and you feel the time has come to ‘jump start’ the creative process of violin learning, I highly recommend that you join me and a bunch of other passionate individuals for a special weekend this June.

It is where ‘perfect practice’ will acquire a whole new meaning.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

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

The Unruly Vibrato Fix

After a bracing early morning walk and training session with our new pup, I did my own training session, on the violin. It’s amazing how similar the work ethics are to produce good results in each.

And recently I’ve been focusing on vibrato, this after uncovering some unruliness in mine. It’s something that just goes with the territory. Guess I’d simply call it skills maintenance.

Yet whether you are reconditioning this particular skill or training yourself to it for the first time, the following little exercises can be very helpful.

Of course to begin with you do want to ensure that your hand and wrist are relaxed, and that the motion of the hand is clean. Now if you are uncertain HOW to the hand and wrist work to produce vibrato you will find a great deal on the subject within my Beginners Circle course, along with instruction on all manner of violin essentials.

So the exercises to ‘top-off’ your vibrato have to do with gently, yet firmly, conditioning it to be constant and even. And I do it at two speeds.

Now which speed you begin with has to do with the natural rate at which your hand oscillates. If you have a lot of fast-twitch muscle fiber you will tend toward a fast vibrato, so begin at the faster speed.

If you suspect the opposite, then let your hand begin with a slow vibrato.

The exercises consist of playing adagio – think slow walk – whole note scales. First position is fine. And as you play I suggest you count the beats, quietly.

If you are in the slow vibrato mode you will be listening for 3 oscillations of the hand per beat. In the fast mode listen for 4.

Remember, the idea is for the hand and wrist to be absolutely as relaxed as possible. No tension in the fingers that are off the string, and the minimum of pressure to make a good tone for those that are on the string.

The challenge is to maintain the speed of oscillation through all 4 fingers. Once you have it at one rate of speed, switch over to the other.

Now, you can do the scale with only one finger in contact with the fingerboard at a time, and you can do the scale where fingers remain on the string as you ascend. Both are very useful.

Of course you will note that having all four fingers down while you play a 4th finger will necessarily limit the range of motion of the vibrato. It needn’t affect the rate of oscillation, if the hand remains relaxed.

For an additional ‘variation’ you might move between forte and piano dynamics as play, noting that forte only requires a slight increase in pressure from the finger being sounded.

When I began doing this a few days ago I felt somewhat challenged doing all that I have outlined here. In fact, it was a couple days before I could pick the fiddle up cold and execute a two-octave scale without glitches at either speed.

Interestingly, just like training a puppy, the ‘pack leader’ is most effective when a clear vision precedes any choice of action. When I raise the violin to my chin whilst seeing/feeling my hand relaxed and in the rate of speed of my choosing, success follows very quickly.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

On the Mastery of Two Skills

I am happy to report that after 5 days and nights, Star, our new puppy, is getting the potty thing right about 80% percent of the time. Actually with ‘poop’ he’s been 100% for two straight days.

And boy does it smell a lot better around here!

But hang on, these are not the SKILLS I was going to write about today!

Two questions came from players at very different places in their violin lives. One arose from the rather uncomfortable challenge of sight-reading Saint-Saens’ ‘Organ Symphony’ – a rhythmically tricky piece.

The other, from a beginner, and addresses the challenge of putting fingers to string accurately and reliably.

First the question regarding sight-reading. Here are the basic priorities, in order, that a good musician should hold: awareness of the BEAT; dynamics, rhythms, articulation, and finally, the notes.

Now, for some, the order of my priorities may come as a surprise. They were to me when I first learned them. After all, I thought ‘getting the notes’ was the deal.

Uh-uh.

Awareness of the flow of time is numero uno. And along those lines I have conducted experiments with myself that have proved very interesting.

When I count the beats, even as I sight-read whatever is in front of me, I find that I am no less effective at getting the dynamics, rhythms, articulations OR the notes than when I don’t, in fact I tend to be better. AND I’m a heck of a lot more steady and aware of the conductor, the other instruments, and the pace of the music as I do so.

