Violin Posting No. 23: Experimenting with the Bow

There are at least three different aspects to productive practice: correction, repetition, and experimentation. The last, experimentation, is in many ways the most important of the three since it helps us to discover what we can correct and then repeat it to build it into our mental and muscle memory.

This posting will address the various ways we can experiment with the bow. Knowing the basic rules of the game, metaphorically speaking, helps us to discover how we can make the practice session a self-teaching session as well.

In the diagram below, the black line indicates the basic path of the bow and numbers 1-6 indicate some of the ways we can experiment.

1. Faster bow speed
Changing bow speed provides us with different tone quality or timbre. Generally speaking, a faster bow can provide us with a more “airy” sound especially on the lower strings. But combined with more pressure from the right hand, it can also provide strong energetic sounds.
In many cases we will be surprised that moving the bow a little faster on the upper strings improves sound – because we sometimes forget to adjust from the slower bow speeds in the lower strings.

2. Slower bow speed
Slowing the bow generally makes the sound more compact or dense, even tight and intense. In a piano dynamic, and with an even, slow bow speed, a very calm quality can be achieved.
In playing we tend to gravitate to the medium or middle – and so, just as with the highest string, we can be surprised that improvements can be made with a slower bow on the lowest strings. This is especially so for the viola’s C string.

3. Bow towards the fingerboard
For many students, bowing towards the fingerboard happens by accident. So after repeated instructions by a teacher, it sometimes becomes an assumption that playing there is wrong (even the great violist William Primrose noted this in some of his students).
There are times when it can be done intentionally and done well. For the most part playing above the fingerboard can create a whispery, transparent quality. With a faster bow speed, it can even make the sound less clear, with a rougher edge, which can be useful depending on the music. However, we can also use this part of the string to play intense triple- and quadruple-stops more effectively, allowing us to get at least three notes all at once, without rolling the bow.

4. Bow towards the bridge
Bowing close to the bridge can create a rougher, aggresive quality. In many cases (again, especially for the viola), this is not only for the character of the music, but can help sound project. A tough lesson to learn is that what you hear is not always what the audience hears, just like how most of us find listening to recordings of our own voice strange.

5. Angling the bow away
This was a common way of ending music – it is basically an extension of No. 3 (bowing towards the fingerboard). But instead of having a section played further away, it is used to end certain notes with a diminuendo. Some pedagogues have rightly pointed out that it should not be the automatic way we end every note, but in the right context, the effect can be pleasant.

6. The bow stick
The big question is where the bow stick should point – upwards or forwards? In other words should the bow “stand” straight on the string or lean towards the fingerboard? There is no one right answer, and personally I like to consider keeping my options open and letting the sound be the guide. An upright bow can sometimes give a firm, confident tone, while a bow leaning forwards can give a warmer, fuller tone. Also, leaning the bow forwards gives us the option of letting less hair touch the string, letting us play quieter without relying only on bow speed, place on the string, or finger pressure.

In addition to these, there are other options also available. These deal directly with the bow.

7. The part of the bow
Connected to bowing and bow speed is checking that you are using the right part of the bow. Method books tend to split the bow into two (lower half and upper half) and three (upper, middle, lower) parts – while also noting the extremes (play at the tip or at the frog). Sometimes trying out “just below the middle” is also useful. Remember to make sure that you are not forced to play in an uncomfortable part of the bow because of a previous section – get to the part of the bow you want to play in.

8. Tightness of the bow
...is not always the same from one piece of music to another. Much depends on how on- or -off the string you wish to play, and how well the bow bounces. The rule of thumb is to have it just as tight as you need, and no tighter. But don’t end up playing lower in the bow than you would like just because your bow is too loose.

Violin Posting No. 23: Tone Production II

This is a discussion on how to better improve the quality of sound. In the process, one of the additional things that will be mentioned is the use of memorizing music, and how to do so.

