You know, the essence of double stop playing is merely the singing two lines simultaneously. It’s really that simple.

‘Yea, easy to say,’ you might be thinking. ‘Not so easy to do.’

And you’d have a point.

Double stop playing requires patience and discipline, perhaps even a willingness to endure a little discomfort, for the mildly arthritic. Yet the rewards for staying the course are wonderful, and almost unique in the world of music.

After all, how many instruments have the capability to play two lines simultaneously. And amongst those, how many can make micro-adjustments to the tuning of the pitches ‘on the fly’ so that they are truly in tune acoustically – the piano cannot.

Well, if you know of one, let me know. All right, guitar strings can be pulled to effectively adjust the pitch.

Now, the challenge is to really get the control of your hands and ear necessary to do them beautifully and easily. It has been such a challenge, in fact, that many a pedagogue and performer have written volumes of etudes on the subject.

Interestingly, Rudolphe Kreutzer dedicated only 12 of his 42 Etudes/Caprices to double stops. Yet each is a little gem, with a very important lesson to teach.

So much so that I dedicate 2 DVDs to teaching the ins and outs of playing them beautifully and with the appearance of great ease.

Volume 4 of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery tain’t for everyone, mind you. No, if you haven’t had any REAL experience with double stop playing, or your hands are yet very stiff and tight, my Allegro Players program is your ticket. In its monthly sets of lessons you’ll be brought along gently yet determinedly to the skill.

The important thing, however, is to understand how to play double stops Effectively at the earliest possible point in one’s development.

Now here’s a little tip or two on the subject. Number one, don’t over press with your fingers; play with the minimum of pressure possible. I don’t even push the strings down to the fingerboard unless I’m required to play fortissimo.

And remember, listen and sing BOTH notes. Most of us follow one pitch, allowing the second to come along for the ride; not good enough.

Now, go have a wonderful practice.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. Almost forgot to mention this. I don’t wait for my ‘Allegro Players’ to introduce double stop playing. Even in my program for beginners I have folks double stopping after just a few short months.

Thick, overhead clouds today. If we’re lucky we’ll see a cloudburst come afternoon. Could make things interesting for my daughter and I during our late afternoon riding lesson.

This morning I had a rather profound realization. I think you’re going to enjoy it.

As we grow we are constantly challenged to caste off outdated and inefficient ways of doing things. Thing is, our minds and muscles often spend years defending them far below the level of consciousness.

And sometimes, either through a great expenditure of will or an abundance of talent, we give off the appearance of success.

Inevitably, however, events can come to a breaking point. In fact it should be seen as a blessing when they do. They are, after all, clear and present opportunities for personal growth.

So let’s say you’ve reached such a place, and let’s also assume that you’ve got a fair idea of what change you need to graft into your playing and/or musical thinking to remedy the difficulty.

There is still the challenge of rooting the new habit or way of doing something so firmly and deeply that it consistently supersedes the ‘old way’ in performance.

Yep, the best of intentions can just dematerialize like a desert mirage when the pressure is on, can’t they.

What I realized today very powerfully, however, is that it is possible to meet this challenge, providing you do the following:

Make the case for the new SO compelling and attractive that your body-spirit reaches for it, and nothing else – even when the heat is on.

Now, I find that doing some seemingly unrelated activity along with the one I’m trying to adopt into my playing is essential to this end. Verbalizing the beat, visualizing the music in your mind, and moving your feet to the music can all be useful.

The point is you’ve got to take your learning to a deeper level than that held by what your are replacing, and beyond any shadow of doubt held secretly in mind.

Yes, the process can be uncomfortable at times. That’s to be expected, in fact.

After all, if playing in public is uncomfortable to you, creating and meeting a challenge of greater discomfort can be quite disarming to that vulnerability.

So I say, “Bring it on.”

And don’t forget the ‘once difficult now easy’ reality we’ve experienced with every skill we’ve ever mastered. There is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by putting up with a little extra, purposeful discomfort to increase the effectiveness and potency of this effect.

As I’ve said in my courses, if you can play and count a piece simultaneously, with accuracy and control, it leaves you way ahead of the game when you, say, surrender the counting in favor of following a conductor.

So there you have it.

To surrender bad habits you must not only discover more effective ways of doing things – you must also root those new ways more deeply in the mind and body than what they replace.

All My Best, Clayton Haslop

When I was young I had several traumatic experiences with memory. On one occasion I stood up to play and couldn’t remember the first note of the piece.
Not a very good thing for one’s confidence.

In fact it took many years before I felt at all ‘right,’ when performing, without a music stand in front of me. Sure glad I got over it.

And here’s what I did.

I FORCED myself – and at first my little gray cells strained with the effort – to ‘see’ the music in my mind’s eye while playing. And I didn’t only do it with the violin under my chin. At night I would visualize myself playing through my newly memorized repertoire in my head as I lay in bed.

