Viola, The Un-Violin

Well, I’m back from Tinsel-town USA and beginning to resume my normal routine. Not entirely normal, for the couple of days I’ve switched to playing viola.

Now, as you must know, the viola is often the butt of jokes in the string section. And I must admit I enjoy them as much as anybody. Yet when played by the likes of William Primrose, Paul Neubauer, or any other accomplished player, it’s an instrument of tremendous nobility and expressivity.

Yet the question I’ve been asking myself these past mornings, as I play unaccompanied Bach, Paganini Caprices and Kreutzer Etudes, is this. ‘Is the viola a different beast from the violin, or not.’

My conclusion, in spite of what many violists may say to the contrary, is NO, it is most assuredly not a different beast.

And I’ll even go a couple steps further. Nor is the cello or the string bass, for that matter.

All the instruments of the string family rely on the very same muscle groups to play them effectively. Yes, the longer, thicker and lower the strings are the greater energy is required to set them vibrating. Yet once you are the master of one you can use the same principles to master another in a much abbreviated amount of time.

A number of years ago while on a recording session for the movie ‘Apollo 13’ I asked a friend in the bass section if I could play a few notes on his instrument. After I played for a few of minutes another bass player came over and asked when I studied the bass.

I never had. In fact, I hadn’t tried to play anything on one since junior high school, way back when.

All I did was think like a string player, letting my fingers and arms adjust themselves to the longer string length and greater resistance – I did know up front that the bass is tuned in fourths and that the third finger is avoided in the lower positions.

Now, there is good reason to play another string instrument, now and again. It requires that you take what you know about string fundamentals and adapt them to a different environment. For a violinist it’s good to stretch the fingers, and to involve the large muscles in the back and shoulders to a greater extent.

In my Allegro Players program, in recent months, I have been focusing quite a bit on the use of the muscles in the back – what I call the ‘wing muscles’ – to move the left hand through the positions. And though it may take a little persistence for a newcomer to get the feel of these muscles, the payoff down the line is huge in terms of the security and strength of the left hand.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. I am beginning to post details of my practice sessions on Twitter and Facebook, for those who are interested. My Twitter address is; http://twitter.com/ClaytonHaslop