ON SLOW PRACTICE

At a recent Q&A session with kids and their parents, someone piped up,
“My son likes to play through his pieces instead of practicing them.
His violin teacher says that he should practice slowly. What does this
mean?”
As anyone who has taken private lessons is probably aware, one
practice technique encouraged by teachers is indeed “slow practice”.
However, it can be difficult to know where to start when beginning to
apply such a method. Many students – at one point, me included –
wonder why it’s so important to do this, what they’re expected to
listen for in the process, and how to relate that to their “up-to-
tempo” efforts.
Below, I’ve described some of my favored approaches to slow practice,
but these were all around long before I began violin studies. Some
people stick with one method; some prefer another. I mix it up, doing
all of them individually from time to time, depending on my needs on
any given day.
To any students out there who may need slow-practice advice, I’d
suggest reading this through, trying these different options, and
figuring out what works best for you. Remember that slow practice is
only one of many different practice techniques. A good practicer will
alternate it with other musical work, in order to improve consistently
on numerous levels. Finally, I have to mention that if you feel like
your teacher understands you, chances are that he or she will be able
to guide you in the right direction better than anything you might
read on someone’s website.
Starting from the beginning of your piece, play everything in slow
motion: every note, every bowstroke, every shift, and every string
crossing.

In the left hand, pay special attention to the distances between

fingers (which ones play half- steps and which play whole-steps), the
number of positions your shifts are covering, the name of each
position you’re playing (first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.),
the distances your fingers cross between strings, the angle of your
fingers on the strings, the amount of space your hand takes up on the
neck and body of the violin, and – very importantly – the absolute and
relative intonation of the notes you’re playing. To check intonation,
be sure to slow-practice with AND without vibrato.

For the right hand/ bow technique, concentrate on bow distribution

(the proportionate length of each bow stroke to the ones surrounding
it, depending on rhythm, absolute length, loudness, and intensity of
tone), contact point (your bow-hairs’ placement between the bridge and
the finger board), the straightness of your bowstroke, the flexibility
of your fingers in bowchanges at the frog, and the position of your
hand when you’re playing at the tip. Count the number of notes between
string crossings; make sure that your bow is ready to cross strings by
being as close as possible to the new string, so that you can cross
without showing a lurch; and listen carefully to the ends of your
bowstrokes, avoiding any sudden, unintentional change in dynamic when
you switch bow direction. During this time, also work on correcting
any technical issues your teacher or colleagues have pointed out.

I use this version of slow-practice when learning a piece; when

reacquainting myself with something I haven’t played for a while; and
on a regular basis, when maintaining a piece over a
long period of time. It helps to clear my mind of the chaos of full-
speed practice, rehearsal, and performance, allowing me to focus on
the building blocks of technique.

This is the next step after basic slow practice. One problem many
people have with slow practice is that it doesn’t connect to their in-
tempo playing. They’ll carefully repeat a certain passage under tempo
again and again, but somehow, every time they try to play it up to
speed, it feels entirely different and refuses to cooperate. The
problem is logical: slow practicing doesn’t realistically capture the
difficulties of full-speed transition – in this case, transitions from
one finger or hand position, or string, or part of the bow, to
another. As it happens, playing an instrument is very much like
dancing or performing an athletic feat: momentum and motion add a
whole different dimension of difficulty to what would otherwise be a
simple series of steps, leaps, motions, or poses.

There is a way to work around this common slow-practice problem, once

the player is familiar with the technical challenges inherent in a
particular piece:
Practice the notes slowly but move between them at the speed required
at full tempo.

For the left hand, this means – among other things – setting one’s
fingers at an angle from which the next series of notes is efficiently
reachable at tempo; shifting as fast as one would at full speed; and
arranging one’s arm and wrist in a position to vibrate immediately if
needed.

For the right hand, this would include very smooth, quick string
crossings; concise, up-to-tempo bow changes; and precise bow placement
for tricky techniques (staccato, sautille, martele, ricochet, etc.).

Lastly: always, always think at least a beat ahead – if not a measure

or more – while practicing this method. I find this practice technique
to be useful in lyrical, melodic lines as well as virtuosic passages.
It makes me think both in the moment and ahead of myself – exactly
what a performer should do when onstage.

This is a biggie: body position. If a musician plays with poor posture

or an unhealthy setup, he or she runs the risk of physical strain and
chronic injury. Even the most physically-aware performers should check
their playing-alignment every day. Slow work to that end can shed
light on harmful habits which would otherwise go unnoticed.

Some things to keep in mind during this exercise: straightness of the

spine and neck, side-to- side and linear angles of the left arm and
wrist, torque on the right arm and shoulder, inefficiencies of motion,
exaggerated postural asymmetries (seated or standing) while playing,
and unnecessary twisting of the body. If the musician has aches or
pains, consider the source and any motions which might be forcing the
muscle, joint, or tendon to do something overly unnatural. Playing an
instrument should not be strained; it should feel physically
satisfying if a little awkward. The more advanced the instrumentalist,
the more efficient and comfortable his or her motions should be.
Inexplicable discomfort may be the result of a bad habit, ill-fitting
equipment (shoulder rest, chinrest, etc.), or a basic technique which
is unsuited to that musician’s particular body.

To a certain extent, the player ought to be able to tell whether or

not he or she is properly set up. There are, however, many aspects of
technique and posture which are noticeable only from a third-party
perspective. To get around this obstacle, an instrumentalist may
videotape him- or herself, look in a mirror, or – my favorite – check
him- or herself in a window reflection or a wall shadow.

It’s extremely important for the musician to be honest and to keep an

open mind. Therefore, NO CHEATING. Maintain normal playing posture
throughout this exercise, however tempting it may be to model the
ideal. Everyone is capable of carrying themselves well for a few
minutes, but most problems can only be identified through realistic
observation.
This slow-practice technique is appropriate for instrumentalists of
all levels. It’s essential that beginners learn proper playing posture
and that professionals maintain it throughout their careers.

This final listing is the icing on the cake. It focuses on phrasing

and musicality. Some teachers believe physical technique should come
first, the interpretation developed later. My teachers taught me that
technical prowess and musicality are inextricably connected, so I’m
used to working on both at once. Whatever your opinion, this can fit
into anyone’s practice plan.

To produce phrasing, one must refer to technical means: loudness,

softness, tone control, bow distribution, articulation, rhythm, and
vibrato, among others. Some people consider intonation to be
expressive, too. Working slowly on all of these in the context of
phrasing is different from the other three above-mentioned practice
techniques, which build and maintain technical skills. This method
forces the musician to apply his or her physical abilities to the
interpretation itself, which is well-nigh impossible at a slow tempo
without a clear idea of the direction of the music or the shape of
one’s interpretation. At a slow speed, there is no such thing as
“inspiration of the moment”. Hence, to practice phrasing in this way,
do the following: use the same differentiations in volume you’d use at
full speed; be as expressive as you want to be; shape every note; work
on a range of articulation; linger at appropriate times; and vibrate
the way you’d like to when playing full tempo – but do all of it
slowly. Carefully consider the phrasing decisions you make during this
exercise, because they will help shape your musical identity for years
to come.

THOUGHTS ON PRACTICE

Some thoughts on practising

Self-teaching
The art of good practising is the art of self-teaching. It is not
possible to teach anybody to play the violin in one or two hours of
lesson-time each week, but if the student practises enough they can
teach themselves how to play. Therefore one of the best uses of lesson
time must be in teaching the student how to practise.
To be effective teachers, first we have to see, hear and sense
everything about the student‟s playing. Then we have to analyse the
mass of information we receive so that each aspect can be placed in
order of importance. We offer the student the fastest possible
progress when we identify the single most important thing that they
need to fix/change/re-think, and maybe also the second and third most
important thing. Anything else is simply not so important. If we have
blindspots – if we don‟t notice details of posture, technique,
musicianship – and/or if we arrive at the wrong conclusion as to what
is most important – we may get slow results.
Similarly in our practising, if we want the fastest possible results
in the shortest possible time we have to pinpoint exactly what is the
most important thing to do next. Never mind about steps 9, 10 and 11.
If we have any blindspots while practising, if we don‟t listen well or
notice different musical or technical points, progress may be slow or
problems may even get worse.
None of us can be successful teachers just by being personally
brilliant, informed, experienced etc. The only way we become
successful is by bringing success to our students. So everything about
teaching is a matter of problem-solving, not problem identification,
and the same applies to practising.
As important as wheels on a car, good practice depends on self-
discipline. Self-discipline has been defined as the ability to make
yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you
feel like it or not. The key words are „feel like it, or not‟. Anybody
can do something if they feel like it, if it feels good, if it‟s fun
and enjoyable. It‟s when you don‟t feel like doing it, when it‟s hard,
when you‟re tired – and you do it anyway because there are rewards you
want to reap in the future – that you really start to achieve things.
Results, not process
The most important thing is always to go for results, not process.
This means that you must have the clearest, most detailed image of the
exact musical result you want to achieve (and often the physical
actions that create it as well). A vague idea is not enough – the end
result you want must be as vivid in your mind as your actual playing.
The bigger the gap between the vision and the reality of the playing,
the more our creative genius is stirred into action to bridge it, to
make the two pictures as near to identical as possible. But that
creativity doesn‟t start without a sharp awareness of the difference
between what we really want and how things actually are. The clearer
our musical wish, and the harder we listen, the faster we achieve what
we are after.
Severe gaps between our ideal picture and reality can be painful. The
only thing to do is to work with an intensity of purpose so that every
phrase resembles ever more closely the inner vision. If we want to get
the best out of ourselves, we have to avoid reducing the gap by other
means. Making any sort of excuse spells the instant death of
inspiration because the excuse takes the place of the vision.
One easy way to eliminate the gap is simply to not listen, or to
listen selectively. (Becoming an expert practiser is only a short step
away from becoming an expert listener.) Another way to reduce the gap
is to set the standard in the vision very low. For example, we can‟t
play something so we say to ourselves, „well, the accompaniment is
loud in that bar so the intonation probably won‟t be heard anyway‟, or
„well, how many people can really play this passage perfectly – not
many, so it doesn‟t matter if I can‟t‟, or „well, only a few people in
the audience would notice if it was wrong anyway‟, and so on.
Planning
Practice which is planned in advance can be hundreds of percent more
productive than practising at random. Sporadic bursts of odd bits of
inspired practice, in between much longer periods of procrastination,
disorganisation and soul-searching, is not the mark of „artistic
temperament‟. This is really just another excuse. The fact is that
when we work within a structure we can be far more brilliant and
inspired.
Before starting, decide how long you are going to practise in total.
Then decide how many minutes you will give each part of your practice
– exercises, scales, studies and pieces. Then plan what you will do in
each category. Planning your practice of a piece, write down a list of
all the key areas you want to work on (an area can be one or two
notes, a phrase or a whole passage). The more detail you go into the
better, so using short phrases write down exactly what needs
improvement: is it left or right hand; is it a question of pitch,
sound or rhythm; co-ordination; type of stroke; type of vibrato, etc.
Decide also how you want to practise to achieve the result you are
after, for example „top of page 2, rhythm practice, fifteen minutes‟.
You can always change your mind later about what and how to practise,
but the important thing is always to be making decisions in the first
place.
Of course you can do all this without pen and paper if the results are
the same, but many players find that once they have experienced
planning practice on paper they wonder why they haven‟t done it all
their lives.
As part of our approach to planning, it is important to remember that
whoever we are and whatever we do, be it music or anything else, we
will be excellent at some aspects of our work, good at some aspects,
mediocre at some and downright poor at some. If we want to develop
either our playing in general or our playing of a particular piece, it
is a mistake only to concentrate on the areas we are already excellent
at; and trying to make the poor areas excellent can be psychologically
too daunting. But it is always pretty easy to make the good areas
excellent, and to make the mediocre areas good; and it is always
possible to make the downright poor areas at least mediocre. This is
the fastest, as well as the most comfortable, way to move ahead in our
work.
The four stages of learning
1 Unconscious incompetence
2 Conscious incompetence
3 Conscious competence
4 Unconscious competence
In sports training the term „grooving‟ is sometimes used to describe
the process of repetition whereby a new action is repeated again and
again, like wearing a groove into a surface by constant rubbing, until
it becomes unconscious habit. Reaching only Stage 3 in the preparation
of a piece is the reason why things can unexpectedly go wrong in
performance. (“I don‟t know what happened. You should have heard me
play it yesterday.”) When we are under pressure it can be difficult to
think fast, or sometimes even to think clearly at all, and passages
which before had just about worked OK may easily fall apart.
There is also a fifth stage of learning: reaching the point where you
can teach it to someone else.

Some of the chief technical/physical goals

It is often said that „habits are easy to make and hard to break‟. If
that is so, then don‟t try to break habits – just form new ones! Like
the choreography of a dance, which plans each movement in minute
detail, all the actions in playing must be designed. For example, some
of the questions about sound to ask constantly are:
1) exactly where in the bow does the stroke begin, 2) where does it
end, 3) how close to the bridge (does it stay the same distance away
during the whole stroke, or should it move closer to, or further from,
the bridge), 4) how fast is the stroke (is it even, or fast-slow,
slow-fast, slow-fast- slow or fast-slow-fast), 5) how much pressure
(is it even, or heavy-light, light-heavy, light-heavy- light or heavy-
light-heavy), 6) how much hair?
Examples of key left hand areas are: general relaxation of the thumb
and minimum finger
pressure; the different shapes of the hand and fingers in different
positions and on different
strings; when to keep fingers down on the strings and when to lift
them; the speed of the finger
movement (as opposed to the speed of the passage); co-ordination;
finger preparation; shifting
mechanisms – which finger to shift with, which bow to shift on,
practising intermediate notes;
speed and width of the vibrato, and which part of the fingertip;
unceasing attention to intonation –
memorising the feel of the hand and finger on each note, checking open
string notes with the
open strings, thinking in intervals and keys, relating ‟s and ‟s to
the naturals above or below them, etc.
What to practise
The main categories of daily practice are exercises, scales, studies
and pieces.
Exercises and scales
Technical exercises save infinitely more time than they take to
practise. Just a few short sessions each week, on a regular basis, can
bring very fast results which improves all of your playing. If, say,
you regularly spend a little time playing shifting, intonation or tone
production exercises, all of your playing gains in security and
confidence, and it then takes far less time to master any particular
passage.
It is always better to approach things from a variety of angles, since
you can easily lose interest if you go over the same ground again and
again, so vary the material. Build a library of technical books by a
variety of composers/teachers/players, sometimes using one, sometimes
another.
You never have to practise these books in order, from cover to cover
front to back. It is much better to choose whatever looks relevant or
interesting at the time. The essential thing is to keep a record of
everything you practise. Tick every section, line or bar you work on.
A tick does not have to mean that it is „perfect‟, only that you have
looked at it and taken a few steps forward.
Unless you mark what you have practised you can‟t skip around out of
sequence without losing track of what you have already done.
Motivation to practise can burst like a bubble when you get that lost
feeling of „there is oceans of this stuff – I know I‟ve done odd bits
of it before, but I don‟t know what – I‟ll have to start from the
beginning again‟. Using ticks, you can start and finish wherever you
like, and can leave it for weeks or months and still come back to it
knowing exactly where you are. It is also a real motivation-builder to
watch your ticks building up over a period of time.
Rotation of different material is also important when it comes to
scales. Again, tick everything you play. Use a variety of scale books.
They should be practised with all sorts of different fingerings, on
single strings, across the strings in one position starting on each
finger, using the whole range of octaves, and in different bowing and
rhythm patterns.

Studies and pieces

Some of the chief goals are: realisation of each musical idea, maximum
result with minimum effort, intonation, sound, rhythm, dynamics,
phrasing, timing, structure, and bowing and fingering decisions.
Studies offer a simple, step-by-step way to improve technique, often
concentrating on one aspect of playing at a time. It is important to
decide which studies to polish and which to stop practising before
they are really polished. In many cases the fastest progress comes
from simply doing enough work on a particular study to take a few
steps forward, before quickly moving on to the next.
The law of diminishing returns applies here, as it does in learning
pieces. Suppose you practise, for an hour, a study or piece that is
entirely new to you. It is hardly surprising if in that time you
improve it by hundreds of percent. But carry on every day, and after a
few weeks try improving it by hundreds of percent in just one hour. By
then you may be down to one or two percent improvement in any one
practice period. So move on quickly. Try to keep all of your work at
the stage of peak return for your efforts, unless of course you have a
performance coming up, when every extra per cent counts.
You can always return to a study or piece in the future, when you will
find that it has improved in the meantime anyway. Working afresh on
studies you have learnt before is another useful part of the week‟s
work, and you can gain more and more from them each time.
Galamian described three aspects of practising pieces: building time,
interpreting time and performing time. Building time is all the work
of taking passages apart, playing slowly, playing in rhythms,
gradually speeding a passage up with the metronome, and so on.
Interpreting time is the work on structure, phrasing, dynamics,
shaping, expression and so on. Performance time, in which you play
through as if in concert, is an essential element of daily practice,
often missed out because of the player always feeling that the piece
should be practised a bit more first.
Another part of daily practice is the relearning of old repertoire.
Rather than having a repertoire of pieces that you once played, though
you can‟t quite remember what or when, continually relearn everything
on a rotating basis – piece number one in week number one, piece
number two in week number two, and so on until covering all of them.
Then go back to the first piece and cycle through again. Practise one
or two passages for a few minutes if you like, but basically just play
through, enjoy and get the feel of it. Do this with concertos,
sonatas, short pieces, everything important that you have learnt.
A couple of hours like this each week soon adds up, and over just a
couple of months you may be able to rotate your repertoire several
times. The feeling of being at home with a whole repertoire as opposed
to just one piece gives you tremendous confidence, and of course
regular practice of such a wide variety of already-familiar music
greatly improves your overall command as a musician and
instrumentalist.
Methods of practice
It is always helpful to know many different ways to practise. If you
only practise a passage in one or two ways, you may make a lot of
progress in the beginning but then find the rate of improvement
decreasing, and not reach the level you want quickly enough. Using
many different practice methods enables you to look at the same
problem from many angles, and each method improves all the others at
the same time.
Space does not permit a fuller list, but some typical practice methods
are:
-Take a small phrase and repeat it over and over again as for
performance – i.e. up to tempo, with full dynamics and full
expression.
-Play through from beginning to end slightly under tempo.
-Practise in rhythms and with accents.
-Play very slowly to sort out technical problems – it gives you time
to think.
-Fast passages: play with the metronome, starting very slowly and
gradually speeding up. Also
play in groups of four or eight notes, learning how to play each group
with one mental command rather than one command for each note.

-Fast runs: play the first note, then the first two notes, then the
first three, and so on to the end. Also work backwards starting with
the last note, then the penultimate note, and so on.
-Also practice fast passages at performance tempo even if you can‟t
play them yet. „You can‟t run before you can walk‟ may be true, but
practicing at the speed you want to end up at is actually one of the
best ways of getting there.
-Play separate-note passages slurred, to ensure a legato left hand.
Play slurred notes with separate bows, to strengthen clarity.
-Identify which notes in a passage are „dropping out‟, i.e. being
played more softly or shorter than the surrounding notes. Play these
notes with an accent, making them longer and louder than the
surrounding notes.
-Check all open string notes with the open strings.
-Play the same group of notes in different positions to check
intonation.
-Play very slowly, exaggerating musical expression.
-Play through using very little bow, then more and more, in all parts
of the bow.
Mental rehearsal
Practice is nothing to do with training muscles. The muscles are
always innocent, simply carrying out instructions from the brain.
Playing is literally „all in the mind‟. This is easily illustrated by
the following: suppose you sight-read through a piece, making many
mistakes of intonation, sound, rhythm and so on. Then you practice it
for two hours, after which you can play it fluently. What has changed?
Physically you have not changed at all. It is not like working out in
a gym for a month, after which the muscles you have trained are now
physically different. All that has changed is that your mental
picture, of what and how to play, has now taken shape.
In essence, mental rehearsal is a matter of visualizing in detail
exactly how you want to play. Incidentally this is also the ultimate
cure for nervousness. When we are nervous we picture vividly what we
don’t want to happen. Many players only make an effort not to think of
horror images of their coming performance, but this is nowhere near
enough. You have to replace the negative images with the clearest,
most precise and detailed images of what you do want to happen. These
include the musical design, right down to the beginning, middle and
end of each note and phrase, as well as the physical actions that
produce them - like watching an internal movie.
The fascinating thing about mental rehearsal is that you see in your
mind‟s eye exactly the same difficulties (or lack of them) as happen
in your actual playing – for example, if you suffer from tension when
you play, you will see yourself tense when you imagine playing. This
is because you are accessing directly the very same „computer program‟
that 'runs' your playing. By changing the images in your mind, next
time you pick up the instrument you will find your playing has changed
too. This can produce the most dramatic results.
Therefore practice on trains, in the bath, in bed – at every
opportunity. The bottom line is that there is no actual difference
between this and real practice, except that it is far less exhausting
and a quicker process than playing.
How long to practice
You can achieve anything you want, you can set your sights as high as
you like, so long as you are prepared to pay the price, i.e. all the
blood, sweat and tears, sacrifice, dedication, discipline and general
hours of hard work that it takes. The higher you aim, the higher the
price. Dorothy DeLay said recently that whenever a student says to her
“Miss DeLay, it‟s so difficult” (i.e. a piece or a passage), she
replies: “It‟s not difficult, sweetie, it‟s time-consuming!”
It is said that „the amateur practices until it goes right; the
professional practices until it can’t go wrong‟. Success only comes
after intense preparation. We must never be put off course by the
occasional exceptions who seem to get far without apparent effort.
Neither does success come

instantly as a result of one or two factors or efforts: we need to

build up, over a period of time, enough very small „successes‟, moving
inch by inch in the direction we want to go in.
Studies in concentration skills show that concentration is at a peak
at the beginning of a learning session, and again just before the end,
with a big dip in the middle. This means that if you practice for one
hour without a break, you have two periods of peak concentration. If
you divide that hour into two half-hours, with a short break in
between, you will have four periods of peak concentration.
Everybody must work in the way that suits them best. If you prefer to
do all your practice pretty well in one shot, i.e. it takes you about
five hours to practice for four hours, then that is what you should
do, bearing in mind the importance of taking regular short breaks. If
you are more the Milstein type, i.e. a little bit in the morning, a
little bit in the afternoon, a little bit in the evening and a little
bit before you go to bed, then that could be the best for you.
How long should a particular practice method be employed, given that
most of us do not have endless spare hours in which to practice?
Practicing a passage of regular semiquavers, for example, for how long
should you practise them in dotted rhythms?
There are always four main goals to achieve. Each rhythm should be
practised until the three basic elements of playing – pitch, sound and
rhythm – are all good: every note in tune, every note clean and
resonant, and the rhythms mathematically precise. The fourth key goal
is that this should feel easy. Until each rhythm is in tune, clean, in
time, and feeling easy, you haven‟t really mastered it yet.
However, it is often a mistake to carry on working on each rhythm (or
other practice technique) until it is 'perfect' before moving on to
the next. Having made some progress with one rhythm – i.e. it is more
in tune, cleaner, more in time, and feeling easier than it was five
minutes ago – it is generally better to move on to the next rhythm.
Solving some of the problems of playing the new rhythm will improve
the former rhythm at the same time. But practise the same passages in
rhythms on many different occasions.
The importance of making mistakes
Although it is true that „practice makes perfect‟, it is only by
practising imperfectly again and again that gradually we get nearer to
what we really do want. Motivation goes straight out the window if
every time you make a mistake you feel stupid, or untalented, or too
technically deficient, etc. Mistakes are like stepping stones across a
river. Each error that we make, or area of weakness that we identify,
provides us with an opportunity to learn, and therefore to move
forward. It has been said that the person who makes no mistakes is the
person who doesn‟t make anything; and if you have not yet succeeded,
it just means you haven‟t failed enough times yet! Thomas Edison
experimented more than 10,000 times before he succeeded in inventing
electric light. When he was asked by a journalist, after the 5,000th
attempt, why he persevered after so many failures, he replied that he
had not „failed‟ 5000 times – he had successfully identified 5000 ways
in which it did not work, and was therefore 5000 steps closer to
succeeding!
Postscript
A couple of years ago Vladimir Ashkenazy, on tour conducting the RPO,
mentioned happily that the free day coming up was his first day off
for months. “Gosh, what are you going to do, then?”, we asked. “Why,
eight hours practice of course!”, he replied immediately. And you know
what? He was serious.

OTHER THOUGHTS ON PRACTICe

Tadeusz Wroński on Practice: A translation of Chapter Four (“Work on

Playing”) from “The Technique of Violin Playing” Adam Wasiel,
University of Sydney/ Sydney Conservatorium
Technical development as the pursuit of physical freedom is arguably
one of the most important areas of violin study. Without an ability to
execute movements with ease and comfort one cannot attain deep
expression and communication of the often demanding and exhausting
repertoire of a concert violinist. One of the most relevant and
informative chapters within Tadeusz Wroński’s The Technique of Violin
Playing (chapter four “Work on playing”), contains a detailed
discussion on the nature, planning and variety required within
technical practice. The author reflects upon personal and pedagogical
experience, extensively debates and discusses his method whilst
providing invaluable suggestions important to all students and
pedagogues. This free translation aims to highlight the wealth of
knowledge of this somewhat neglected Polish pedagogue and his value in
sparking discussion of commonly held notions concerning material,
practice methods and the structure of development.
Tadeusz Wroński’s Technique of Violin Playing is invaluable in
discussing the nature and thought needed to maximise productivity
within technical practice. Highlighted personal and pedagogical
experiences, discussion of method and suggestions are all based upon a
structured, thought out yet flexible approach taking into account
complex physical and mental phenomena within violin teaching, learning
and performance. Wroński’s holistic approach to technique requires a
degree of discipline and organization on the part of the performer, an
ideal which however unattainable in its entirety, is noble and worthy
of pursuit and reflection.

Technical practice is often chaotic, panic driven, unstructured and

erratic in students, lacking proper work on any technical area. Just
as time for technical work is frequently wasted by the knowledge that
pieces are waiting and there is less and less time before an upcoming
lesson, so too work on repertoire is spoilt through feeling guilty
about neglecting proper technical preparation or having spent time
where nothing more than a warm up was achieved. My first
recommendation is that work with the violin should be thoroughly
planned and one must execute practice with full knowledge that it is
needed and that it saves time later when working on repertoire. One
and a half hours a day is sufficient time for pure technical work.
Through planning and uncompromising performance of technical
exercises, one introduces a sense of inner calm and a clear conscience
into practice.
This is just the first step; the next question is what one should
practice in this time? Jumping from problem to problem is chaotic and
unsatisfying. Daily practice of scales from Flesch’s Scalesystem,
despite the benefits that can be derived, is not sufficient due to a
lack of work on the bow arm. One must practise trills, finger
patterns, staccato, arpeggios, chromatic and diatonic glissandi,
position changes (as a special problem in itself), left hand
pizzicato, vibrato, fast passages, spiccato,
Wasiel, Adam. Tadeusz Wroński’s on Practice: A translation of Chapter
Four (“Work on Playing”) from “The Technique of
ViolinPlaying”.StringPraxis,Volume1,No.1,September2011,11–20.©
[Link]
A. Wasiel | 11

12 | Tadeusz Wroński on Practice

sautillé, ricochêt, grand detaché, harmonics and much more. Numerous
situations occur during practice. For example: we start practising
thirds and after playing a couple of scales we feel that we are
playing them better and better. We focus on this problem and when an
hour of work has passed in a blink of an eye we do not have any time
left to work on other problems. The next day we naturally do not
practise thirds at all but focus on different issues.
Another example is when one day a violinist reminds him- or herself of
the fact that for a couple of years he or she has not practised double
harmonics and left hand pizzicato at all. They throw themselves on
these elements, spend a lot of time over a couple of days on them only
to put them away again with the sad feeling that they are not coming
out as they hoped (nothing unusual in this!). From this emerges the
thought that like a sportsman we should establish a comprehensive plan
for technical training. Alas, at this place everyone seems to stop due
to the huge amount of technical components seeming impossible to
contain within an hour and a half, the view of our work as "soulful"
and the idea that a formulaic and arithmetically planned approach is
blasphemy. In the best situation a violinist practises a couple of
ordinary scales and double stops, a few problems, some exercises given
by the teacher and this is where the technical work ends.
The phenomenon that despite this approach some violinists derive good
and even exceptional results is one of the great mysteries of nature.
The ability to play the violin is an organic and holistic process
which does not develop merely through isolated work on individual
aspects, but grows as a whole. To illustrate this fact I would like to
give an example from my own life. Upon graduating from the Warsaw
Conservatorium in 1939 I performed, amongst other pieces, the Brahms
Concerto. At that time I fell ill with inflamed nerves in my left hand
and well remember my problems playing tenths in the concerto. I was
left with physical injuries and even a few years after the pains had
subsided I avoided tenths, fearing a return of the pain. In 1950 I
began practicing the Concerto after 11 years of not playing tenths at
all. I discovered that they came out with far more ease than before. I
was perplexed by this fact and for the first time understood playing
in a certain organic wholeness. After 11 years, my playing had
developed in all sorts of ways and in this time areas had developed
which had not been worked upon at all. It is clear that these elements
could only develop because playing is not the sum of separate,
independent abilities but an organic whole, developing holistically.
We all discover this fact, the proof being when we occasionally tell
ourselves “This and that is not really coming out but in a year or
two, when I am playing better, I am sure it will” and often we are
right.
We cannot, however, base our work solely on the wonderful talent of
our organism to synthesize all elements of playing such that they
spread throughout our performance. In the case of my tenths, one can
be certain that if I had practised them normally over 11 years I would
have played them even better! My pedagogical experience has told me
that the level of organic, holistic development within playing is
linked to the level of talent. The less talented the student, the more
scrupulous they have to be in their practice of every “screw” and
cannot forget about any area. The more talented the violinist, the
more brilliant their progress appears due to any playing or doodling
acting as a medium in which their holistic playing develops. If they
also cared about “every screw”, the results would be amazing. If we
want to
Wasiel, Adam. Tadeusz Wroński’s on Practice: A translation of Chapter
Four (“Work on Playing”) from “The Technique of
ViolinPlaying”.StringPraxis,Volume1,No.1,September2011,11–20.©
[Link]

achieve the most with our gifts we must observe everything in our
playing and not merely drain our talent.
We should try to comprehensively highlight and assess the idea of one
and a half hours of technical violin practice. Carl Flesch made an
interesting discovery that better results stem from practising a
certain element for a few minutes daily over a long time period rather
than an hour a day over a shorter time period. It appears that
practice of any specific element does not have to be long in terms of
daily work but that it has to be performed every day over a longer
period of time. To master a technical problem one must train it
regularly in small portions over many months and years. One can derive
benefits from Flesch's truth by planning daily work to encompass all
elements of left and right hand technique in small portions of
minutes, the sum of which equals one and a half hours. Is this
possible? It is!
Wroński’s Template for Technical Practice
Left Hand
Normal scales and passages – 10 minutes
Thirds – 5 minutes
Sixths – 5 minutes
Octaves – 5 minutes
Fingered Octaves – 5 minutes
Tenths – 5 minutes
Short trills – 3 minutes
Chromatic glissandos – 2 minutes
Diatonic glissandos – 2 minutes
Changes of position and high positions – 4 minutes Fast runs – 2
minutes
Vibrato – 2 minutes
Pizzicato – 3 minutes
Single harmonics – 3 minutes
Double-stop harmonics – 4 minutes
Total time: 60 minutes
Right Hand
Checking general technique (bow parallel to bridge, good bow contact)
– 3 minutes Grande detaché – 2 minutes
Detaché – 3 minutes
Martèlé – 2 minutes
Staccato – 3 minutes
Spiccato – 2 minutes
Sautillé – 4 minutes
Viotti stroke – 2 minutes
Ordinary arpeggios – 2 minutes
Bouncing and ricochêt arpeggios – 2 minutes
Thibaud exercise – 2 minutes
Three string chords – 3 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Together 60 + 30 = 90 minutes
Before I discuss this plan I have to stop at a certain point which
will bring a smile to more than one reader’s face. I am talking about
the uncommon two to three
Wasiel, Adam. Tadeusz Wroński’s on Practice: A translation of Chapter
Four (“Work on Playing”) from “The Technique of
ViolinPlaying”.StringPraxis,Volume1,No.1,September2011,11–20.©
[Link]
A. Wasiel | 13
14 | Tadeusz Wroński on Practice
minute time periods in which we could train various technical
elements. What could one learn in such short period of time? Is it
realistic? I regret that I cannot ask you, the reader, the following
question and hear your response. The question is: Do you practise in a
year left hand pizzicato for 1095 minutes? For 18 hours? Do you
dedicate 730 minutes a year to practising your vibrato? 12 hours a
year outside from any sporadic work on it within pieces? I am certain
that a violinist using another method will not attain in yearly
numbers this level of work on every technical element. Such two minute
intervals lead to huge benefits and one must also consider that we
encounter these elements in pieces, so that the total sum of work is
much larger than the numbers I quoted. Practising according to this
plan facilitates exclusive work on each technical area.
A detailed explanation of several points from both left and right hand
lists is presented selectively in this translation.
Left Hand:
Point No 7: Practice of the short trill stimulates the left hand
assuming that one obtains its impulsive character and energetic
synchronization with the bow hand. Compared to all different types of
left and right hand movements, the energy of both arms must be
identical in the short trill. I do not accommodate the long trill in
my list of technical elements to be practised because it tires the
hand and is very rarely encountered in large portions within
repertoire. If someone has problems with it they can add it to the
list, those who have no problems with it can omit it from practice.
Points No 8 and 9: Chromatic and diatonic glissandos should be
practised on separate notes as well as on double stops. Like the short
trill they act to calm the energy of the bow hand. Chromatic
glissandos are very difficult for those who do not practise them.
Point No 10: I mention any change of position in practically every
form within left hand work to draw attention to the varying ways in
which one can perform them. Playing in high positions with and without
shifting is mentioned however I identify it as a separate issue on
account of the specific difficulties it poses.
Point No 11: Fast runs are also mentioned as a separate point however
could be placed within point number one (simple scales and passages).
I am concerned primarily with the feeling of impulse within runs.
Point No 12: Vibrato should be practised (if there is a need) on both
long and short single notes. In the later, it has to have impulse
(just like the short trill) and be aligned to the energy of the bow
hand.
Point No 13: Pizzicato should be practised using examples from
repertoire (Paganini, Caprice No 24; Sarasate, Spanish Dances). At the
beginning practice should be soft and there should be an impulse in
the hand on every note. Linking notes in

A. Wasiel | 15
groups should be attempted only after having mastered any problems. So
firstly it should be practised
The sign > indicates the impulse of the left hand even when the sound
is played by the bow. In the following example one must form energy in
the hand in line with the musical grouping.
The signs > (accents) indicate the main energetic impulses. The
longer accents signify a relaxation but not a diminuendo.
Point No 14: Practising single and double-stop harmonics, even if one
would not perform them on stage, is great for the left hand. The
naturally develop preparation, lightness and movement precision whilst
making the feeling more subtle between the hand and instrument.
Right Hand:
Point No 1: Checking general technique only takes into account certain
issues. Actually all points in the right hand category help develop
general technique but the first, the control linking the bow with the
violin, is the most important and most neglected. It consists of two
elements, the parallel movement of the bow to the bridge as well as
the even contact of the bow hair to the string in every part of the
bow. Methods of checking these elements vary but I do it through
repeated bow strokes from the frog to the tip and back in rhythmic
units, checking for a feeling of gravity/weight in the right hand
after each sound.
Point No 2: Grande detaché should be played with the whole bow with as
fast a movement as possible together with large pauses after each
sound in order to relax, correct the state of the bow, resist the next
sound and focus energy before playing it.
Point No 3: Detaché, the daily bread and butter of the violinist,
often does not sound good enough. During “clean” technical practice
there is an opportunity to focus deeper on the mechanics of this
bowing.
Point No 4: The martèlé stroke contains large tonal possibilities
depending on the chosen tempo, dynamic level and area of bow (frog,
upper half or the middle).

16 | Tadeusz Wroński on Practice

During a few minutes of martèlé practice it is necessary to go through
all its different
types.
Point No 5: I give three minutes for staccato practice but the amount
of time depends on the difficulty this bowing presents to the
individual. In my three minute proposal I assume that the performer
has a basic mastery of technical elements but with staccato matters
are often different. It is a stubborn and difficult bowing to master
by someone who has not developed it “naturally”.
Point No 8: The Viotti stroke is well known. I reserve specific
discussion of this bowing to my other publication called “The
instrument of playing”.
Point No 11: I mention the Thibaud exercise after Flesch. It has the
following benefits: a) it forces one to have a strong hold of the bow,
b) it forces quick movements of the right hand and c) it requires a
light movement of the arm and immediate contact between the bow and
string.
Point No 12: Playing three string double stops often leaves a lot to
be desired. The most common fault is the forceful yanking of the chord
from the violin. Before this the bow often stays on the string which
causes a strong snorting sound when it is moved. In minimizing the
strength of bow contact, bow speed is often slowed and the chord
scratches yet again. When trying to further refine the movement, often
notes (either the lowest or highest) from the chord do not sound. The
violinist then tries to play with a kind of arpeggio bow movement like
the following line:
Another fault is attacking the string with the bow from the air which
gives a brutal result. Here are a couple of points, so that three
string chords sound good:
One should play all notes simultaneously, without arpeggiating;
The amount of energy used when playing these chords should not exceed
that used when playing two note chords at the same dynamic level;
The energy of the arm movement should have an impulse in that the
beginning of the chord should be “strong” with an immediate and very
quick release of the energy. In other words, the movement of the arm
should have thrust and momentum. The bow should not attack the string
from the air nor begin from the string. Playing should commence
exactly when the bow touches the string
The movement of the bow should be flat or a little bent at the top

and not which resembles the convexity of the bridge.

The bow should move as if it were centred on the middle string
A. Wasiel | 17
When practising chords during everyday technical work, one is required
to carefully trace problems and by the end be able to perform them in
every part of the bow, in any direction and in varying dynamic
degrees. At the same time we're training left hand preparation which
is linked to chord playing. One has to remember that according to the
previous points we're only training standard types of chords but in
repertoire, according to style and the musical context, the
performance of chords varies from variously broken to more arpeggiated
styles.
Returning to the broader picture of this chapter, everyone should
analyse the points and based on them, devise their own list. One can
eliminate certain points if they are already mastered or link certain
points, for example fast runs and ordinary scales, or double stop
chromatic glissandos and double stops. One can approach this plan
differently through substituting points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14 and 15
with one scale from Flesch’s Scalesystem, stopping oneself at 42
minutes (the sum of all the specific technical elements addressed). If
someone has a good vibrato they do not have to practice it. The
summary put together is as broad as possible in not leaving out
anything which could be practiced, but not necessarily meaning that
everyone has to train everything. The first thing to do would be to
apply the summary to one’s particular needs.
After a certain time, despite everything appearing to be fantastic, I
discovered a certain flaw in my system. As if my thoughts were not
calmed by the number of yearly hours spent training in daily two or
three minute periods, in the depths of my soul there remained a
certain nervousness, a feeling of insufficiency and uncertainty if
this is enough! In order to calm this feeling I decided to introduce
into my system of practice what I call a 'special day'. One day of the
week should be devoted to practising special problems. After much
practice I identified three fundamental types of special days: one
devoted solely to double stops, another to shifting, ordinary scales,
passages and fast runs and a final one for right arm problems.
Saturdays could be devoted for this purpose. I hope, that this
decision will sufficiently calm the violinist’s conscience due to each
of these three problem areas being trained for one and a half hours a
couple of dozen times each year.
I previously mentioned that I am not a supporter of painstaking
methodical work and quite righty one could argue that I came to my
conclusions contradictory to my own experience. This is true and after
a certain time a thought began to bother me, that despite my plan, I
am just doing the same thing in circles. The rigid tentacles of habit
began to spoil the freshness and effectiveness of my original idea.
Previous experience helped me further improve my system. I remembered
what a positive impact every new discovery and practice of new
exercises had upon my playing. I experienced this many times with
Sevcik’s Op 1 Book 4, Flesch’s Scalesystem, Eberhardt’s Absolute
Treffsicherheit auf der Violine, Jacobsen’s Kreutzer Paraphrase Etudes
and other studies. I also remembered a quote of Professor Jarzębski
who responded to a question of mine asking if I could practise
according to Flesch with “of course, the left hand likes new things”.
I reminded myself that after a few months

18 | Tadeusz Wroński on Practice

work on every new position it stopped having a "striking" effect and
that a return to old things again acted refreshingly on the energy and
feel of my left hand. It took mea while until I found a way consisting
of what would appear to be two contradictory truths:
1) In order to master something, you have to perform it over a very
long time and every day as well as;
2) the hand likes change and long practice on the same problems acts
like a 'break' on progress.
I give the solution below and although it can be read in a few
seconds, in reality it developed in my mind over many years. My
relevant conclusion is: in order to learn something well one must have
the particular problem in one’s "workshop" for a very long time,
practise it daily but differently each day!
There's no sense for example in practising only scales in thirds in a
period of five minutes each day, even if they are in different keys.
It's better to practise a legato scale in diatonic thirds one day,
scales in thirds (in third steps) like Flesch suggests another day,
again differently another time with trills on thirds, thirds with big
position changes, chromatic thirds, chromatic and diatonic glissando
thirds, naturally, not all of these at once, but each day playing one
of these varying forms. Other than this we can practice Paganini’s
Caprice No 18 or a fragment of a Paganini Concerto. The point is to
play thirds daily but to play them differently each day. This applies
to all points on the technical practice list. In order not to fumble
and waste time thinking about ways to practise, it would be very
desirable for every violinist to devote one page in a special book to
each point on the technique list and write out all possible ways to
practise that element. It’s enough during playing just to look at the
appropriate page (where it is a good idea to mark with lines how many
times the different forms have been practised) to quickly decide what
should be practised that day.
Here is an example of a page from such a book:
Fingered Octaves
Ordinary scales in 2 note legato /////
Ordinary scales in 4 note legato ////
Slow trills on each step of a scale ////
Octaves from Paganini Caprice No 17 ////
Octaves from Paganini Caprice No 13 ////
Octaves from Wieniawski Polonaise in D Major ///
Scales moving in thirds ///
Passages from Flesch in fingered octaves ///
Exercises from Sevcik Op 1 Book 4 in fingered octaves ///
I encourage all violinists to organise and use such lists and an hour
spent establishing this kind of book will pay off in the future. With
the passing of time one should fill the lists up and in many cases
after obtaining sufficient skill in a technical element, one can
eliminate any “dry” exercises and leave only fragments of repertoire.

Are there any further flaws in my system? Even if it is theoretically

complete, one would be entitled to suspect that there are and any such
gaps should be identified and rectified. I convinced myself that
getting used to performing technical work daily before playing
repertoire is not a good thing. A violinist used to this, when forced
to practise without the beginning one and a half hour technical
session does not feel good, is not warmed-up and lacks that which had
preceded his playing over months or years. One must be able to play at
once, in every situation, after every break, in the morning or
evening. From this stems a further recommendation that one should
practise the list once at the beginning of a day's work, another time
at the end and also in the middle. Violinists should find a way that
they can always play and not be restricted by prior routine and
ritual.
I found another improvement to my system although humanity has known
about it for thousands of years. What I am discussing here is the
rhythm of rest and relaxation. Long ago people started resting on
Sunday after several days work. If this were a waste of time it would
have long been abandoned. It turns out however that we regenerate,
relax, slow down the speeding week-load of work within our brains and
clean our slate of energetic impulse in order for the following one to
be new, fresh and unlinked to the previous. So on Sunday one should
not practise anything technical but at most play something for ones
enjoyment like a Sonata with piano, dedicating time only to musical
problems. Maybe it would be a good idea not to play on Sundays at all?
With the passing of time I am more and more of this opinion but what
violinist could stand the nervousness (besides those born lazy) with
the knowledge that they lost one day of practice in a week? (52 days a
year + inevitable holiday breaks!) How effectively would one need to
practiceduring the six remaining days for a rest on the seventh to
truly be indispensable!
I want to propose a certain other activity which makes my system
easier to use. It is a good thing if every evening one plans one’s
work for the next day so that whilst playing one does not waste time
looking through notes. It is not a draining activity, in fact less
tiring than the most simple beauty treatment, but odd that I have
never met anyone, even amongst my own pupils, who did it! It is
apparent that even some violinists who enjoy many hours struggling
with pieces, have a certain “inability” and even reluctance in this
regard. It truly is a shame!
Technical practice according to my system requires careful control of
time whilst playing and a watch should be an inseparable friend of the
violinist. When the time set for one element expires one should
immediately move on to the next even if he or she feels so comfortable
with the current one! Rests between elements (like relaxing a tired
hand) are counted as part of work. It's a misconception to think that
in the time of a short break one’s brain activity stops. The truth of
the matter is that the brain continues to work on sorting out material
which has just been supplied to
it. In my experience as a pedagogue I have concluded that students
react very well to writing out a technical training plan. I suppose
that one can use it in varying levels of education. Of course the
amount of technical problems will always be linked to how advanced the
student is. A student exiting a class at the beginning of a school

20 | Tadeusz Wroński on Practice

year with a written out plan of practice together with minutes feels a
bit like a patient leaving a doctor’s office or like an athlete
commencing a precise training plan after a conference with his/her
trainer. This truly gives good results in teaching and the influence
of printed or written words is strong. On top of this even if young
people do not like practising they do like training and I believe in
introducing this idea of “training” to instrumental work.
I would not want this system of technical work which I have proposed
to be used in someone's hands as some sort of formal machine used to
torture themselves and others. In order to avoid this I have mentioned
many ways which make this system more elastic and flexible and I would
only strongly defend the fundamental approach that one should train
all elements daily and differently each day. Other approaches lead
either to anarchy or to slow meandering in circles which dulls a
violinist's sensitivity.
Summary Points:
Plan daily technical practice and the time allocated for each element
as accurately as possible;
Practise all elements of technique daily;
Practise each technical element differently everyday;
Practise with a watch and fulfil all points precisely in your plan;
Have all "learning aids", including scale compilations, exercises,
caprices and
pieces, by your side so that you do not have to take a long time to
find them;
Plan technical work for the following day every evening on paper;
Once a week introduce a “special day” where you spend time working on
a certain
set of problems;
Do not practise technique at all on Sundays;
Do not get used to always practising technique before repertoire.
Gather all possible ways of practising every technical element in a
special notebook. Always augment and broaden this list with fragments
of relevant repertoire to particular technical areas.

THOUGHTS ON PEDAGOGY

A. Yampolsky “On the method of working with students”

The Russian violin school has shown remarkable achievements in terms
of immediate creative results, in the accumulation of knowledge and in
improvement of teaching methods. Bringing a truly scientific fundament
to these achievements is a task that is becoming increasingly
relevant.
The goal, which is set when working with students, is to develop a
true musician, widely educated, combining excellent command of the
instrument with a high music taste, prepare the student fully for
independent creative activity. The formation of a musician takes place
not only in the classroom. All branches of musical art, all the
various forms of musical practice with which he is associated in his
studies, to one degree or another affect the student’s creative
growth, enriching his musical consciousness and practical experience.
The role of the violin teacher, in terms of the general musical
education of the student, is more significant than is often imagined.
It is impossible to limit the content of work in a class only to
violin playing, while considering general musical education as a
matter more related to other, theoretical disciplines. In their
practice, teachers should strive to include elements of theoretical
analysis relating to the form of the work being studied, its harmonic
plan, polyphonic structure, and style features. This is one of the
possible ways of connecting theory with practical application,
contributing to an increase in the general musical level of the
student and his growth as a performer.
Speaking about the formation and upbringing by a teacher of a
diversified musician-violinist, one should indicate the basic
conditions ensuring the fulfillment of this task.
First of all, it is necessary that the teacher himself perfectly knows
the nature of the instrument, its features and all those elements that
make up the skill of a violinist.
He must deeply know his student, have a complete understanding of his
natural predispositions, his individual talent, the peculiarities of
his thinking and development. Only on this individual basis should
pedagogical work be built, finding the most correct and effective
methods suiting each student separately.
Each teacher develops certain teaching methods over the years, but
these methods, no matter how good they may be, cannot be applied to
all students without taking into account their individual character,
forcing the teacher to vary, modify and even completely revise his
methods in each individual case. Each teacher should be able to
differentiate students through careful observation and study.
In standard teaching practice, we constantly use concepts that
characterize various degrees of musical giftedness, for example,
“capable”, “talented”, “averege” student. At the same time, we do not
take sufficiently into account the differences that relate to another
category of abilities and qualities - those qualities that are not a
direct sign of professional giftedness (such as hearing, rhythm,
memory, motor abilities), but which play a huge role in the learning
process and sometimes have a decisive influence on the formation of a
musician and ultimately, on his entire future.
We will try to note some of the most characteristic features that
manifest themselves in the work with students, as well as methods of
influence that teachers adhere to in various cases of respective
teaching practice.
1. Independent students. Pupils with these qualities do not have to be
constantly pushed to work, to complete the curriculum, to accumulate a
repertoire - they themselves, by virtue of their initiative and
observation, can in their own way translate and develop the thoughts
and instructions of the teacher, who in this case will give clear
directions to the student’s creative activity. An independent student
usually does not narrow his interests only to his particular
instrument and shows a keen interest in music art in general, in
diverse other disciplines of social and cultural life.

2. Students unable to self-manage tasks. Usually shown through the

student’s inability to draw conclusions from individual instructions
of the teacher. Such students, as a rule, poorly absorb the remarks of
the teacher, do not see the main goal in the work and constantly
repeat the same mistakes in each new composition they study. In this
case, it is especially important to be able to concentrate the
student's attention on the main task at hand, without being distracted
by excessive detailing and piling up of details. The method of
“cramming” or “repetition training” in such cases is especially
harmful (although it gives a short-term immediate effect), as it acts
along the line of least resistance and essentially ignores the
student’s main weaknesses. The main task must be to clearly identify
the largest shortcomings of the student and set specific goals,
indicating ways to achieve them.
3. Students who are unable to finalize their work. This feature is
usually found in very capable students. Such students must be fostered
with purposefulness (goal-orientation), perseverance, will-power and
endurance in overcoming difficulties that are directly associated with
achievements of a particular artistic goal. One or more truly
finalized pieces that are successfully performed on stage will have a
decisive effect on their development.
4. Students with increased emotionality, in some cases even those who
are not even able to control themselves during class. The re-education
of such students towards greater consciousness, concentration and
liberation from excessive excitement usually requires a prolonged
period of time and should be done with great care so as not to drown
out the student’s creative personality. Strengthening the rhythm,
which is usually the weakest point of overly emotional performers, is
a very significant remedy. Preliminary and detailed acquaintance with
work-in-progress pieces away from the instrument, on the piano is
especially useful - analysis of the structure, analysis of thematic
material, tempo, etc. so that the student has a definite idea of the
work “as a whole”, before learning it on the violin. This method of
working with overly emotional students helps them achieve greater
stability and integrity in their performance.
5. Passive, phlegmatic students. In the performance of such students,
impression of passivity prevails over expression, performing energy
and musical-emotional impact. However, lethargy in playing is not
always a sign of insufficient musical receptivity or an expression of
a personal character trait. Paradoxically, we often observe this lack
of performance-engagement in students who, in ordinary life, do not
appear sluggish or non- temperamental at all. Others, on the contrary,
may seem lethargic in their day-to-day character, but their playing
can surprise with considerable emotionality. From the point of view of
pedagogy, the selection of an appropriate repertoire, on which the
emotional side of performance can be gradually developed, is of
particular importance. Of great importance is also the work on
dynamics, particularly on the use of accents, which may provide
liveliness and energy to the performance. During the learning process,
even a distinct exaggeration of these points may be useful.
6. Nervous students. We all know students with an increased level of
nervousness, whose mental state during performance manifests
instability, uncertainty and lack of self-control. This nervousness is
not exclusive to performing on stage, but also applies to playing in
class and in rehearsals. Typical are semi-random technical errors,
memory slips, involuntary accelerations and slowdowns, all not
occurring as a result of badly managed practice. Nervousness in
playing can be associated with causes outside of music (such as the
general condition of the nervous system, may be age-related, or a
symptom of a mental trauma, etc.), but may as well occur in completely
healthy people. In many cases, the cause may lie in gaps of musical or
technical training and development; particularly segments that are not
properly assimilated and worked out at the proper time, subsequently
affecting the playing of an adult, even of an established musician. In
addition to general measures to strengthen physical health and the
nervous system, the most proven and tested means against the "stage
fright” are frequent performances, as well as appropriate training in
lessons and rehearsals (in particular, playing through). Regarding
pedagogical influence, it should be pointed out that just “cheering”
these students is insufficient. In order to achieve a radical
improvement, it is necessary to carefully consider the causes of past
failures. Often, mistakes are the result of exaggerated fixation of
attention on particular technical difficulties, passages. In this
case, a recommended method is diversification, switching the attention
to moments of artistic interpretation and expression. The cause of
errors may arise from a fear of a “difficult place” that paralyzes the

student at the time of performance - this psychological attitude

exaggerating the difficulty even further, making it a “self-fulfilling
prophecy”. It often happens that a student, thinking that he is not
playing fast enough, “smears” passages. In these cases, it is
necessary to remove disturbing ideas with following steps: analyzing
the technical problem, splitting it into simpler elements, offering a
correct understanding thereof, providing decisive means for
successfully overcoming of the difficulty.
7. Resistant students. This characteristic is usually found in capable
students with a pronounced personality, but who are at the same time
overconfident. They often perceive the instructions of a teacher with
an instinctive sense of resistance, protest. In relation to such
students, one must be especially flexible. The method of categorical
suppression of a student by his authority is unsuitable, because it
can lead to a complete loss of contact between the teacher and the
student. A “rebellious” student is sometimes right in his own way. One
must strive to understand him and to reveal what is valuable and
positive that is within him. In working with a resistant student, it
is necessary to find a common language. Pointing out the positive
aspects of his performance, it is imperative to simultaneously mention
the negative aspects that impede the fulfillment of his own
intentions. By acting cautiously and tactfully, it is possible to find
a way of communication that will make this type of student “listen” to
the instructions of the teacher, while not impairing or diminishing
his personality.
8. Students lacking individuality, taste, aspirations, creativity,
independence – while simultaneously having good professional skills
and are able follow the instructions of the teacher precisely. Such
kind of students often receive high academic marks, often even
managing to accomplish a certain impression with their playing, but at
the expense of the teacher guiding every step. In working with such
students, it is absolutely necessary to develop their skills regarding
independent work - to help them form their artistic taste and
autonomous thinking. The teacher must not plan his work along the line
of least resistance, which in this case is a purely external influence
that does not stimulate the development of the student’s inner
qualities and creative abilities. If the teacher will direct all his
attention to external indicators (going through standard academic
repertoire, focusing on occasional concert performances), then this
can lead to negative consequences in the future. This kind of students
seem particularly hopeful in regards to their performing future, but
they cease to grow as an artist upon graduation.
The list of the most common characteristic features of students given
here, of course, does not exhaust the whole variety of cases and
phenomena in our teaching practice. It should be pointed out that the
above characteristic features do not always occur, so to speak, in
their pure form. Sometimes we observe a combination of the most
diverse qualities in a single student. This circumstance once again
shows how flexible pedagogical methods should be, applied in
accordance with the individual characteristics of each student.
In practical pedagogy, we encounter a different approach to resolving
the issue of student development. There is a method of training in
which the development of students is aimed at achieving a certain
professional level, which often results in a solid performance,
although simultaneously devoid of individual creativity. It is
commonly said about such a performance: “The teacher did a good job.”
A more correct method of work is one aimed at developing the student’s
personality. This does not only apply to talented students. In each
individual, it is necessary to find and develop those valuable and
interesting qualities that are incorporated within, in order to help
the future musician to find his creative personality. This defines
precisely the main direction of work and is the most important
criteria of an effective method.
From a methodological point of view, the question of the development
of a student includes three main points:
1. A comprehensive description of the student, defining the student at
the initial stage of development. In order to find the right path of
development, it is necessary to know all the qualities that form the
student’s professional appearance, his musical and technical
predispositions, ability to assimilate, work capacity, level of
knowledge and training, performing skills, playing style,
emotionality, musical taste and inclinations as well as his
weaknesses, lack of knowledge and deficient skills.