A. Keeping the Bow Straight - Again

Playing with a straight bow is harder than we realize. Playing a piece of music from memory is good not just because it looks better on stage, but because it allows one to focus on details like watching where the bow goes. In addition to what has already been mentioned in the previous posting on this subject it may be good to consider the following:

1. When going down bow in the upper half of the bow, you should feel that the arm is actually moving away from the rest of the body. If it feels too “easy,” chances are that the elbow is locked, and the bow is moving sideways, and away from the bridge.

2. Sometimes one can start off in the right place on an A or E string, but when heading to the lower strings, the bow can go off angle. Practice moving from the highest to the lowest strings, keeping the bow the same distance from the bridge on all strings.

B. Bow management

1. Sometimes we use a particular part of the bow for a section of the music not because it is the best place in the bow, but because the previous section led us to it. How do you realize if this is a problem? This situation is a good example: you practice an area which has a bow problem and you solve the problem – but when you play from the start you end up with the same issue. How do we solve the issue? Check the bars before and see if any of the music there leads you to start the section in the wrong part of the bow. In other words, instead of working forwards, work backwards – eg. practice a section, then add four bars before it, and then another four bars. The same practice technique has been recommended by Prof. James Dunham as way to memorize music. This is because the area we are more familiar with is always in front of us, so we always have a goal to which we can look forward.

2. Sometimes we can also get to a wrong part of the bow because we do not realize that we have to lift/retake the bow. For example, let’s say we find a section of music which has a quick off-the-string notes that sound best in the point of bow marked below in red:

Playing on the E string, there is no problem. However, if we move to the G string by just raising the arm, we find that we are in a higher section of the bow, and the same bow stroke will not work as well here. In other words, we may have to readjust the place of the bow as we move from string to string. Look at how far we are from the original place marked in red:


3. The last issue with bow management that we will discuss in this posting is bow speed. Play in front of a mirror and watch to see if there are any sections where it may help to use more or less bow. Often the case will be like this: The blue represents what would produce good, even tone production. The red is a common reality for many of us, using too much changes of bow speed to end phrases. It is also common that we end up using more bow than necessary, and we end up at the tip of the bow and need to have a wide jump to get back to the right part of the bow. This is why bow speed exercises are useful – especially ones which test how slowly you can move a bow without stopping. One recommended to me by Mr. Lim Soon Lee is to try playing an open string and watching the second hand of clock. The ultimate goal is around 120 seconds with only one bowstroke – but for most of us, 30-60 seconds is a reasonably successful result.

C. Tightness of the Bow

A very simple but helpful way to make good tone is to check the bow tightness. Very often we tighten a little too much – and in an air-conditioned room, bows can get tighter as they adjust to the colder temperature. The basic rule is that the bow needs to be only as tight as so that the wood of the stick doesn’t hit the strings. Some people do think that it makes it difficult to bounce without a little additional tightness, but I think it really depends on the bow. Experiment with loosening the bow slightly and see how we like the end result.

Concluding Comments

It is important to realize that the discussions above are overall guidelines. Sometimes we intentionally move the bow away from the bridge, and sometimes we want to move the bow faster to create certain effects - but the recommended ideas above are to avoid some of the common mistakes, and to provide a solid basis in tone production. A final suggestion: try playing a little closer to the bridge, especially for violists - something else I picked up from Asst. Prof. Tony Devroye. It may sound a little harsh close up, but it has greater overall projection.

Violin Posting No. 22: An Introduction to the Bowed Strings

An interview for a music appreciation course at Indiana University South Bend - I used to visit the class, but now that I've graduated, this was recorded for future use. It is in two parts. The interviewer is Rebecca Hovan, adjunct faculty for flute and music appreciation - I might mention, a teacher well liked by her students and respected by her colleagues.

