In Pursuit of Calm, Clear Fingers

At the past weekend’s master class we covered a lot of ground. In the course of things we took a very close look at the workings of the left hand, particularly with an eye to achieving ‘velocity.’

It’s funny, in a way, how you have to go incredibly slowly sometimes in order to clear the way for going super fast. The trick is to really do slowly exactly what you intend to do fast.

A lot of folks have trouble have trouble doing just that, however.

When playing things slowly the fingers must all remain quietly poised over the strings ready to fire. And when they are called upon they must execute with absolute clarity and lightness.

I think it really surprised people to witness just how lightly my fingers are contacting the string when I’m playing fast. The strings don’t even touch the fingerboard.

Aside from the minimal amount of muscle energy required to orient my fingers out over the string, there is no tension in my hand. And when a finger is ‘fired’, just the muscle involved with that finger fires, the rest of the hand remains quiet.

Getting this level of control takes a willingness to play quite slowly with tremendous focus. After all, you’re seeking control over small, individual muscles here.

Once you begin to get this control, however, things can proceed quite quickly. The first step is the hardest – slowing yourself down and isolating the muscles of each finger.

It can be almost a painful experience for some.

But again, once you get it the first time it comes much easier from then on.

All the detache Kreutzer etudes are great for developing this focused, relaxed, independence of movement. It’s always great to have a model and an inspiration when doing this. You’ll find just on Kreutzer for Violin Mastery.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. We also spent a fair amount of time straightening out bow arms. It begins and ends with getting right hand tracking in a straight line from one end of the bow to the other. Kreutzer, Vol. 1 is also just the ticket for getting the kinks out just about any bow arm.