2. Determining the path of development - determining what exactly has

to be developed, which direction must be pursued, what are the main
objectives and priorities and recognizing main factors that prevent
growth).
3. Determining the pace of development Characteristics of a student
means, first of all, the correct definition of their natural
predispositions. Due to the lack of other objective attributes, one
usually has to base one's opinion on the impression that the student
made on the entrance exam before starting classes. However, experience
shows that it is often difficult to draw conclusions regarding the
abilities of the applicants solely from the entrance exam. It is well-
known that sometimes students, with average abilities, but with good
and thorough preparation under the guidance of a good teacher, appear
to be in good shape at the exam, or even appear impressive. When
assessing the applicant, one must be able to understand what should be
attributed to his natural predispositions and what is acquired from
the work with a teacher. In order to get a more complete and accurate
idea of the student, one should try to uncover his musical
predisposition in the first lessons (ability to sight-read,
flexibility, adaptation to new ideas). Such a check-up brings greater
clarity to the student’s professional ability and allows one to
correctly judge the main direction for the education that follows.
Even with this in mind, only prolonged work, at least one year, may
allow a teacher to get acquainted with all the characteristics of a
student, including strengths and weaknesses. And even after a whole
year, the teacher should not assume that he completely recognized all
that the student has to offer, solely on behalf of changes that
occurred in the students playing during this time. As the teacher is
working with an individual human being, which is constantly evolving
and changing, he cannot consider himself entitled to give any “final”
estimates on a particular method that supposedly perfectly suits the
student forever. As the student changes – so must the required method
change as well.
Sometimes, during the time of development of a student, a critical
moment emerges, when the student suddenly “reveals” his individual
abilities. A moment where new, previously unknown performing qualities
become apparent, thus forcing the teacher to radically reconsider his
pedagogical approach. There are cases when a teacher, carried away by
the solid success of his pupil, begins to incline towards over-
estimating the capabilities of the student, thus deluding himself and
shortly thereafter failing at any given objective audition.
Consequently, the characteristics of the student are not to be seen as
permanent, as something that is established “once and for all
eternity” - they must be reviewed and tested practically at every
stage of development. In accordance with this, the direction and
method of work can also change. Finding a guiding line for an
individual method of work is associated both with the disclosure of
the characteristics of the talent of each individual student, and with
the goal of uniform and harmonious development of both sides of
performing skills - technical and musical. This conditions must be
applied from the first steps of learning to play violin. The gap
between musical and technical development, if it is narrowed down
overcome in time, will eventually lead to a dead end.
On the other hand, the work method must include identification of
weaknesses, lack of knowledge and skills and adapt accordingly. It is
unwise to focus only on cultivation of individual strengths and to get
carried away in just one direction, while ignoring the overall
shortcomings of the student. A superior way is to strive towards
comprehensive development of the creative personality, striving
towards enriching the knowledge of the student, filling in the gaps –
attempting to utilize the abilities of the student to the fullest. It
is false to assume that a student has fully depleted his potential and
reached his “personal ceiling”.
Determining the pace of student development is one of the key issues
of violin pedagogy. Experience shows that this development does not
always proceed uniformly, in the order of gradual advancement and
accumulation of knowledge. Often, talented students develop quickly -
but rather unevenly, while not so gifted ones develop more in a
gradual manner. The sudden, uneven development of a student can be
considered a “leap”. This leap happens occasionally, where the student
seems to have "grown in plain sight." Such a “leap” is quite possible
and natural, if preceded by a prolonged period of gradual accumulation
of knowledge and skills. It is extremely important for the teacher to
anticipate the moment when the objective prerequisites for the “leap”
are in place. If this moment is anticipated correctly, then the
teacher should have no fear to take a decisive step forward and supply
the student with a task of higher difficulty, thus presenting the
student with an opportunity to rapidly improve, captivating him with
new and unexpected growth prospects. On the other hand, if there is no

sufficient preparation to expect a successful “leap”, such a step in

education is erroneous and can entail serious consequences –
disruption of normal academic work schedule, overstrain of the
performing apparatus, or even mental trauma as a result of failure. A
failed “leap” should not only be necessarily associated with the
technical difficulty of the work assigned to the student. It often
happens that a musical work intended for the “leap”, on a technical
level quite accessible to the student, turns out to be unbearable for
him from the point of view of artistic interpretation - due to
insufficient musical maturity. The reason may lie in the discrepancy
between the technical talent of the student and his musical
development, as the latter in such cases often lags behind the former.
Under all conditions, if the work given to the student at this stage
exceeds the level of his practical skill by far, then the study of
this work, even if it is expedient from a pedagogical point of view,
should be limited to the scope of class work nevertheless, without
public performance.
Speaking about the pace of development, one cannot, of course, bypass
the question of the student’s homework. The main and decisive
condition for successful professional growth is daily systematic,
persistent practice, without which any discussion of method,
education, or any paths of development - is pointless, with the
teacher’s efforts largely wasted. It is precisely this situation that
is encountered practically: the teacher, in pursuit of results, works
on each detail extensively, seeking out all sorts of means to help
overcome difficulties, using all sorts of methods - and yet the simple
reason for failure lies in the bad practice way of the student,
quantitatively and qualitatively.
Crucial in the implementation of the line of development outlined by
the teacher is the selection of artistic and technical material and
repertoire. There are certain guidelines regarding the preparation of
repertoire plans for one or six months. The repertoire plan should
provide diverse material in terms of style, genre, and pedagogical
value. The teacher in relation to a particular student and his current
stage, chooses certain works that musically and technically tackle
weaknesses and target acquisition of skills. When choosing repertoire
one should also take into account the desires of the student himself,
as this provides a stimulus, but one cannot follow the student’s lead
and show unnecessary liberalism in this regard. It may obscure
priorities of education if the work that is desired by the student is
excessively difficult for him.
If we turn to our formal educational plan, we must admit that the
repertoire learned in one year, is quantitatively insufficient, even
if we only bear in mind the task of mastering performing skills. The
education process includes tasks such as acquaintance with musical
literature, development of sight reading skills and independent
learning, growth of repertoire. All this is extremely important for
the cultivation of a musician, particularly in regards to his own
future performing and pedagogical activities. The requirement for a
high quality preparation of works intended for public performance
often has to be fulfilled by lengthening the preparation time and
reducing the amount of material studied per year. This is largely the
fault of students who are not able to effectively use the time that
they have for independent work and practice. Such students impose on a
teacher a certain system of lessons that consist of learning one and
the same work over an exaggerated period of time - endlessly
correcting the same mistakes and turning the lesson, which should be
full of artistic content, into simple training sessions. We must admit
that we are not fighting enough against this system, condoning the
negative sides of the student, dependence, lack of initiative, and
sometimes plain laziness. Pupils should realize that the teacher is
their creative leader, and not a coach.
We do not pay enough attention to the development of the student’s
skills of independence, for the most part confining ourselves to
verbal instructions and declarations. It happens that a senior student
of a university (or even a graduate student upon a fifteen-year study)
when learning a new work, asks the teacher to arrange the fingering,
not because he does not possess the necessary skills and taste – but
because he simply wants to make it easy for himself, falling in the
habit of constant baby-feeding from the side of teacher. The self-
found fingerings of students sometimes contain very interesting
solutions that should not be discarded.
Returning to the question of passing the educational repertoire, we
point out that it is not necessary to bring each work to the stage of
artistic completeness and to public performance, some of the works
included in the plan can be passed through in the order of
familiarization, which also brings considerable benefit. Small pieces

that do not pose significant technical difficulties should preferably

be performed in the greatest possible number, mainly in the form of
independent and semi-independent work. How often it happens that a
young violinist does not have a suitable repertoire for public
performance!
No less important than the selection of the repertoire is the question
of the methods of exposition of the characteristic, artistic and
emotional content of composition-works. But what does this exposition
mean and how is it carried out? For the musician-performer, this
question is purely creative, a question of his artistic taste,
understanding and interpretation - but in pedagogy this problem is
complicated, since there are two artistic individuals: the teacher and
the student. At the early stages of development, the teacher
undoubtedly has a leading role in the issue of style and
interpretation; at the same time, even at this stage, one cannot agree
with such a “separation of functions” in which the student only
faithfully fulfills the instructions of the teacher. At the beginning
of the education, when the student does not yet have a developed
musical taste and understanding, identifying creative moments in his
performance is nevertheless an important task for the teacher, if he
really seeks to reveal the student’s artistic personality.
In the practice of practicing musically gifted children, we often
encounter a misunderstanding of the task of mastering a work in the
sense of bringing it to the stage of completion. The desire for
artistic completeness in accordance with the taste and understanding
inherent in an adult musician in working with children can lead to
excessive coaching, to drilled-memorized performance, devoid of the
emotional freshness and spontaneity that is so naturally attractive in
the playing of young performers.
In further work with university students, the teacher has a more or
less developed musician in front of him, possessing not only a certain
level of knowledge and skills, but also well-known artistic views,
tastes and inclinations, which are still in the formative stage, but
are already quite definitely expressed. In this case, the artistic
guidance of educators should be especially flexible. The teacher must
certainly demand from the student the exact execution of the text,
pure intonation, rhythm - all that builds, so to speak, the formal
completeness of the performance. In matters of style and
interpretation, disclosure of content - the student should be given
the opportunity to show his creative individuality. Meanwhile, it is
an underestimation of the creative elements in the student’s
performance that is a very common phenomenon, associated with some
standard points in pedagogy.
In our field, we are forced to devote a lot of time and attention to
work on intonation, on the technique. This takes a significant part of
the time allotted to the study of a musical work. In the process of
preparation, individual bright moments within the student’s
performance, “glimpses” of a creative personality that are of interest
from a purely musical point of view, often pass by our attention. We
often do not notice these glimpses, since our attention is too busy
correcting all kinds of flaws. Along with this, having become
accustomed to listening to the same work dozens of times in the
traditional performance, not much different from one another, we
unconsciously develop in ourselves a certain predetermined
expectation, from which it is extremely difficult to free oneself. Any
deviation from the usual norm gives us the impression of something
strange, illogical. If this takes place in the performance of the
student, we immediately begin to correct him, instead of carefully
listening and trying to identify what may be valuable and creative
embodied in the student’s artistic intentions.
It is necessary to listen especially carefully and catch the slightest
glimpses of individual creativity performed by the student. These
glimmers can be expressed in playing as two or three interesting or
meaningful phrases or episodes, maybe not yet determining the artistic
completeness and perfection of the performance as a whole. From a
pedagogical point of view, these individual bright moments in the
performance are of the greatest value, since they clearly reveal to us
the features of the student’s talent, indicating the path along which
the development of the given personality and creativity should be
directed. Instead, formal completeness and infallibility of
performance (which sometimes gets more recognition than performance of
the brighter and more talented - yet not free from some shortcomings)
often become the seemingly objective evaluation criteria. If focusing
on this issue, a fresh outlook at many phenomena of teaching practice
will reveal itself.

Performing mastery includes perfect mastery of the technique, but it

is by no means limited to it: the basis of performing mastery is the
disclosure of musical content. Technique should be determined by a
musical idea that needs to be expressed, and this is the basis of
performing art. The technical side of the performance - speed,
strength, accuracy, confidence in playing, capturing the imagination
of many violinists, often crowds out what is most important in
instrumental performance - the art of sincere and expressive singing
on the instrument.
One of the biggest shortcomings of our young performers is their
passion for the fast tempi. Not only that, but seemingly technical-
virtuoso works such as tarantella, perpetuum mobile, etc. are
performed as a sport at an extremely fast pace. This indulging in fast
tempi is very often transferred to the performance of large-scale
works. This especially applies to the performance of the finals of the
concerts of Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian and other similar
works. Hence a lack of expressiveness of sound, insufficient clarity
of rhythm and musical lines manifests. The individual, who is
“infected” with this flaw, hardly ever gets rid of it. The violin is
inherently a singing instrument and the technique on the violin and
other stringed instruments is inherently melodious in character.
Underestimation and misunderstanding of the natural qualities of
stringed instruments greatly impairs performance. On the contrary,
using these advantages helps to achieve great artistic results.
It should be pointed out that we do not cultivate enough and pay
attention to the melodiousness of playing, to the development of a
wide cantilena, the intimacy of singing on the instrument, which is
the fundament of the Russian violin school tradition.
One of the conditions for the development of cantilena is to master
the length of the bow and the art of wide melodic breathing on the
instrument. Unlike cellists, our violinists deal too little with this
aspect. Passion for strength, assertiveness, the desire for scale and,
so to speak, the “mania of sound size” observed by performers often
displaces the noble quality that is found within the melodiousness on
an instrument. Hence the tendency for frequent bow changes, leading to
dissecting, interrupting of the melodic line. Insufficient attention
is given to the endings of phrases, on using all the richness and
variety of colors, especially the piano and pianissimo — the most
amazing of the nuances.
Let us recall what artistic heights F. Chaliapin reached in the nuance
of pianissimo (for example, in the “Persian Song” by A. Rubinstein)!
These nuances that expand the boundaries of contrast can emphasize
with even greater brightness the courageous and strong-willed
principle that is characteristic of great performers.
It is also necessary to dwell on another question, which is of great
importance for the further development of performing education,
namely, the question of interpretation.
If you carefully listen to the playing of most performers, you will
notice some uniformity in the interpretation of the works. We rarely
encounter violinists who would interpret the works performed in their
own way. However, this does not mean purely individual qualities
inherent in each artist (sound, emotionality, skill). In most cases,
the interpretation of the performed work is essentially no different,
being a repetition of the generally accepted.
It is necessary to cultivate a strict attitude to the musical text.
The exact obeying to the text in regards to rhythm, phrasing, should
be based on the analysis of the structure and understanding of the
nature of the work. The performer must strictly adhere to this
principle and not allow himself arbitrary treatment and alteration of
the text.
Listening to the same work performed by different artists, we can
notice that each of them clearly emphasizes those aspects of the
composition that are closest to him. The performance may even diverge
from the generally accepted interpretation in relation to the style of
a particular composer. Listening to our younger, more naïve
violinists, we are greeted with an unsurprising performance. But it’s
worth for a musician to go beyond the generally accepted, as the
audience is wary and tired all kinds of manifestations of superficial
originality in the

performance (originality that is born from technique, not the musical

content). Brave musicians need to win recognition, and those who
possess real talent will achieve this.
A few unsuccessfully played passages can disturb the subjective
perception of a performance, which could have had a number of positive
aspects that, in theory, indicate musical maturity and talent of the
performer.
It is necessary to pay great attention, sensitivity and objectivity to
the manifestation of a lively, informative, interesting performance.
Recognizing the right of each performer to his own understanding and
interpretation of music, if the interpretation is convincing and
sincere. We, educators, should observe and study everything that
happens in our daily work with students, in class performances, at
exams, competitions. As a result of analysis and generalization of
this work, it is always necessary to review our own pedagogical
activity and methods. The teacher should educate and prepare students
in a way where they function not only as performing musicians, but
also as carriers, organizers and builders of music culture.

