Have No Fear When Shifts Are Near

A student of ‘body language’ knows that a person telling you a lie, especially a child, will have great difficulty looking you in the eye when doing so.

It’s simply a natural instinct within us to avoid, or deny, what causes us discomfort. For most of us lying is quite uncomfortable.

This reflex plays out in violin playing as well.

The other night my wife quartet received its second performance; this time in Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress – by the way, I learned after the concert that Bartok’s 4th string quartet and Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’ were both commissioned by the Library and given their world premieres in same venue.

As a group the quartet plays quite wonderfully. But looking at the first violinist’s technique there is one area in which he is in need of work.

You guessed it, shifting.

From an early age many of us acquire a fear surrounding playing out of tune. Shifts magnify that anxiety, for obvious reasons. This anxiety leads to a ‘fight or flight’ response.

The ‘fight or flight’ response results in decreased body awareness. Decreased body awareness results in unattractive body movements that in turn result in unattractive sounds coming out of the violin.

The player may end up playing ‘in tune’, but yet ‘tuning out’ the unsightly bulges of sound proceeding the shift movement.

Here’s the good news. You can have your cake and eat it too.

With a combination of patience and awareness you can transform shifts from ‘stabs in the dark’ to highly efficient and/or expressive devices.

Of course in the Kreutzer series I talk quite a bit about this. But just to get you started, remember that the shifting movements of your left forearm must not affect your bow speed. Nor should the downward pressure on the bow change at the moment of movement.

Whether you make a lightning fast and seamless movement from one position to another, or a slow expressive slide, the right arm must go about it’s business supplying a constant and even stream of sound.

Plain and simple.

Tune in to these and you will spare your audience the effort of ‘tuning out’ in order to enjoy the music coming from your instrument.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop