Double Your Pleasure

There are few things more satisfying on the violin than playing in-tune, beautifully clear double-stops. On the other hand, there is also little that presents as much challenge.

So, what is a body to do about them?

For one thing, stop struggling.

The last thing you want to find yourself doing is grinding away at the violin in frustration trying to subjugate two hapless pitches that just don’t want to fit together.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had students do this; stand next to me and saw away at their instrument first adjusting one finger, then the other, then BOTH at the same time.

Dreadful!

Even when they managed to force their fingers into agreement they had become so tense and disoriented there wasn’t a chance in hell of them finding the same positions again.

So let’s take a look at a better way.

First off, when you sense yourself struggling with double-stops you must take a breather. And I mean that literally. Come to a complete stop, and take a deep, relaxing belly breath.

To play double-stops the mind and hands – both right and left – must be relaxed and pliant.

The mind must be relaxed for this reason. It is going to INFORM your hands on the simultaneous sounding of two voices. The picture it sends to your hands must be very clear as to the location of each pitch on your fingerboard.

The left hand must be relaxed as can be to allow for each location to be accessed without one finger inhibiting, or distorting the other.

The result is a fantastic exercise in achieving relaxation with focus.

The right arm plays a very important part in this. It is the breath that gives life to the two notes. It also fuses them, giving birth to a ‘combination tone’, ‘resultant tone’, or, as some would know it, a ‘Tartini tone.’ When that third note, the birth-child of a double-stop, harmonizes with the two fundamental notes, you’ve got gold coming out of your fiddle.

Now, in volume 4 of Kreutzer for Violin Mastery you will find much more on the secret to scoring big with double-stops.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Volume 3 really gets your hand set up beautifully for playing double stops. It has a lot to say about holding the violin effortlessly and acquiring the finger independence that double-stop playing requires. Together they make a nice, one-two punch for the intermediate/advanced violinist. Heck, I’ve even had pros tell me how much they’ve gotten from these 2 volumes.