PRACTICING INTONATION

On All Levels:

1. Tune your instrument to a tuner thusly:

E: tuner at A = 442
A: tuner at A = 441
D: tuner at A = 441
G: tuner at A = 440

To tune the violin in a way which will allow you the best of many
possible worlds of intonation, purchase a tuner/drone which has a
variable A and which sounds all tones. (I use a Sorinuri Digital
Metronome/Tuner #MTR-33.) Tune your A and D strings with the tuner/
drone note at A=441; match the A of the drone exactly, then turn the
dial to D and match your open D string to the drone D exactly. Tune
your G string with the tuner at A=440, but with the dial turned to
sound the note G. Tune your E string with the tuner at A=442, but with
the dial turned to sound the note E. (Note: If you don’t have a
movable tuner, tune A to 440, tune D to A in a VERY TIGHT fifth, tune
G to D in a SLIGHTLY TIGHT fifth, tune E to A in a SLIGHTLY TIGHT
fifth.)

Note that this is a compromise tuning, neither totally equal-tempered

nor completely open. Your instrument will ring but will not be too far
from the piano pitches, which are completely equal-tempered, and you
will be able to play in keys which need both G and E strings.

2. When working, use a clear, solid, and sustained tone, with as

little variation in dynamic as possible. Do not skate. Do not allow
lumps, swells, or holes in the sound.

3. When adjusting, it is permissible to roll the finger slightly above

and below pitch, gradually centering in and listening. But, VERY
IMPORTANT, once you find the spot, pick up the finger and replace it
in the perfect middle of the note you want, with NO ROLLING.
(Otherwise you are practicing constant adjustment – the Grope School
of Intonation.) Repeat several times, landing exactly where you want,
with no rocking or rolling. Your finger should descend on a line, as
if it were on a little railroad track.

4. Be aware of your keys at all times, and the relations of the scale
degrees. In a major scale, the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees are one
group, which I call the home family, and the 3rd, 6th, and 7th are
another, which I call the traveling family. Families are audibly
related. In G Major, all your Gs, Cs, and Ds must agree and make
perfect fourths, fifths, and octaves; likewise, all your Es, F#s, and
Bs must agree and make equally perfect intervals. Keeping these
families in tune will take advantage of the acoustic properties of the
violin.

First Level – Using Open Strings

Use your carefully tuned open strings as drones whenever possible.
Check all combinations of perfect intervals with open strings (most
notes can be found with some combination of octaves, fourths, and an
open string), e.g., in 1st position, 3rd finger octaves G, D, A; 4th
finger unisons D, A, E; 1st finger fourths A, E, B. There are ways of
checking with open strings in almost every position, in almost every
key, and you need to be merciless about checking yourself. When you
are first learning a piece, you should be using adjacent open strings
almost constantly. This will help you center your ear and play
pitches consistently the same. Most bad intonation is at bottom a
matter of carelessness and lack of concentration! -----Play the
doublestop with the open string, LISTEN for the absence of beats which
signals that you are in EXACTLY the right spot, and memorize where you
are on the fingerboard. (Where is your thumb? Where is your finger?
What is the track that leads to the note? Where are you in relation to
the body of the violin, the nut, etc.?) This process should be as
natural to you as breathing, and it should happen continuously as you
practice—don’t just do it at the beginning of a session and then
forget about it! If you do, you will be actively training your ear to
hear pitches IN THE WRONG PLACE, you will gravitate to a higher or
lower pitch area and play out of tune with your open strings, and
later on it will be much harder to adjust when you play with the piano
and other instruments.

Second Level – Building Families

1. Use a drone to tune scales and arpeggios. In G Major, put the drone
on G and play the scale, tuning all Gs, Cs, and Ds; then put the drone
on B and tune all Bs, Es, and F#s. Do this both slow and fast,
stopping on the pitches you are checking with the drone. Listen to how
the two families have their own identities.
2. Tune in fourths when possible, e.g., open G + octave G + C; open E
+ B + F#. Tune in fourths as you are playing your scales and passages
as well, e.g. checking to make sure the B in G major agrees with the E
on the next string. This will help build your frame and make your
families agree. (Remember, fourths are perfect intervals; listen for
the absence of beats when they are perfectly in tune.)
3. You should have a strict interval size in your ear for all
intervals. Unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves are non-negotiable,
because they are perfect intervals, but even seconds, thirds, sixths,
and sevenths have a specific sound and size which will make them work
inside your scale and key. You should not have one major third wide,
and the next narrow. In a G Major scale, the major third between G and
B should be the same size as the one between D and F#, and the minor
third between A and C should be the same as the one between E and G.
In a diminished triad, all the minor thirds should be the same size;
in an augmented triad, all the major thirds should be the same size;
in a scale, the wholesteps should be equal. If you can regularize the
size of your intervals, your families will agree. To work on this,
first train your ear to hear intervals against open strings. Play G-
A, or G-B, or G-C etc. several times; decide where you want the pitch
in relation to the open string (having the drone on the pitch and
matching it can help this process) and then REPEAT THAT PITCH EXACTLY.
You will gradually be able to transfer this kind of listening and
repeatability to playing intervals which do not involve open strings
directly.

3. Third Level – Learning Expressive vs. Equal-Tempered Intonation

To train your ear to hear the difference between equal-tempered

intonation and expressive intonation, you will need a tuner/drone
which has a variable A and which sounds all tones. Tune your scales
thusly:

Put the drone on the tonic (first) note of your scale and play the
scale, matching the first, fourth and fifth degrees of the scale to
the drone (in G major, this means matching all Gs, Cs and Ds). Make
perfect intervals with no beats. Remember these pitches well. These
are your home family and WILL NOT MOVE.
Put the drone on the third degree of your scale and play the scale,
matching the third, sixth and seventh degrees of the scale to the
drone (in G major, this means matching all Bs, Es and F#s). Make
perfect intervals with no beats. Remember these pitches well. You have
just learned your traveling family with equal-tempered pitches.
Put the drone on the third degree of your major scale and put it up
one click (if you are tuned to A=441, move it to A=442). Now play your
major scale, matching the third, sixth and seventh degrees of the
scale to the drone (in G, match Bs, Es, and F#s). Make perfect
intervals with no beats. Remember these pitches well. You have just
learned your traveling family with expressively raised pitches. DO NOT
RAISE THE PITCHES OF THE HOME FAMILY.
Tune a troublesome passage of music in the same way, first choosing
the tonic note and putting the drone on that pitch; play through
slowly, stopping on each note which forms a perfect interval with the
drone and tuning carefully.
Take the same passage and decide if you want equal-tempered or
expressive intonation; then choose your drone note accordingly. If you
want equal-tempered, leave the drone at A=441 and then turn it to the
third scale degree (in G major, this would be B); if you want
expressive, turn the drone to A=442 and then turn it to the third
scale degree. Again, match all third, sixth and seventh degrees to the
drone (in G major, this means matching all Bs, Es and F#s). Gradually
you will be able to place your fingers in either spot at will.
If you can’t decide which intonation you want, think about the
character of the passage. Is it serene, peaceful, comforting; or
turbulent, disturbing, feverish, show-off? If you want to heighten
intensity, choose expressive intonation; otherwise, the equal-tempered
system will be best. If you still can’t decide, listen to a recording
and try to discern what the violinist is using.

4. Conclusion

Your ear will improve rapidly in learning these two systems of

intonation. Also, as you play better in tune, tune in fourths and use
expressive intonation you will be able to take more advantage of
sympathetic vibrations with the open strings of your violin, resulting
in a richer, fuller sound. Be calm, patient, and demanding in your
work. Remember, intonation is the single most audible characteristic
of violin playing.

JOYOUS PRACTICING FOR STRING PLAYERS

Introduction

We all know that many hours of practicing are essential for becoming
the players and musicians we want to be. Sometimes we may think of
practicing as a burden to be accomplished begrudgingly, a necessary
evil if we want to become great. However, practicing itself is an art
which can be learned, and like any art, the pleasure increases
commensurate with the skill of the artist. As we become skilled at
practicing, not only will we progress more rapidly but we will also
gain self-discipline, focus, and peace of mind. Good practicing is a
form of moving meditation, during which we are concentrated,
completely present and alive.

I find it helpful to remember that our work is not just to master our
instrument, but also to befriend it; not just to transmit our will and
personality, but also to be drawn into the music and the composer’s
world; not just to create a structure of discipline, but also to find
the joy in the music and in the process of the work itself. We find
within ourselves our own inspirational and demanding teacher, but we
never lose sight of ourselves as music’s eternal student.
The following steps will help you to find more joy in your practicing
as you learn a new work.

First Step: Getting Acquainted – Making Friends with the Music

Look at the music and sing it either out loud or in your head. If you
begin by playing you immediately limit your aural imagination to what
you can already do. If you hear it in your head you have the
possibility to become more than you are. Notice what you feel as you
sing with your mind’s ear. Does it make you want to dance or move? If
so, dance or move as you sing.

Then take your instrument and play through the movement, or even just
a part of it, as slowly as necessary. Your goal is to sound as good as
you can right away. Hear each phrase in your head before you play.
Respect the music; don’t allow yourself to play poorly or sloppily at
this early stage. Begin at the highest level you are capable of
producing. You may notice that you sound really good already on many
portions of the piece; make a mental note of parts that you think will
need more attention. Let yourself truly enjoy the beauty of the sounds
you are creating now.

Second Step: Nuts and Bolts – Playing In Tune

From the beginning we need to cultivate the habit of playing in tune.

Poor intonation is a most obvious defect to even an untrained
audience. I recommend doing intonation work as early as possible, so
that we do not spoil our ears by playing “in the cracks.” This should
be done completely without reference to the rhythm or bowing in the
music; legato as much as possible is to be preferred, because it will
encourage the left hand to relax. The addition of a mild but
continuous vibrato early in the process will help the hand relax and
develop the sensual relationship of the finger with the string.

First match every possible note to adjacent open strings, using the
perfect intervals of octaves and fourths; find the sympathetic ring in
your instrument and the resulting feeling of give in the string. Make
sure to tune your instrument carefully, because with all intonation
work you are looking for maximum resonance. You will discover that as
you play more in tune your instrument will sound richer and fuller,
and you will be able to play into the string more deeply. Notice how
your bow arm and entire body can relax as you sink into the welcoming
string. Notice how as your instrument opens up and resonates, you can
sense the vibrations through your whole body. It not only sounds good,
it feels good to play in tune. Always search for the ring!

Next, plan your finger patterns and fingertip placements. Where are
the whole steps and half steps? Think of your left hand as a grid; all
four fingers should be in patterns at all times in this stage of your
work. Leave fingers down lightly, or have them already grouped in the
air with whole steps and half steps ready to go. If a passage involves
any string crossings whatsoever, set up doublestops or multiplestops –
the left hand must anticipate the bow. This kind of thinking in finger
grids is like a secret code – after a while, you will no longer see
separate notes; you will see patterns, which are much easier to learn,
and much more stable to execute. There is a lot of mental fun to be
had in planning out your secret finger code. You will notice as you
become proficient at this that you will not fear hard passages; they
will look and feel easier.

This kind of grid work relies on the stability of the hand and the
ability of the fingers to work independently from the hand and from
each other. The sensations of whole and half steps between the fingers
will be entirely disrupted if you allow your wrist to move as you put
down or pick up a finger. Keep the wrist relaxed but stable, in a
straight line with the forearm.

The goal of the finger grid is not only accuracy; it is also balance
and comfort. The care in which you place your fingerpads, the
alignment of your arm, hand, and wrist, and certainly the amount of
pressure can greatly aid in the organic ease of your left hand. If
your hand feels good it will naturally remember its positions and you
will have repeatability.

Find as much physical ease and release possible in each action of your
left hand and arm. Practice your shifts legato back and forth,
slurring across each shift – remember that your highest notes are
often your glory notes and most transcendent moments, so find the
release and joy as you float up! That feeling of ease and comfort will
hold up under pressure, too, so not only will the process of searching
itself be pleasurable, but the resulting playing will be amazing.

Third Step: Nuts and Bolts – Playing In Time

From the beginning we need to cultivate the habit of playing in a

steady rhythm. This does not mean that we will end by playing
steadily; the music may require something else. But practicing with
steady rhythm will mean that we gain absolute mastery of bow speed and
distribution, instead of simply changing the bow whenever and wherever
we happen to run out of bow or time! If you have naturally good rhythm
you may not need to work much in this area. If you do not have good
rhythm, this will be a very fruitful and important part of your
practice.

First put yourself on a metronome diet. Begin at quite a slow tempo,

putting a subdivided beat on the metronome, which should be clearly
audible even while you produce a good solid tone. Play the exact
bowing in the music; do not divide the bow. Practicing in this way
will teach a slower bow speed; smooth out the muscles in your bow arm;
guarantee that you understand complex rhythms; ensure evenness and
control in your left hand; and help you learn to plan your bow. Play
exactly with the metronome’s beat – no approximation! Place your
fingers, string crossings, and bow changes exactly on or in relation
to the beat. This may be harder than it sounds – record yourself to
check that you are really lining up and hearing yourself accurately.
Notch your tempo up bit by bit, concentrating and keeping your
alignment with the metronome. For variety try putting the metronome on
silently; start while watching it, turn away, play a bit, turn back
and see if you are still in time. You can develop a tremendous inner
pulse in this way. Walking around while you play also works wonders in
helping you feel the pulse as a physical event in your body.

For fast movements you will eventually want to work beyond the ideal
tempo, and you will notice that when you bring the tempo back down, it
will actually feel calm.

Fourth Step: Understanding Dynamics, Structure and Phrasing

Next, notice dynamics and add them to your slow and steady work with
the metronome. Crescendos must not speed up (although you may wish to
plan your bow so that your bow speeds up!) and diminuendos should not
slow down. Which part of the bow do you need to be in for each
passage? Here is where you will begin to make musical decisions, as
well as discovering essential technical ease in your bow arm. The
correct part of the bow will not only sound better, it will feel
better. When you have control of your bow speed you can arrive at just
the right part of the bow for the next passage. Great soloists make
everything look as if the music happens by magic, but what you are
hearing and seeing is the ease that comes from planning – they
continually set themselves up for success.