You see, for some reason the conscious act of forcefully engaging another part of the brain – the language center – OPENS the mind big time to other challenges.

Now, that being said, if I have a few moments before the conductor starts in, I will take a quick look through the music, finding the ‘tricky’ spots and mentally visualizing my way through them.

And certainly if the opportunity to play a little – quietly – is there, I will take it. And here is what I do.

I do my slow, verbalizing-the-beat-while-playing practice – with no regard for even staying in time – until I can coordinate the notes with my count.

Listen, I’ve had some REALLY tricky music put in front of me, rhythmically complex, notey, you name it. Yet when I spend even a couple quiet minutes in this practice the payoff is enormous when the ‘reading’’ begins.

The off-the-beat rhythms of the Organ Symphony are tricky. Yet once the hands and count are ‘Locked’ in this way, it is VERY difficult for anything to shake them apart. Even the most annoying gesticulations of the typical wanna-be conductor!

But again, first thing is time, then dynamics, then rhythms, articulation, and finally, the notes.

All right, on to the basics of putting fingers to string.

Here again, the key is in your thinking. Well, hang on, let’s say the first step begins with the ear. If you can sing the note you are trying to place, you’re more than halfway there.

The next step is to connect the ear to your fingers. And this is about mastering some spatial relationships – where things are on the fingerboard – and developing discrete control over each finger.

Now both of these have primarily to do with the brain, unless, that is, you have nerve damage between brain and fingertips. Yet assuming you don’t, and I hope this is the case, the key is to go SLOWLY. Don’t move until you’ve computed some idea in your head of where that next note lies.

And when you do move the finger, consciously relax the hand – and breathe – such that the second finger is free to move independently of the first; and that it purposefully takes position on the fingerboard where your mental image dictates.

If the image you projected was wrong, well, you just learned something new. If it was correct, why you just moved closer to ‘hard wiring’ the location of F# relative to E in first position on the D string.

And there you have it.

Beyond this I really recommend the beginning violinist to my Beginners Circle program. In the weekly lessons are a tremendous amount of detail on hand position, finger movement, and much, much more.

Heck, many people spend a lot more on their morning Starbucks than you will getting a natural high from the benefits of this instruction.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

Getting Two Hand Playing as One

The other day I wrote some words about playing with a partner. The Bach ‘Double’ was the particular piece in question. And in the course of thinking about that venerable masterpiece, I began thinking about another concern many violinists have; getting the two hands knit together.

In the first movement of the Bach, for instance, there are numerous places where the players have to leap across two or three strings, or suddenly shift from 1st to 3rd positions, while maintaining the steady, uninterrupted flow of 16th notes.

In the haste to make these moves it is not uncommon for the two hands to lose sync with each other. And once that happens, certain ‘sound artifacts’ begin to appear that would definitely have raised an eyebrow or two on old man Bach.

Let’s begin with the case of a shift between to 16th notes.

The tendency here is for the left hand to leave early, while the bow hand is still drawing the previous note. And this is due to the very natural anxiety we have of getting our finger on the note we’re shifting to in time.

In the case of crossing multiple strings, it is usually the reverse. The upper arm, controlling the change of string, wants to ‘jump ship’ early to get to the new note.

Now the solution is really quite simple in both cases, yet it does require discipline and careful mindfulness to technique.

The technique first involves actively visualizing the new pitch whilst not getting ‘pulled away’ from the old. Once you are certain that no automatic, anticipatory movements get triggered by the THOUGHT of the new note, you’re ready for step two.

Step two is to consciously link the change of bow direction, change of string, and change of position. And I have a little trick I use for doing this.

I imagine wearing two gloves connected by a string running across my back and down my arms. Any movement in one hand will produce a corresponding movement in the other.

Now, using this image I think of the change of bow DIRECTION as the linked, ‘trigger’ for the shift, and or change of string.

If you employ this image yourself, you will find that all the elements are suddenly happening as you would like them to be; simultaneously.

Now the only challenge remaining, if there is one, is to arrange for ‘the event’ to happen within the even flow of 16th notes. And that simply means getting back into the counting groove.

