The 4 Theatres of Movement

Just completed a little ‘tune-up’ practice session. Tonight I begin recording the instructional portion of my soon to be released course on Paganini Caprices.

Part of the process refreshes my thinking on fundamentals. I thought you might enjoy some of what passed through my mind.

You see, there are exactly 4 ‘theatres of movement’ you must be intimately connected with when playing. They are the fingers of the left hand, the left fore and upper arm, the right forearm, and the right upper arm.

Let’s look at them closely.

The fingers of the left hand are responsible for finding notes within a position. When the music you’re playing is diatonic – in one key, that is – and fairly slow, this is not such a difficult assignment. Things get complicated, however, when the music is fast, chromatic, and requires quick extensions, compressions, and movements across strings.

To accomplish these feats we develop independence of movement, flexibility, and a light touch.

The left arm gets us from one position to another.

Now, shifting requires a coordinated movement of both the forearm and the upper arm to move the hand in line with the fingerboard – generally not much of a problem going up the violin. Turns out, however, it is much more natural for us to accomplish this going toward the body rather than away from it. So downward shifts tend to be more problematic.

Now the right side.

The right forearm is largely responsible for the horizontal movement of the bow. How weight is transferred to the bow through the forearm, and how rapidly the forearm draws the bow across the string determines the kind of tone we produce.

The right upper arm is, again, LARGELY concerned with changing strings.

Now, just to shed a little more light, know that most of us will find it easier to go from an up-bow to a down-bow when crossing from a higher string to a lower one, and from a down-bow to an up-bow when crossing from a lower string to an upper string. By being aware of this you can sometimes arrange bowings to make things easier for yourself.

Now remember this, just as with the concept of yin and yang in Asian philosophy, you will find that even in cases of extreme yin there will be a tiny amount of yang to be found, and vice-versa.

In other words, your right upper arm will often move Sympathetically with the horizontal movement of the forearm, particularly when full bows are called for. This doesn’t mean it is in the driver’s seat, however.

And further, sometimes you will pivot from the elbow when crossing back and forth between two strings, leaving the upper arm quite still.

But these, as the saying goes, ‘are the exceptions that prove the rule.’

What is absolutely essential to clean, beautiful violin playing is complete mastery of these 4 theatres of movement. Come get started on the course that lays it all out for you in living color today.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT; I will be coming to Sacramento and Los Angeles the 3rd week in June. I will be scheduling 2 half-day ‘intensives’ in each city for 4 highly motivated doers. Contact me by phone or email for details.