An important part of dynamics may not be written in the music at all;

this is the microphrasing that occurs in almost all Western music
written before 1950, and which is based on the ebb and flow of
harmonic tension, often easily discernible in our melodic lines. For
example, look for the obvious shapes of lines; if the line is going
up, it will often benefit from a small crescendo, even where none is
written. Music is not a democracy; look for the kings and queens of
each phrase, and the subservient notes which lead into and away from
them. Look for series of sforzandos or repeated note patterns; in such
situations it is almost always a good idea to start a little less and
allow the series to build. Even in the early stages of your work you
can and should begin to decipher these hierarchical relations, which I
call microphrasing, and practice them into your bow as you are doing
with your written dynamics. This is exceptionally fun and creative
work, and when you do it you will feel like you are beginning to own
your piece, not just playing it as someone else tells you to play.
Just as there is a hierarchy and structure within each phrase unit,
there is an overall structure to each piece. Here is where a knowledge
of theory can come in handy, because you will have names to give the
various sections, and you will instantly have a framework in which to
place each phrase. As you are working on a piece, especially once your
initial technical work is in hand, you must study the music in order
to begin to see it as a whole. Smaller phrases combine to create
larger phrases, which in turn create sections. Part of our job as
performers is to parse the music into audible sentences. Once you know
the structure, you can begin to understand where the composer is
going, and whether things are expected or unexpected. Even the
placement of material within a bar can be dislocated or normal. Notice
everything. Especially notice irregularity and non-diatonic notes.
Always ask why something happens; every piece is a mystery to be
solved, every gesture is an actor in a play, and every event is a clue
to what the composer wants. If you can see the underlying story, you
will be able to shape your performance so that each small part
contributes to an unmistakable whole, and you will feel yourself as
part of something much bigger too. As in life, so it is in music too:
every action feels different when it has meaning and purpose.

Fifth Step: Creating Character with Visualization and Imagination

Now that you have created the firm undergirding for technical
security, it is time to enter a particularly joyful part of your
learning process. This is the time for you to find your most creative
inner self. Music embodies and stirs powerful emotions. Sing your
piece again. What does your piece feel like as you play it and sing
it? Describe the various sections to yourself; try to make as much
contrast between sections as you can. If you can’t come up with
specific emotive adjectives (e.g. cheerful, sad, yearning, stern,
angry, ecstatic, desolate) listen to some recordings and see if you
can hear different characters in different recordings. As you listen,
close your eyes and fantasize. If this were a ballet and people were
dancing, what costumes would they be wearing? If someone were singing
your part, what would they look like? Would they be male or female?
Would they be wearing modern dress or a powdered wig? Would they be
smiling or frowning? Would they be dancing, walking, holding still, or
jumping up and down? Try singing while moving yourself in a way that
seems to suit the phrase. What would this music look like if a good
conductor were conducting it? Would the movement of his or her hands
be angular or circular, hard or soft, tense or loving? Try conducting
yourself as you sing and dance. This is your time to let go – let
yourself feel the music and respond to it naturally.

Notes are almost never neutral. It is up to us to discover what their

expression may be and amplify it so that the audience will be able to
hear it unmistakably. You will be amazed at how much you have to
exaggerate in order to project your piece’s characters. This is what
artists do every day and it is every bit as necessary and important as
our technical work. Without this creative process, we may become good
players, but we will never be able to give people the deep emotions
that they yearn to experience at concerts.

Sixth Step: Listening to Yourself

Now it is time to begin playing through the piece with every bit of
musical feeling, combined with technical accuracy, which you can
muster. Listen carefully as you play. Are you transmitting the nature
of each part and phrase? Record yourself. You may find that what you
intended to make beautiful and lyric is in fact marred by bumpy bow
changes or lack of vibrato.

If one of your phrases strikes you as boring or neutral, think about

what it needs. Sing it again; describe it again. Try to find the
technique that will best express what you are doing when you sing.
What consonants do you use? If you are singing “ta, ta, ta” you will
want audible bow changes; if you are singing “da, da, da” you will
want smoother changes; “ya, ya, ya,” perhaps the smoothest of all. Try
to sense the energy of the music: does it flow easily or against
resistance? You can mimic this in your bow speed. To increase
intensity, depth of sound, bow speed, vibrato, microphrasing and even
in some cases small variations in tempo can be added. Experiment,
record, and listen again. You are the creator, and you are the judge!

Seventh Step: Performing

One of the most neglected aspects of practicing is the art of

performing. The work of practicing itself involves listening,
planning, and assessing in an endless cycle of improvement. If you
continue this process in an actual performance you will be self-
conscious and you will not be able to communicate the feelings of the
music.

Instead, perform the piece in Carnegie Hall in your mind. Paint the
scene – large hall, beautiful acoustics, expensive tickets, an
audience longing to transcend their ordinary lives, you as the most
extraordinary musician and artist ever. Throw yourself completely into
fantasy and extroversion. You are Heifetz, you are Oistrach, you are
Gil Shaham, you are Hilary Hahn all combined. Just as importantly, you
are the embodiment of the spirit of Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Paganini, or
whatever great composer you are performing; and you are the spiritual
messenger for all humanity. All your hard work and preparation have
been for this moment.
As you perform, imagine a little guy at the back of your brain. He is
very small and efficient; you could call him your 2% guy. He is taking
notes (NOT you!) that he will give you later if anything goes less
than superbly. Once in a while he may notice that you need to make
some tiny correction. He can dart in and remind you; then he retires
to the back again. The idea is to keep your own primary focus on the
music, and let the 2% guy handle the small stuff. Even if you miss a
note, let him worry about it. It is not your job as a performer to
look back at the road kill. With every fiber of your being, you are
wholly occupied with feeling and communicating to the audience; you
are the music, and you are in charge of what will happen next.

After you have performed, take out the 2% guy and have him give you a
dispassionate report. You will be surprised what he can tell you about
matters technical, physical, and emotional. Use his calm information
in your next practice session. Remember that everything can be
improved. Even if you haven’t reached perfection yet, you can get
closer every time you practice, and great delight is to be had in the
journey!

Conclusion

As in all areas of life, we need to keep in mind our end goals even as
we concentrate on the myriad details which will go into our technical
and musical work. Having joy in as many parts of our practicing as
possible will encourage us to do the hours of work necessary to our
success. Reminding ourselves of our musical and spiritual purpose will
sustain us even when we are tired or discouraged. Our goal as
musicians is to create beauty, so we must become our best possible
selves in order to transmute notes on a page into the ethereal beauty
that is a great piece of music. This is truly the reason why we
practice, why we can always improve, and why we hope to find ever
greater depths and heights of joyous performance in ourselves, our
instruments, and our music.

64 PRACTICE METHODS

BREAK DOWN & REBUILD

LEFT-HAND FOCUS
1. Rhythms: Refer to Galamian’s rhythm patterns. The key is to
exaggerate the differences between long and short notes. Aside from
the obvious difference, long notes should be devoid of tension — like
a stillness. Meanwhile, short notes should feel like electric bursts
of precise energy in the left-hand. During the long note, visualize
and hear the next left-hand burst before you play it. Choose the
rhythm patterns from Figure 1 that seem applicable.
Figure 1
2. From One, Many: Isolate and reinsert problem-notes. First, correct
the problem-note itself, whether it be intonation or sound quality.
Practice vibrating it, practice hitting from an open string on a slur,
notice how the left-hand feels when playing it, etc. Second, add the
context surrounding the note, each time doing repetitions back and
forth to solidify the note in its environment. Once this feels
comfortable, re-insert into a larger phrase.
3. Highlight the Bad: Apply emphasis to notes which are not speaking
or are missed. The emphasis can be both with the right-hand
(pronation/bow speed accents) or left-hand (vibrato). Vary the bowing
patterns to highlight weak notes or clusters. For example, you can
play legato until you run into the problem note(s), at which point you
switch to detaché.
4. Random Siesta: Break up a passage by adding a rest in random
places. This will change your perception due to the way notes are
being grouped and can make you more aware of quality issues.
5. Backwards: Build a passage with chunks in reverse: Play the last
measure/group, then last two measures/groups, last three, etc.
6. Dexterity: Find opportunities to use 3-note or 4-note dexterity
permutations to strengthen the mechanics of a passage. Refer to
forthcoming “Essential Technical Studies: Left-Hand Dexterity” by
Daniel Kurganov.
7. Finger Independence: Exercises of Korgouff, Vamos and Bron can be
applied directly to challenging double-stop passages to improve the
dexterity, ease and independence of fingers. Figure 2 is an index of
patterns from Korgouff. Figure 3 shows the Vamos system to use for
every pattern in every position on different string combinations. The
example given is for Pattern 1 in 1st position on the D/A strings.
Figure 4 is a variation from Bron, putting fingers into a duple vs
triple polyrhythm.

8. One-note Makeover: Identify a note/note-change which does not sound

clean. Play the passage at tempo but suddenly stop on and hold the
problematic note with a beautiful sound and vibrato. Do this several
times. Then when you play the passage normally, you will never forget
that beautiful sound you got on the problem-note. This heightened
awareness is vital for making difficult notes speak freely and easily.
9. Brick by Brick: Starting from the first note, and add one note at a
time until the passage is complete. Elongate every new note added, and
vibrate it. Do not add the next note unless all previous notes are
played cleanly. This method is most useful if executed in a fast tempo
with a comfortable pause between repetitions. You can also try
starting from the last note and building the passage in a similar
manner from the end.
10. ABC Practice: Break a passage up into groups, and then connect the
groups. For example, split a passage of 16th notes into groups of 4 —
Groups A, B, C, D, etc. Practice playing only group A until it is fast
and clean. Do the same for the other groups. Then practice A + 1st
note of B, then B + 1st note of C, etc. Then practice AB, BC, CD, etc.
Then ABC, BCD, etc.
11. Pizz for Clarity: When practicing a passage in a slow tempo, add a
slight left-hand pizzicato as you lift fingers from notes. Your finger
action should mirror the sound of the pizzicato — percussive, light
and fast.
12. Finger Ballet: Analyze a passage to see which fingers should be
coming down early or together with other fingers. e.g. 1st finger
early up a scale, 4th finger early down a scale, preparing double
stops, a finger held down for half a bar because it will be needed
again, “chunking” fingers during chord changes. Let’s say you have a
passage where there are various changing chords. Look for pairs of
fingers that form the same interval in the old chord and the new
chord. The fingers can be “chunked” (treated and moved as one unit,
rather than separately), even if other notes in the chords are totally
different and the chords don’t seem related in general.

13. Limited Run: In complex passages spanning all of the strings,

isolate two adjacent strings at a time, moving up and down the notes,
employing other methods listed here (such as rhythms, incongruence,
different bowings, etc). Then move on to another combination of two
strings. Notice and exaggerate whole-step/half-step patterns in a slow
tempo.
14. Drill the Trill: Adapt K. Dounis’s Trill Studies (Op.18) as a way
to improve the clarity and strength of any single- or double-note
trill.
RIGHT-HAND FOCUS
15. Coordination Work: When practicing a fast passage, modify it by
repeating each note 4 times, then 3 times, then 2 and then as written.
With the repetitions, the speed of the hands and bow is preserved, but
the “tempo” of the passage is slowed down significantly. This allows
you to work on coordination effectively. It’s also a great endurance
exercise for bowing.
16. Accent Cycle: Add recurring accents on select beats in fast
passages. Try doing these accents only with vibrato. This is excellent
practice for energetic playing in Mozart and Haydn. This can be
practiced simply using scales as well.
Figure 5
17. No Distance String Crossings: To improve connectivity between
notes, turn string crossings into double stops. Once that feels easy,
gradually add back in the note separation using. You will be reminded
of how small the distance between adjacent strings actually is, and
therefore how little motion (mostly in the hand) is needed. In
general, practice adding an intermediary double stop for all string
crossings in a passage.
18. One-Note Double Stop: When practicing a double stop passage,
finger the notes normally, but only bow one string. Practice both
variants. This is especially helpful for vibrato practice, because
vibrating two notes will always feel less fluent and less full. By
only bowing one, your ear will be better at guiding you to the more
beautiful vibrato usually expected for an individual finger.

19. Kerson Leong Style: When practicing a staccato passage, alternate

staccato (using collé, where the hand/wrist creates a stroke from the
string that lift s off the string) and detaché. The idea is to more
finely control the transition into and out of staccato, and more
broadly, train the hand to more accurately manipulate the stroke. All
strokes should start with a clear articulation. See Leong demonstrate
using Rode No.7 on his YouTube channel.
20. Way of the Sevcik: Study Otakar Sevcik’s practicing guide to
Mendelssohn and Brahms concertos. The PDFs are available on IMSLP.
Apply the practicing principles to what you are playing.
EXPAND AND DEVELOP CAPACITY
21. Slow-Motion Fantasy: Play very slowly while exaggerating all
expressive elements: vibrato, dynamics, expression, left-hand finger
articulation etc. Pay attention to the transitions between notes. Be
very sensitive to any disruptions to the “fantasy”. If working on
sculpting a phrase with diminuendos/crescendos, feel that every note
has the force of gravity towards its surrounding notes. The pull of
one note to the next is what allows for convincing changes in
dynamics. If making sudden changes in dynamics, slow practice allows
you to practice that change in its most extreme form. Pay close
attention to the friction and resistance of the bow against the hair.
If you can achieve this in a slow tempo, your in-tempo playing
improves significantly due to heightened control, awareness and range.
22. Hilary Hahn Style: Set metronome to a rather slow tempo, but
exaggerate the speed with which you execute all involved motions, such
as fingers coming up and down, bow changes, string changes. This
includes shifting and vibrating at the final tempo. Try combining with
Practice Hack #21. Slow is fast. Also, read her guide on Slow
Practicing.
23. Lyrical Loops: When practicing lyrical music, look for places to
repeat even the smallest lines. It could be one phrase, one gesture,
or it could just be one down-bow/up-bow. It’s best if the bowing takes
you back to where you were. The goal is to create an infinite loop so
that sound is never ending, and you can focus intensely on the
particular excerpt, improving/intensifying/changing it with every
single repetition. This meditative and intense feedback loop helps you
push yourself to improve the expressivity or cleanliness of the line,
while encouraging flowing and continuous sound in the bow. This is
also a great way to explore the infinite types of sound colors for a
given note or phrase, as well as experiment with various bow speeds,
pressure and contact point. The continuity prevents you from thinking
too much, and encourages listening and feeling. This method is oft en
used by Zakhar Bron. It is the counterpoint to the mindless and cold
repetition that most are taught as young students and even in
conservatory, which has very little utility. Try combining with
Practice Hack #21.