Again, this sort of training can be done slowly and out of tempo at first. Once you ‘get it’ you’ll find the way back up to speed can happen very quickly indeed.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

How Two Come to Play As One

I don’t know whether you are a fan of figure skating, and if not please forgive the brief digression from the subject of this newsletter.

Last night the senior ladies skated the first of 2 programs that will decide the national champion and lead to the selection of 2 skaters to go to the winter Olympics next month. The big news was the amazingly artistic and talented Sasha Cohen, who began her much anticipated come back by landing herself in second place, and just tenths of a point from edging out another extraordinary talent Marai Nagasu for first.

Mind you, this is someone who has not competed in four years, a tremendously long absence in a sport as physically and psychologically challenging as figure skating.

We were able to watch the competition live online last night. On Saturday you can catch the action in the ‘long’ program on NBC. At this point the top 3 gals are within a point of each other. Only 2 will be able to go to the Olympics.

It’s going to be quite a dogfight.

Alrighty, just had to get that off my chest, hope you’re still with me.

A couple days ago I had a question regarding the Bach ‘double’. Specifically I was asked how to go about creating ensemble with another player.

Now with Bach the challenge is really just two-fold. Both players must play in tune and in time, it’s about as simple as that. But hang on, that is certainly easier said than done. And don’t think I don’t know it.

So here’s how you train.

To begin with, you’re not going to get anywhere if you cannot ‘live’ within a tempo. The first challenge, therefore is mastering the flow of time.

And this is where my counting technique is so important. Though metronomes are well and good, they are no substitute for being able to take personal responsibility for ‘time’ while playing.

Now this may mean an investment of time in playing SLOWLY while you master the ability to verbalize the beats while playing the music. As you begin this process, you may even surrender keeping a steady tempo all together in favor of putting beat labels and notes together.

When you force yourself to account for the beats as you play, you began to get control of the music at a much deeper level.

Yet I’ll say it again. This takes patience and discipline. You must believe me when I say there is a breakthrough moment when the mind opens and the learning process springs forward like water bursting through a dam.

The secret is to take it down to the lowest common denominator. Where speech and physical movement can be absolutely knit together.

Once you CAN verbalize as you play only THEN do you begin focusing on the steadiness of the time, gradually raising the bar as you are able.

A brief note here. In a previous email I said that I don’t spend a lot of time at ‘medium’ tempos, and this is true. Yet someone new to the process of verbalizing the beat will find these medium tempos very necessary. After you’ve gained experience with the technique you may find that a couple times through at a slow tempo will suffice for getting most music ‘in your fingers.’

Of course the other challenge is playing in tune, and with that I include ‘cleanness’ of execution. Now we are getting into all matter of issues involving left and right hand technique. And though I’d like to, there is no way I’m going to be able to ‘work through’ the Bach Double in an email.

What I would recommend, however, if you want to master works of Bach such as this, is to subscribe to my Allegro Players. In this course I take you all manner of works, including a Handel Sonata, which will prepare you beautifully for Bach. And it’s a great time to do so as ALL the prices on my courses have just been reduced 20% for 2010.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. One final word about this counting thing. Once you have the control to do this playing with another person becomes a snap simply because all the excess conscious control you have can now be brought to bear on LISTENING to your partner, with no sacrifice in what is coming from your own instrument. Now all you’ve got to do is convince your partner to do the same for you!

How to Dump That Excess Adrenaline

Before I get into the topic of the day, I’d like to mention that as the list of subscribers to these newsletters has grown so have the number of questions and comments that come in daily.

And I’m thrilled to receive them, believe me.

Yet because of the numbers I find it challenging to respond to all of them, and I know that occasionally an important question may fall through the cracks. So if you write in with a question and don’t hear from me in a timely manner, please do not hesitate to resend the email after a few days. Thanks.

In response to yesterday’s missive there was a question related to controlling ‘nerves’ in performance. I’d like to say a few words about it.

The ‘fight or flight’ response behind what we call nerves is an automatic response challenging to eliminate once it has taken hold. Judy Garland was famous for the severity of her performance anxieties I learned recently.

