During my sojourn here in So Cal I’ve had a daily commute to make from my sister’s house in ‘the valley’ over the Santa Monica mountains, down the Coast Hwy, and into Culver City, where sits MGM/Sony studios.

I’ve been filling much of the time singing at the top of my lungs – with the windows up, mind you.

I’m doing this for three reasons. One, and this is of the least interest I’ll admit, is to see what I can actually do with the mediocre instrument nature his given me.

The second, however, might just get your ears perking up – though maybe not as much as if you were riding shotgun in my car.

You see, most of the vocalizing I’m doing is in my falsetto voice, at the extreme top end of it. In order to get any sound out whatsoever I’m pushing a ton and a half of air through my vocal chords.

And you should know what the ‘power source’ for pumping all that air is.

Yep, it’s the diaphragm muscle, which happens to divide your chest from your abdomen. I think most physiologists would agree that this muscle is second only to the heart in importance to your wellbeing on this planet.

Mine’s been getting a first-rate workout each morning of late.

And finally there is all that wonderful oxygen being swept in and out of my lungs. Wow, I’m feeling real good when I park the car and swing my legs out of the driver’s door.

And you will too, once you give this a try.

Now there’s just one last thing to be said here. Those of you with even one course of mine will know how to connect fully with your diaphragm. But if you haven’t yet gotten with a program – time to get a move on you if you haven’t – you might seriously want to consider ordering Dynamic Breath Control for Violinists. You’ll then be fully equipped to improve your health AND your sound, phrasing, and overall enjoyment of violin. Here’s the link to acquire one of only a few remaining copies. http://www.violinmastery.com/order_breathcontrol.htm

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. When you receive the Dynamic Breath Control for Violinists DVD you’re going to find some very useful info on the bow arm and violin hold as well. I’ve had advanced players tell me how useful this has been to them. Goes to show how important the basics really are.

Well, it’s Friday and I’m back in the Conservatory ramping up for another day of finger-flinging fun with John Williams. As you know from a few days ago, this ‘Conservatory’ has nothing to do with furthering my musical education, and everything to do with getting a healthy helping of caffeine into my blood stream.

I just finished a triple-shot of espresso. Zoom.

Anywho, whilst sipping I reflected, with a silly little smile on my face, on my first day at the Milstein class.

Boy did I have a few things to learn.

The first day began with a so-so fiddler playing the ‘Spring Sonata’ of Beethoven. After a while Milstein apparently had heard enough and interrupted the fellow with a few cryptic words and a demonstration on his fiddle.

Well, he hadn’t bothered to tune it, he was totally un-warmed up, and he sounded pretty rough. He also held the bow completely differently than I, and his left hand had almost a lackadaisical look to it.

I was shocked.

‘Uh oh,’ I thought to myself, ‘this guy sure doesn’t seem world-class to me. I think I just misspent a good deal of munny.’ – I really only knew Milstein’s playing from his second Bach Sonata and Partita recording. And not owning it myself I’d only heard only a little.

In any case, the student played a little more, and Milstein stopped him again. This time Milstein tuned his violin.

He also began warming up.

Suddenly I was hearing sounds I’d never heard come out of a violin. Not live, certainly.

At the end of the day – and I had by that point had my turn, playing Paganini #16 – I jumped up, went right up to where he was putting his Stradivarius in it’s case, and blurted, ‘I have to study with you. Will you take me?’

‘But you don’t need a teacher,’ he said. – Now that took me aback.

‘But I do,’ I replied, ‘I can’t do what you do.’

‘You come and play for me then,’ was his response.

And so began my three year mission to re-invent myself as a violinist. From that period comes virtually everything I say about violin fundamentals today.

Mind you, the breathing, counting, and particulars of visualization have evolved over a good many years, and have I found them invaluable. But the bow hold, bow arm movements, violin hold, left hand mechanics, all these are Milstein.

The real point of my telling this story, however, is to beware of jumping to conclusions before all the facts are in front of you.

This should be true even in your own playing. Many players jump to the conclusion they can’t do this or that technique. Over and over I’ve found it’s not due to inability but to a lack of thoroughness.

They give up too soon. They haven’t gotten down to what I call the ‘cellular level.’