24. The Waves: In order to make sure every note is speaking in a

passage, slow it down and create impulses on each note by putting
weight into the stick via the index finger. Do four- eight impulses
per bow, working with one note at a time. It is crucial that only the
hand is used to create the impulses and not any change in bow speed/
momentum. You can also add crescendo and diminuendo to make it more
challenging. Doing Waves leads to better control of the sound, an
expansion of ability to sculpt the sound and clearer tone sound.
25. Sing with the Beat: Without the violin, sing the music with a
metronome for rhythm purposes. Then sing through it again without the
metronome and with full expression. Go back and forth several times.
Imagine you are a great opera singer.
26. Emulation: Imagine your violin hero and how he or she would play
it. As an exercise, imitate them, to the point of exaggeration. What
is the speed/amplitude of their vibrato? How do they hold their
violin? How does the left-hand travel? How are they creating
inflections and shaping phrases? What does their posture look like? In
what ways does this impression inform your playing in a manner which
can transcend the original model?
27. Body Check: While repeating a passage, periodically do repetitions
where you focus solely on releasing tension in the left-hand fingers,
thumb, shoulders, neck and back. Turn off your ears and pretend you
only have the sense of touch.
28. Bowing Down: When taking a down bow, feel like the frog of your
bow is being directed towards the base of your spine.
29. Musical Variety: Construct five different versions of a lyrical
passage. Each version should have different phrasing decisions, a
different approach to sound, different imagery, and different
fingerings and bowing as needed. Play each one as if it’s the only
way.
30. Ivry Gitlis Trick: Play a lyrical passage with an excessive amount
of bow pressure. The sound should be ugly and scratchy. However, take
care to keep the pressure constant, and bow speed normal. Work to
achieve the effect in a consistent way, and with less effort. Then,
take ~50% of the pressure off, and you are left with an expansive,
beautiful and robust tone.
CHANGE THE RULES & ALTER PERCEPTION
31. Opposites: Play a passage slowly with a light simple bow stroke,
but still with clarity to the sound. Use the middle/lower half of the
bow, a compact stroke, and a very light bow hold. This way, it’s
essentially the weight of the bow alone that is creating sound.
Meanwhile, maximally articulate left-hand fingers. This combination of
piano in the right-hand, and forte in the left-hand creates a
different sensation while playing and leads to more awareness and
control over what the left-hand is doing.

32. The Sloth: Play slowly with mezzo-forte sound and a condensed bow
stroke while moving the left-hand fingers very slowly and lightly.
There should be no finger articulation, but fingers should still have
a confident trajectory. This is a chance to remove any trembling of
fingers if it occurs. Pretend you’re a sloth. Land accurately on the
pad or tip of the finger as you intend. This method will increase your
sensitivity to and accuracy of finger placement, and finger
choreography. This should be done before drilling finger articulation.
33. Ghost Left-hand: Play with the bow normally, while fingering the
left-hand on the wood of the instrument near the fingerboard. This is
an improvement on “play the passage open strings (right-hand alone),”
because the overall sensation of playing with the right-hand alone is
too different without any activity in the left-hand. Left and right
are so interconnected aft er years of violin playing. So, aft er
playing right-hand only, you don’t see significant improvement in the
passage. If you add the left-hand fingering on the wood, including
approximations of any shift ing and string changes , you will trick
your brain into thinking you’re playing with the left-hand. This
exposes the right-hand more accurately and creates the perfect
opportunity and feedback necessary for progress.
34. Piano Hammers: Play with harmonic level finger pressure while
maintaining finger articulation. Try hitting the string with great
articulation, then immediately releasing into harmonic level pressure,
and then pressing the same note normally. Go through this process for
every note in challenging passages, especially those that normally
cause tension. Study the movement of the hammers of a piano: they hit
the string with any level of velocity, but always immediately release
to a resting position immediately. Be like the hammers. Once this
challenge is met, you can start increasing the pressure gradually, and
you will be surprised how little you need when your fingers are so
articulate.
35. Change the stroke: Different bowings reveal different elements of
coordination, sound production and movement efficiency — e.g., change
between slurred and separated notes.
36. Reverse: Reverse the bowing of a passage. This endurance method
expands your flexibility and understanding of the passage and how the
hands coordinate.
37. Floating Thumb: Play without touching the left thumb to the neck.
This can be combined with Practice Hack #38, the goal being to set up
conditions under which the thumb isn’t needed to execute passages.
When coming back to normal play, start with the same freedom and only
add enough thumb pressure to stabilize the instrument. An intermediary
step can be to work with Practice Hack #27.
38. Scroll Support: Lean Scroll on top of something approximating your
scroll’s normal height. Practice paying attention to total release of
the left-hand/arm. Vibrate with the weight of the hand released, since
the violin is supported. If you feel the violin is ‘resisting’ your
vibrato motion, that means your vibrato trajectory does not have
“lateral consistency” and has points of bad tension or incorrect swing
angle. It can be difficult to notice this without the scroll
stabilized. Allow the fixed position of the violin to guide the swing
and movement of your vibrato so that you feel an alignment and ease.

39. Gyroscope: Practice open strings or passages in different

physical orientations: leaning forwards, laying horizontally on some
chairs, etc. This can be vital for re-orienting your bowing.
40. 3rd Finger Envy: When trying to beautify 4th finger vibrato, play
the note in question with your best 3rd finger vibrato, then
immediately try to recreate the identical sound with 4th finger.
Alternate multiple times and let your ear guide you.
41. Missing Notes: For intonation practice, play every other note of
the passage (two ways to do that). This will force your mind and body
out of the habits already built from earlier practice and potentially
create new connections and feedback regarding finger placement.
Similarly, you can try only playing the root, 4th, and 5th notes in
the passage to make sure they are in tune and match across octaves/
strings. Those scale degrees are the harmonic foundation of a key and
often outline the frame of the hand in a passage.
42. Milstein Trick: Play with a very shallow bow hold: just holding
the bow with the fingertips and scrunching the fingers close together.
This is resistance training: it makes you work harder to connect with
the string and produce a full sound. Aft er doing this to the best of
your ability for a few minutes, return to the normal way and notice
the changes.
43. Watch the Tip: Standing with the scroll perpendicular to the
mirror, watch the tip of your bow when approaching the frog and making
a bow change. A central cause for uneven sound bumps/noises at the
frog is that the angle of the bow changes on the bow change. It is
hard to notice this when playing, as the motions are very small when
observing the hand. However, the tip will amplify all motions created
by the bow hold, so watching the tip in this way can reveal all sorts
of irregularities.
RHYTHM
44. Off Beat: Set your metronome to show off-beats, instead of strong
beats. This will test and improve your rhythm accuracy, as you rely
less on the expectation of a click and more on your ability to place a
note correctly between clicks.
45. Remove Clicks: To strengthen your internal sense of rhythm, set
your metronome to click every beat (in a 4/4 bar for example), then
every two beats, then every bar, then every 2 bars. It will become
progressively more difficult to stay with the beat as beats become
more sparse.
46. Change the Meter: For fast passages which are in duple rhythm,
think of the notes as being triplets. This will create a new sensation
(new feedback) for your mind and hands, and will improve coordination
and evenness.

ENDURANCE
47. High Strung: Transpose a passage up by one octave. Don’t change
fingerings. Simply shift the hand up and play the same fingering. This
works for technical passages and lyrical passages. Keep any open
strings open (it will sound strange, but no matter). If 1 octave
higher is not possible, just make sure you have moved up to a
sufficiently high position. This endurance exercise will make string
crossings, intonation and sound production more challenging, while
preserving the trained muscle memory of the hands.
48. Four Everywhere: In slow passages, try using 4th finger everywhere
possible for endurance. This could mean just using 4th finger where it
would normally be possible, but it can also mean literally playing the
passage with only 4th finger (using full vibrato).
49. Extra Extension: For challenging stretches/extensions, try
extending to the neighboring notes as well, creating a simple finger
dexterity exercise to and from different extensions. This creates a
range of flexibility which improves the control and ease of the
extension.
50. Incongruence: Look for opportunities to create incongruent
exercises. e.g. 5-note slurs in 4-note groupings, 3-note rhythm
patterns in a duple meter passage, or simply starting/ stopping the
passage such that the bowing or emphasis is reversed on the second go.
A simple example would be to practice 3-octave arpeggios with 4 or 5
notes per bow in a repetitive loop. The impulses and bow changes will
land on different notes on every repetition, and eventually would
bring you back “home” where things line up again. This is a very
efficient way to practice, as the variations necessary for fast
progress are built in.
51. Mute Work: To assist in developing a full and beautiful sound,
practice with a heavy metal mute. The sound will be small, wiry and
ugly. Work extra hard to make it sound as beautiful as possible.
Listen very closely. This works as an endurance exercise. If you
improve the sound by 20% under these conditions, the benefit is
amplified under normal conditions.
52. A Useful Viola: Play the music on Viola (transposed to preserve
fingerings), then go back to the violin. Since everything is more
difficult on viola, it serves as an excellent endurance exercise in
sound production, vibrato and finger strength.
53. Roman Times: Try practicing a passage in 5ths. This improves
vibrato, intonation, sound quality and overall ease. It’s equally an
endurance exercise (as it is challenging to vibrate a 5th with beauty
equal to a single note) and an exercise to increase physical
awareness.
Vibrato/Sound: This exercise trains the use of the pad/fingerprint
rather than the tips of the fingers. Flatter fingers and playing more
on the pad (“fingerprint”) creates a more beautiful and flexible
vibrato with less effort. There are 3 reasons for this: Firstly, a
flatter finger angle means you have more rotational energy during the
swinging motion of vibrato (think of how a coupling rod on a steam
locomotive works), and therefore will require less gyration and less
effort. Secondly, playing on the pad of the finger is more stable when
vibrating due to increased surface area. Thirdly, the greater surface
area also allows for more gradations of finger pressure and types of
vibrato, thereby expanding the expressive possibilities.

Intonation: Vibrating on the pads of the fingers sounds more in tune

than vibrating on the tips. The pad creates a more stable pitch center
from which to vibrate and allows you to stay “within” the note, and
not “on either side of it”. Most importantly, this method addresses an
elephant in the room: left-hand alignment. There are two forms of
alignment: Vertical (5ths) and Horizontal (octaves). Horizontal
alignment is the measurement of the frame made by 1 and 4. This is
obvious enough, and many people practice octaves and understand how
they form the frame of the hand. Vertical alignment, however, is
rarely focused on. It’s the alignment of an individual finger on the
string. This alignment is made up of two components: where on the
finger you touch the string, and at what angle the finger touches the
string. Using this 5ths exercise will make you aware of these aspects
of vertical alignment and this will significantly improve intonation
and sound quality. Follow the steps in Figure 6 using the opening from
Sarasate’s Malagueña:
Figure 6

SHIFTING
54. Cmd+Shift: Add the open string between the departing and arrival
notes of a shift . This way you are finding the target note “from the
air” but still shift ing your arm as the shift normally calls for.
This challenges your muscle memory because you aren’t aided by the
sound of the shift or guiding note, but yet it’s the same shift
ultimately.
55. Pause+Shift: Practice prolonging the note before a shift . In
lyrical passages this trains correct timing and prepares you for
stylistic portamenti and continuity of vibrato. In fast passages this
is good practice to prepare fast, clean and light shift s.
56. Physicality: Using, say, the traditional “back and forth method”,
and making sure to move the finger very slowly, focus on establishing
a physical connection to the shift . Shift ing is not only about the
finger going from one note to the next, but rather, you must practice
attentively enough to notice how the arm feels, notice when, if and
how the wrist touches the body of the violin, what is the nature of
the arm angle throughout the shift , etc. Every piece of information
will help you shift accurately.
57. à la Dounis: Aft er practicing shift s slowly, add a smooth but
fast back and forth motion preceding the actual shift , as
demonstrated in Dounis’s Op.11, excerpted below. This method can be
applied when practicing any shift , including single finger shift s.
You can also try all separate bowings, or in any case, changing the
bowing of whatever shift you are working on as to work on coordination
from a different perspective.

58. Blind Shifting: Alter the bowing of a passage such that you
cannot hear the trajectory of the shift . For example, use a martelé
stroke and shift while the string is stopped. This forces you to
measure shift s ways other than through hearing.

MENTAL WORK
59. Visual Patterns: Visualize finger patterns before they occur. What
is the whole- / half-step pattern? How many notes on each string? Can
you chunk the passage into a series of these patterns? You can even
write in the interval patterns using small rows of dots spaced
accordingly. This can be helpful for memorizing/internalizing fast
scalar passages which have changing accidentals.
60. Only Beauty: Adopt a mindset where every time you put the bow to
the string, every sound you produce has purpose and is beautiful. By
doing this, you are not only organizing your practicing and becoming
more aware of your sound, but you are also preparing yourself for the
feeling of performing. The key to a good mindset before a performance
is to think about sound and musical direction, rather than any number
of technical issues you might have worked on or hope to execute well.
USE OF TECHNOLOGY
61. Drone Work: Play with a drone for intonation. Identify a passage
that is not modulating too much harmonically. Use the tonic or the
dominant of the key as a drone (different drones will affect your
hearing differently). For persistent problems: instead of playing with
a drone on, record yourself playing the passage without a drone, and
then play the recording back with a drone on. This way, the problem is
more clear, as you cannot adjust your pitch live. Additionally, your
perception can be favorably altered when you are not playing. We are
always better at commenting on others’ playing than our own. Then, go
back to playing with the drone, and repeat the process. Listen for
improvement and identify stubborn inaccuracies.
62. Atomize: Record yourself and slow it down. Listen to transitions
between notes. Can the transitions be more fluent? Which notes stick
out? Is the musical phrase still legible and effective?
63. The Matrix: Use graphical audio soft ware like iZotope RX to
analyze the shapes of your phrasing. It brilliantly displays a
graphical representation of your sound, and you will see your bowing,
bow changes, dynamics and various other aspects reflected.
© 2020 Daniel Kurganov 14

64. Dissociative Perception System: This is a fun and novel way to

hear what you sound like from the perspective of the audience. It can
be especially useful for ensemble rehearsal. You will need earbuds
that have ideally NRR 30+ rating for sound isolation (such as those
for construction workers). Regular noise cancelling earbuds can also
work. Directly over those, you wear ear protection designed for the
shooting range (NRR 30+ is ideal here as well). The earbuds connect to
a mixer, which feeds live sound from microphones arranged in the hall.
You can arrange microphones in various ways, for example in the back
of the hall, or far left /right. The goal of the dual-layer sound
isolation is to make it so that you essentially can’t hear your
physical self play, and only can hear the live feed from the
microphones. This is vital for investigations into balance for
quartets, violin-piano duos and various other ensembles. Refer to the
chart in Figure 8.