Yes, it did tend to wake me up a bit.

Yet once I relaxed and fell asleep I slept great, knowing there was something in my head I could recall at will rather than only when the stars were aligned in my favor.

I still do this today.

Over the years I’ve created new challenges to my memory. I will count out loud while I visualize and play. I will even dance hip-hop steps around the living room while counting.

In recent days I’ve begun incorporating something new into my arsenal of memory. Now I’m memorizing ‘the changes,’ as jazz players refer to the flow of harmonies that make up a piece.

If I know on which beat or subdivision of a beat each chord changes, and can improvise on them without getting hopelessly lost, then it really doesn’t matter if I momentarily forget Mr. Beethoven’s notes or not – with all due respect.

The show will still go on.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. This month I am donating 20% of what comes into Violin Mastery to two string programs, one here in Sedona and one in Puerto Rico. It’s a great time to get the course you’ve had your eye on.

Very curious times we’re living in. So many potent and unfortunate agendas being pursued in the world, and the majority of us caught in the middle just wanting to ‘live, and let live.’

In any case, thanks be to violin playing. It is to me as the harp was to king Solomon.

This morning I realized something on a pretty profound level – over my lifetime of playing I have wasted a great deal of time. Yep, and the reason for this is simple. In the past I did not understand the following concept near fully enough.

One must change one’s thinking in order to change one’s playing.

Bearing this in mind, I shudder to think how common it was for me, in my earlier days, to repeat and repeat passages with little or no change in what was going on between my ears.

Mind you, I did have SOME idea how to do things back then. And my body, being younger, was more willing to deal with what inefficiencies – bad habits – I was blind to. Bottom line, I managed to get along fairly successfully, by most standards.

Yet I always had the sense I was coming up a little short. And my way of addressing this feeling was frequently by turning to more repetition. More practice time.

In recent years I’ve gotten a little smarter. Like surface rainwater filtering through layers of soil to a great under ground aquifer, this concept Milstein raised with me many years ago has slowly but steadily sunk in.

Today I feel as though I’ve reached the aquifer laying deep beneath the parched land.

And it all rests with our power to visualize. Improvement is about casting the net of visualization on new waters. Jesus used much the same metaphor – fishing nets cast on the other side of the boat – when talking to his disciples about their own thinking.

What a teacher can do is give you some useful ideas. Point you in specific directions that are likely to bear fruit.

In my courses this is what I have sought to do – for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players. At the very least they stimulate your thinking. At best they lead the way to quantum leaps in your effectiveness on the instrument.

Here’s where you can find the one exactly right for you.

All the best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. Today I was hip-hopping as I played the 24th Paganini Caprice. Doing this would not be possible were it not for the understanding of technique I teach in ‘Paganini for Violin Virtuosity.’

Just now – as of the past several days – I’ve been quite caught up in the beauties of renewal and rebirth. It’s a particularly refined version of ‘spring fever,’ me thinks.

Anyway, today I’d like to chat a little about getting some renewal into your sound vis a vis something we call vibrato.

Now, in my Beginner’s Circle program I dedicate time over several lessons to the technique. I go step by step through it, starting with the best place to begin on the violin, the basic motion of the hand and fingers, and a very simple exercise. In the process every detail of a wrist vibrato – arm vibrato as well, actually – are gone over.

Except one, perhaps.

And today you get it from the horse’s mouth right here.

You see, think of how clouds form. It turns out that water vapor in the atmosphere must have something present in order to coalesce into water droplets.

Well, the same is true for a seed to begin growing; that is, water must reach out to touch it.

The same is true of vibrato. In order for the wrist to spring to life there must be an intention that reaches into the hand.

Now, what I’m finding is that some adult beginners have difficulty getting the intention to vibrate to activate the muscles of the forearm that actually do the work.

So I’d like to give you something to ‘prime the pump’, if you get my drift. And here’s what you’re going to do.

You’re going to practice a little squeeze and release, squeeze and release exercise with each finger. Do it just with the finger and keep it gentle don’t even press the string fully to the fingerboard.

At first you want to do it slowly. Even try doing in rhythms; quarters, eighths, triplet eights, sixteenths.

After you have the hang of it try allowing this flexing of the hand muscles to expand across your wrist into the forearm muscles.

Et viola, you have your wrist vibrato up and running.

And the nice thing about this is A) it gets your hand relaxing, and B) it can be used to narrow and focus the forearm muscle movements.

All My Best, Clayton Haslop

P.S. As I said, the biggest part of the vibrato story is found in the Beginner’s Circle program. In fact there is so much in it I think it should be a part of every violinists video/audio library. Here’s where you can get your copy.