The cellular level is where life begins. It’s a joy to get there. ‘Haste makes waste,’ as the saying goes. ‘Don’t run away,’ – Milstein.

‘That’s right, don’t run away, but do hop over and get the course that’s changing the way aspiring violinists learn the violin all over the world.’ – Haslop.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. If you’ve been around the block a few times and want to truly stretch yourself, come match bows with me on Paganini Caprices.

Wow, what a couple of days. Got up early Sunday morning and flew to Washington D.C. where I spent the afternoon giving an ‘intensive’ to a gifted gal who drove down all the way from Hartford Conn..

I don’t think she would disagree with me if I said she emerged transformed by the experience. She sure looked mighty relaxed and glowing with energy when she departed 2 1/2 hours later.

But the main events happened yesterday.

The morning was taken up with a lecture/demonstration/Q and A on sight-reading and rapid learning techniques, the afternoon with a master class. Both were given at the marvelous 30 million dollar music facility housing the Washington Marine Band and White House Orchestra.

The audience included musicians from the Air Force and Army, as well as the Marines.

And let me tell you, these folks can play.

One Curtis trained fellow zipped through the Waxman ‘Carmen Fantasy’. Couple others the Mozart G Major Duo for Violin and Viola. And a third, a CIM graduate, gave a highly polished reading of Prokofiev’s unaccompanied Sonata.

Now, in case you didn’t know this, the ‘President’s Own’ White House Orchestra dates back to the time of Jefferson. It is therefore the oldest orchestra in continuing existence in the United States.

Today the salary and benefits are quite attractive, and the competition to get in, fierce – over 100 players stood for a recent audition.

As for their duties, they perform a public concert series, they perform for official ceremonies and holidays, and they break down into smaller ensembles to entertain at state dinners and White House functions. In short they play all kinds of music in a variety of settings. Not a bad gig if you ask me. And the facility they work out of is a dream.

But getting back to my sessions, I’m thrilled to report they couldn’t have gone better.

I felt I took a pretty big risk, in the rapid learning session, when I invited orchestra members to bring in music for me to demonstrate my techniques on. The concertmaster took me at my word, and laid a pretty tough piece of music in front of me. It was quite chromatic and rhythmically tricky.

Some of it, in fact, was really beyond the ability of any violinist – and I know some great ones – to sight-read without error.

What I did do, and very persuasively from the reactions of the audience, was to demonstrate how the dynamic breathing and counting techniques I use get me up and running, even with such challenging music, in record time.

As I’ve said before, so much of it is having tools to get you in a highly relaxed, yet focused state. It really doesn’t matter whether I’m practicing at home or in front of 60 highly trained professionals.

I do what I am in the habit of doing. And it works.

As for the performers, I found a few recurring themes. All of them left some music ‘on the table’ in their performance. That is to say, they had mannerisms and reflexive habits that diminished their effectiveness in some small way.

One had a way of distorting the time just before awkward shifts. He wanted to create extra space for the movement. But when I exposed and eliminated the wasted motions and hidden tensions from his hand, Bingo, clean, noise free shifts with no space empty spaces.

Another had some unconscious mannerisms in his bowing. What might be called ‘unsightly bulges.’ Had to get him to slow down a little too. Until he began to really get the sense of what a singing, continuous tone is all about.

Anyway, I know I’m going on about this experience, but it was a great deal of fun and very rewarding to see great results and smiling faces at the end of the day.

And I got a few orders for my ‘Paganini for Violin Virtuosity’, too.

You know, if the ‘president’s own’ find great value in learning my secrets for mastering challenging music, you might want to check it out for yourself.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. One took away a Kreutzer set as well, actually. They’re the best ticket I know to get your fundamentals in tip-top shape.

P.P.S. As I write this I’m on a plane heading to LA. Tomorrow morning I begin scoring the music to ‘Speed Racer’ with Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Michael Giacchino. Stay tuned for a report from the trenches.

Going to continue talking about the weekend’s master class. Specifically, today, about playing from the gut. Many people give lip service to doing this.

We actually DID it. And I mean with gusto.

As a warm up I had the class on the floor for a good 20-30 minutes Saturday morning. We did ‘dynamic breathing’ with a vengeance.