Violin Posting No. 21: Moving the Instrument

This posting does not deal with expressive movement, which is really up to the individual. Our discussion is on the practical aspects of moving the violin or viola. The instrument can move in a few ways:

Photo credit: classicalmusic.org.uk

The red arrows indicate how the instrument can move to the right or to the left, whilst the blue arrow indicates how it can also move upward. Each of these movements has a specific purpose, which we will get to momentarily. First we should address the reason why there is only one blue arrow - how about moving the violin downwards? In almost all cases, the movement of the instrument is related to the movement of the bow. And most of the time when players have their instrument going downwards, it is because of some instinct when the bow goes downwards:

Unproductive movement

This is a very common occurrence, but it's not very productive. If both the bow (1) and the violin (2) are moving in the same direction, you actually get less power in the contact, and the instrument ends up in a position which is less than ideal for overall posture. However, there are occasions outside of classical music where the instrument placed here is the norm - especially in some folk musics, from where the picture above was taken. In the baroque period, the violin was not even on the shoulder - but that's a story for another day. Let us now turn our attention to the opposite movement, that is, raising the instrument. A surprisingly good visual example is Debra Tiven's "Bounty":


Having the instrument in this position has certain benefits. If the bow moves downwards and the violin moves upwards it can provide a bit of an accent with minimal work, though this is usually more the case for left and right movement. The real benefit of raising the instrument is sound projection - the instrument is less padded by the shoulder, allowing the wood to have a greater amount of vibration, and more sound is produced. Sometimes the new angle of the violin can also be beneficial to spreading sound through a performance space. Of course, the downside is we can't have this position sustained for a long time, and you have to decide which sections can most benefit from raising the instrument.

This benefit is the foundation of shoulder rests. Some argue, however, that raising an instrument without any shoulder rest provides the maximum amount of projection, since there is nothing clamping the vibration of the lower part of the instrument. Most shoulder rests - anything outside of the Playonair series - are also said to make it difficult for the instrument to move left and right, which is a fair argument. So let's consider the issue of moving the instrument left and right. We discussed earlier the movement of the violin in relation to the movement of the bow. This is particularly helpful when the bow (1) moves downward while the violin (2) moves upward:

Opposite movement of the two arms

This can produce the same kind of effect of a faster bow, but with more energy balanced through both arms, making it a bit easier to play, and with more control over the bow. It thus tends to produce better results. Logically, one can do the exact opposite - during an upbow, move the instrument to the right, though this is somewhat less used consciously.

Just as with the instrument moving downwards, if the instrument follows the bow (both going left or both going right), it just eats away from one's energy without any benefits in sound.

There is an additional reason why the instrument can move to the left and right - better access to individual strings. Moving the instrument inwards (to the right) can make it easier to play on the lowest string, while moving the instrument outwards (to the left) can make it easier to play on the highest string.

At the end of the day the most important thing is to have an awareness of the ways we move with our instrument and to consider what effects it has, and what effects we want it to have, and to make sure the two arms work together to achieve that purpose.

Violin Posting No. 20: Shifting III

When proper basic shifting technique is in place and there is an understanding about the principles of shifting, we can look at some of the additional matters that deal with shifting.

1. Moving the Thumb First

When the left thumb moves before the fingers, it can help to make the shift smoother. Of course, the thumb might not move all the way to the new position, so it is more towards the thumb having a head start. The following shows this to a slightly exaggerated extent:


2. The Position of the Left Thumb

As discussed in a previous posting, different people may have their left thumbs to the left of the violin neck, or below it. Whichever way it starts, the thumb will always end up below the neck by about fifth position. The following shows an incorrect position of the thumb:


and this is the correct version:


Depending on the starting point ot the thumb, the movement of the thumb is as follows:


and much higher beyond 5th position, the thumb will eventually go to the side for most players:

3. Replacing Fingers

Another way to shift is to replace a finger with another finger, in a way that a finger slides into the place of another.

Violin Posting No. 19: Shifting II

The Principles of Shifting

While focus tends to be given to the technique of shifting, it is equally important to know why and when we change positions. Shifting has two major functions:

1. Staying on a string Staying on one string keeps the tone colour more consistent, and going up on a lower string has a warmer, darker sound. There are countless examples of this in violin and viola repertoire – including the opening of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, and Monti’s Czardas. Especially in the second example, tone colour is changed by using a gypsy- like glissando.

2. Getting high notes Naturally, some notes are just not reachable within the first position, and one needs to move upwards to play them. There are also double stops – especially octaves – that can only be played in higher positions.