Yet not every performer experiences them. And some will have them at auditions, for instance, yet not be troubled particularly in live performance. It is indeed an individualized kind of thing.

I have a number of strategies I employ in dealing with mine, which can very considerably, by the way, depending on the situation I’m in.

First, is breathing. There is nothing like diaphragm breathing to relax the upper body and smooth out the effect of nerves, particularly in the bow arm. Yet this becomes even more effective when combined with consciously visualizing the smooth outward and inward movements of the hand as you are actually playing.

When I played the violin solo at the Academy Award show last year I was thinking and doing these in spades.

Now if there is time for a warm-up before the performance I will get to the venue very early and literally play myself through the fear or flight response. After all, the body only has so much adrenaline to throw at one situation. If I can burn the bulk of it off in a vigorous warm-up I find myself generally free to go about my business when I get onstage.

The danger here, however, is draining yourself so completely that you have nothing left for the performance. So you have to use some judgment, balancing the energy needs for the performance with dumping the excess fuel that comes with the moment.

When I performed the Tchaikowski Concerto for the first time, some years ago, I put quite a bit of pressure on myself. And I began warming up 90 minutes before the performance – bear in mind, I’d already run the concerto once that day at the morning dress rehearsal.

This is a lot of playing on the day you’re going to play a 50 minute ‘knucklebuster’. Yet I felt ok with it because I had trained going into it for 3 plus hours of heavy playing at one sitting. The warmup and performance, then, was well within my means.

Had I been touring the piece the need for the extended warm-up would no doubt have diminished as I gained specific, repeatable experience.

The bottom line is I can generally judge how much a factor nerves will play, in advance, by pitting my level of preparation against the level of ‘threat’ the situation presents. No, it’s not a perfect science, yet you will be surprised at how effective you can become by seeking to evaluate and manage ‘risk’ in this way.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

When Thinking Turns to Gold

A few days ago Tania, daughter Clara and I watched in awe as Jeremy Abbott jumped, spun and otherwise skated his way to a second title as U.S. men’s figure skating champion. And as the top skater in a field as deep as the United States has ever seen, he didn’t do it by a slim margin either.

He did it walking away, beating his nearest competitor, Evan Lysacek by some 10% in accumulated points.

His free skate missed being the highest scored EVER, in the history of figure skating, by just tenths of a point.

Now, I do a little skating myself. Well, just enough to know how incredibly remarkable it is to do what he does on those two blades. And he made it look like a hop, skip and a jump in the park.

Naturally I wanted to hear what he had to say about his performance afterwards. And sure enough, in the interview he said something that really hit home.

He said, ‘I’m not the kind of skater who can just go out there and skate on autopilot. I have to think of every little detail in the program as I do it.’

You know, so often I hear people talk about ‘just letting it happen.’ And I’ll admit that there are times when the mind does interfere in a negative way with what people are trying to accomplish. Yet at the same time I would feel remiss if I set a student adrift with this as the FINAL answer to an interfering mind.

You see, a neutral mind is Very, Very, difficult to hold on to when the pressure is REALLY on.

This is, after all, when the questions start flying. ‘Am I up to this, what if I fail, etc., etc.’

There’s nothing to send your adrenaline to peak levels as those thoughts.

So what I have recognized, over the years, is that the more accurate and rich is your consciousness of ‘all the little details’ in practice, the more easily your mind can become entangled with useful, affirming thoughts at crunch time.

There is no substitute for exercising your ‘knowingness.’

Recently I had a music teacher write in complimenting me on how I explain my thinking continuously as I go through the music in my courses.

And of course, the above is precisely why.

Every bow change, string crossing and finger location is worthy of having my conscious intention behind it. As I see it this is what supplies meaning to what I do; and it’s where the pleasure of fulfillment gets realized.

So if you’re having difficulty ‘putting your finger’ on HOW to place your finger, you may want to take advantage of my thinking behind even this sort of basic violin skill.

It’s the very kind of thing you’ll find in my Beginners Circle, which is now available at a new, reduced rate.

All the best, Clayton Haslop