How a Violinist ‘Holds an Edge’

Last night my wife and I watched the Ladies ‘Long Program’ from the World Championship of Figure Skating. As always, we saw some great stuff. And let me tell you, figure skating has a lot to teach violinists. Here’s why.

One of the most important fundamentals of figure skating is having the ability to ‘hold an edge.’ As you must know, a figure skate is ground flat on the bottom, producing two edges, an inside edge and an outside edge.

If you’ve ever observed first-time skaters – or been one yourself – you’ll remember the shuffling/walking kind of step of the complete neophyte.

The body is rigid and straight up and down. There’s about as much real contact with the ice as my daughter had with the strings of her violin the first day I gave it to her.

Only with time and practice does a skater learn to lean, and begin to exploit the skate’s edges.

The next step is to truly get ‘into the knees’, and this too requires control and practice.

Well guess what, my friends. Gliding beautifully across the ice holding an edge ‘deep in the knees’ is so analogous to producing a glorious tone on the violin it gives me shivers.

Getting ‘into your knees’ is the equivalent of bending the stick of the bow. Not with tension and muscle force, mind you. With relaxed arm weight, augmented when needing with smooth, controlled, and specific muscle contractions – can’t stress enough how proper breathing helps this.

‘Holding an edge’ is the slight tilting of the bow, and the conscious, seamless, and continuous horizontal drawing of the right hand through space.

Now, this morning I was also preparing for an ‘intensive’ on the first movement of the Mendelssohn Concerto. What a great piece to bring this kind of tone production to.

Just think of the flowing eighth notes that begin the development section and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

But the absolute masterpiece for cultivating the ABILITY to ‘hold an edge’ and ‘get into your knees’ where tone production is concerned, is Kreutzer #1.

And to think many violinists never even PLAY it.

Well, I do. And when I do it requires about 10 minutes to go through it once. It’s that slow. And it should give you some idea of the ‘edge control’ needed.

Granted, old #1 is a pretty advanced exercise. So much so that I’ve saved it for Volume 3 of ‘Kreutzer for Violin Mastery.’

So if you’ve been wanting to improve your tone production and need some real insights to make it happen. Here’s the link to get you on the edge, but not over!

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. I’ve got my web master working furiously to get my new lower intermediate monthly program up on the web site. I should have some news in this regard later this afternoon – keep an eye on that in-box.