3. Using different fingers Tone colour is also changed by the use of different fingers. The most obvious example is choosing not to use open strings, another example is the opinion of some string players that second position has a warmer sound than first or third positions. Next we should have a look at some misunderstandings of shifting:

1. There’s nothing wrong about first position or open strings While there may be a warmer sound in higher positions, sometimes music prefers a clearer sound – and open strings can have a beautiful quality if used correctly and in appropriate ways. It depends on the musical context – understanding whether the composition requires clarity or contrast.

2. Practice scales going up in position on the upper two strings My opinion is that the majority of scales which encourage shifting only in the upper two strings is very limiting. Scales are meant to provide a basis for good intonation in playing, and shifting only to third position and then upwards up the E string is not realistic for a large part of the repertoire. Scales should be tried in various ways, by including various positions and shifting on all the strings.

3. Shifting is not a substitute for good tone production While shifting can seem to produce an immediately warmer sound, the use of shifting is not meant to substitute work and attention in the other aspects of good tone production. Having both of these in mind helps us to better understand how shifting fits into the musical world of bowed strings.

Violin Posting No. 18: Shifting I

When students approach shifting, the most important thing seems to become intonation. And while that is very important, what is more fundamental is learning to use the fingers correctly while shifting.

1. A relaxed violin hold

The main thing to do with shifting actually has nothing to do with the left hand at all – it is about holding the violin securely with the head. This means making sure that the jaw is not clamping down too hard, and a simple test of this is whether you can still talk while holding the violin – without the left hand. The reason why this is important is that a relaxed violin hold will allow the left hand to move easily up and down the instrument. A proper hold on the violin is the start to any good shifting: a straight back, balanced shoulders and ease of muscles.

2. A relaxed left hand

During a shift, the left hand must be relaxed. This means that the finger in use should take pressure off of the string – so that the string comes away from the fingerboard, but slightly more pressure than would be for harmonics. Thus, a shift actually involves a stage of a pressed note, a shift that is relaxed, and another pressed note.

Areas of relaxation during a shift

When the finger is relaxed, the thumb can be relaxed as well.

3. Intonation

At this point one can think about intonation. There are a few methods that can be used in getting accurate shifts:

i. Playing during the shift: keep the bow going so that one hears the glissando. Then, when stopping the bow during the shift, one can still “hear” the distance being moved by the finger.
ii. Readjust your thinking: if playing a shift always gives a flat note, then aim to play sharp in order to get it in tune.
iii. Make sure shifts are one smooth movement along the instrument. If the fingers stop and start again during a shift, it is probably a problem with the violin hold or a left hand that is not relaxed enough – in which case one should go back and check on these matters before practicing more shifting.

Violin Posting No. 17: Playing With a Straight Bow

Benefits

Some of the most important things seem to also be the most basic, and one clear example is playing with a straight bow. There are times when it does help to do the opposite – which will be discussed later – but that being said, starting off with a straight bow has many benefits. Of these advantages, Prof. Tony Devroye has directly or indirectly illustrated the following:

1. Having the point of most resistance between the bow and the string, creating the strongest sound,
2. More control in how far the bow is from the bridge, which translates to better control in tone quality, and thus
3. Not losing sound at the tip of the bow.

Practice Techniques

There are various ways of practicing playing with a straight bow, the most common idea being placing a bright object in the right place on the floor and aiming the arm/bow for it when practicing. This is a more visual method.

Another approach, suggested by Prof. Devroye is that when playing with a straight bow, the arm should feel like it is going away or stretching away from the body – a physical method to feeling that the arm is doing the right thing.

I have often thought of the issue as also a psychological one. Let us first look at the correct straight arm:


Which also shows a rectangular shape while at the upper half of the bow. Then let us look at what happens when a bow arm that is not straight, but rather following the curve of the arm around the body.


If No. 1 shows the regular curve of the arm which results in a bow that is not straight as we can see. No. 2 is once again the correct movement, and to achieve this one might try to think of doing No. 3 in order to get things correct and balanced out. It is something like playing something consistently flat – sometimes you have to think sharp in order to play in tune. The mind’s calculation as to what is correct is not quite the same as reality, so an adjustment in the thinking may be necessary. In my opinion, a lot of violin and viola playing is about recognizing certain unnatural things about the instruments, and adjusting certain instincts.

