Using Big Muscles For Little Things

You may have gathered, from things I’ve written, that I made a lot of changes in my playing after coming to work with Milstein. ‘Tis true.

It’s also true, however, that by most standards I had some very good training before I arrived in London.

You know, the violin can be played in any number of ways. Just look, for instance, at the playing positions of gypsy players or bluegrass fiddlers.

But the demands on classical players are unique. Physically your body is more challenged playing the Brahms or Tchaikowski Concertos, Paganini Caprices, or Bach unaccompanied Sonatas than the typical set of ethnic tunes.

Numbero uno, the tunes aren’t as long. Numero dos, you aren’t generally playing without the aid of a microphone to a thousand or more people each night.

Let’s face it, classical violin playing isn’t for wimps.

So, although it is possible to play the violin, even classically, with all manner of cock-eyed positions for a while, you aren’t going to enjoy a very long career doing it. At least not at a very high level.

To have the kind of lasting career of a Milstein, you must do things in an incredibly efficient manner.

Let’s just talk about the bow arm.

When I arrived at the Milstein class I came from a background in which the fingers and wrist of the bow arm were trained to be very active in a number of bowing techniques; martelé, spiccato, changes of bow direction, etc..

Milstein’s comment to this was the following; ‘when an eye surgeon makes an operation, he/she uses very heavy tools. Why, because that causes the large, steadier muscles to work and gives the surgeon greater precision and less shakiness. ’

He felt the same applied to the violin.

Rather than use the muscles in the hand and wrist to make smooth bow changes, he used the flow of the whole arm. Rather than grip the string with the fingers of the right hand to initiate a martelé stroke, he applied weight from his arm.

The Milstein approach was as elegant as it was simple. He didn’t need a ‘death grip’ on the bow because he was using the large, sure muscles of his arm to control it.

I think this also accounts, in part, for the extraordinarily long concert career he enjoyed. I don’t know of any other violinist of the 20th century that played at such a high level for so many years. Truly amazing.

P.S. Doing more with less is what the ‘Kreutzer for Violin Mastery’ is all about. And believe it or not, I still have one ready to ‘Priority Mail’ to you today.
All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Just so you know. ‘Bach and Kreisler for Violin Artistry’ will ship on Wednesday. That means it SHOULD arrive to those who have purchased at the sale or prepublication price before the weekend. Come to think of it. There’s still time to take advantage of a great discount AND have it arrive in just days.