Point was to not only breathe from the diaphragm, but to FIRE UP the diaphragm contractions to an explosive level while keeping the rest of the body absolutely relaxed.

What a feeling. After few minutes I felt quite a buzz; a totally clean, natural buzz that put a smile a mile wide on my face.

Course when I stood up I about fell over, too.

While regaining our equilibrium we discussed the benefits of flooding the body with oxygen. Courtesy of a medically trained class participant we learned that doing this lowers CO2 levels in the blood stream, alkalizing the system in the process.

And that’s a very good thing from the standpoint of health, in case you didn’t know it.

But the real intent for me was to get folks transferring all that ‘gut power’ right into their bow arms. So on we went.

Next we played scales, separate bows, with accents on each note. The idea was to use the diaphragm muscle to drive the outward and inward thrusts of the bow – we’re talking horizontal energy here, not the downward hacks many mistakenly use to produce strong emphasis.

We exploded the bow down the string with out breaths. We swept it back up the string with decisive in breaths. Bang, bang, bang, bang.

No tension, just guts galore.

Then I got an attendee, who had been having tension issues with the first page of ‘Praeludium and Allegro’, to really put it to the test.

What a pleasure it was to see him power the bow back and forth with absolute abandon.

And it wasn’t just the right side that benefited from this. His intonation, shift timing and finger articulation were all improved while he focused on the breathing.

Now, I’m not saying you’re going to huff and puff your way through every piece of music you play. But I’m definitely suggesting that the conscious use of your breath will inform your playing on a deep level and get you in touch quickly with the most efficient, pure way of doing things.

The folks learning, or relearning, the violin with the Violin Mastery Beginners Circle are getting all of this from the get-go. I expect them to make progress on the violin at two or three times the rate normally experienced. And with a far better outcome to boot.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. The more you feel as you play – and this goes for the physical sensations in your body – the more you have to offer an audience. It’s a nice feeling to get in front of people knowing you’ve got some fire in your belly as well as your fingers, when you need it.

Before I get started I’d like to thank all of you for the wonderful notes of last week. Truly heartwarming and inspiring to read.

At the recital of last Friday, I believe my playing reached some wonderful heights. In the weeks leading up to it I had a daunting challenge to overcome. The ‘dystonia’ in my left hand was fierce.

Finally, on Monday last, I reached the fevered pitch necessary to pierce through the lastest blockage. I won’t say the rest of the week was easy, but I knew from that point that I was NOT going to let anything prevent me from speaking powerfully with my violin on Friday.

After the performance I had dinner with the attendees of the weekend’s master class – I’ll talk more about what we accomplished over our days together tomorrow.

I believe it was difficult for them to comprehend how much I’d gone through leading up to the event. The point of even discussing it with them – and with you now – however, was to underscore my belief that what I am capable of, ANYONE is capable of.

I am special only in understanding of what must be done to produce results. That is, in fact, the only reason any of you reading this should bother to continue doing what I say.

You know, I could’ve blown this recital off quite easily. The publicity was very light for it, and the tickets sold could easily have been refunded. I confess to having thought of it MANY times during the ‘dark weeks’, when the fingers of my left hand seemed to actively defy instruction.

But something in me just wouldn’t accept that outcome.

Going through this ultimately raised my game, not only from the standpoint of playing, but also, and more importantly to me now, from the standpoint of understanding what I have to offer as a teacher.

In the process I had to go even deeper into the tools and techniques I’ve used for success previously. My appreciation for what breathing properly, visualizing with intention, and playing with a pure understanding of playing fundamentals can do for one is greater than ever.

I don’t understand how the issue with my hand came to be, but I sure as heck know how to prevent it from stopping me in reaching my violin goals.

Bottom line is this, the violin is perhaps the most multi-faceted activity a human can engage in. And I think I have some valuable insights to offer in the practice of it.

Over the weekend several people ordered ‘Kreutzer for Violin Mastery’, all 4 volumes. They are getting a program that will serve them well for many years, if they apply themselves to it.

If you haven’t already done so you can reap the same benefits at http://www.violinmastery.com/kreutzer.htm

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. An even higher level of violinistic problem solving may be found in the practice of Paganini. My one-of-a-kind course pierces through the challenges found in 8 of his Capricen.