Another popular study technique is to play one note at the frog of the bow, jump to the end and play a note at the tip, making sure to get the same quality of sound for both. Some teachers may use scales for this, others might suggest adapting certain studies like Kreutzer No. 7 or even the one in Suzuki Book 5. The idea is illustrated here:


A simpler version of this, which I’ve found useful, is to just play long notes strarting right at the tip of the bow, making sure the bow starts in the best place on the string:


From there, play a long note to the frog, taking care to maintain the same kind of sound quality, stop and start at the tip again. Kreutzer No. 4 is also useful, taking care to use the whole bow.

Exceptions

I believe it was Primrose himself who said that one has to learn the rules before learning how to break them, when he mentioned the times when playing with a not-so-straight bow can be useful. The idea has been around quite a while, David Dalton quoting it as being “playing around the corner”, if I am not mistaken. Applied along with the idea of the Figure of 8, playing with a slightly curved bow at the tip of the bow can be used to smoothen out sound when necessary.

So, while it would be better to play with a straight bow in something like the first movement of Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, a curved bow could be useful in something like changing bows within the long note in the opening of Bach’s Air on the G String.

It has also been of some musicians' opinion that people with shorter arms would have to curve the bow – though the dissenting opinion is that these people do not need to go to the very tip of the bow; that the tip is relative to each person and not necessarily the very end of the bow.

Violin Posting 16: The Left Thumb

A big thank you Stella de Souza for the link from Violinist.com. Please note that these postings, and new ones, have been moved to andrewfilmer.wordpress.com under "String Postings".

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to the position of the thumb: the thumb towards the left of the neck, or right under it.

The following is not in a lesson format, but rather a discussion as to what works for me, and which could be useful in whole or in part, to others. I would like to accredit Tony Devroye of the Avalon Quartet for his help in this issue.

Stage A

This is the way I've been holding the instrument for years and years. Recently, it has been seen that this can cause two complications:

1. Clamping with the hand can cut down circulation, which is why playing Kreutzer No. 9 three times through can cause eventual pain, especially in higher positions, and when the 4th finger is used.

2. The vibrato can be limited.

3. The thumb does extra work when shifting.

Stage B

So, the thing to do is to have some clearance on the right side, and move the thumb under the instrument. A side effect of that is that the wrist can jut out (highlighted area), making all the fingers unstable on the string, resulting in funky intonation. You may also notice the huge space created by the rounding of the hand.

Nevertheless, the benefit is that it covers all the three goals mentioned earlier. It's just too wide. So the next thing to do is to push the wrist inwards, making the arm straight.

Stage C

And that's the result - the fingers might not want to be that high from the string, but that is just to make the view clearer.

Results:

1. The space helps in easing physical strain

2. The thumb helps eventually, but a lot of scales up and down single strings need to be done to get used to shifting. Scales need to be practiced with speed, and with the use of the 4th finger.

That's the easy part. The difficult part is when one tries to do the same thing on the lower strings, especially if you have a thumb that goes entirely upright and cannot bend further back (i.e. not double-jointed). This will prevent the left hand from moving from Stage B to Stage C on the lower strings without angling the thumb on the neck of the instrument in a very awkward way. Keeping it in Stage B is still good for vibrato, but causes complications for shifting.

So: for lower strings at least, it is a reasonable compromise to keep the thumb back in Stage A at least for the lower strings, but avoid clamping the neck of the instrument. When it is possible to move the thumb under the neck, it can have interesting benefits and it is good to have that movement in the vocabulary of the left hand, and be able and comfortable in using it, even if one decides not to.

The final analysis (or as my prof says, the bottom line): whichever way the thumb is positioned, make sure the area of the wrist closest to the instrument is relaxed.

Violin Posting No. 15: Phrasing I

Here are some common problems in ending a phrase and starting a new phrase:

1. Cutting the phrase short out of worry of starting the next phrase.

2. Always ending a phrase with the bow on the string.

3. Ending a phrase too high in the bow (for downbows).

4. Starting the next phrase too low in the bow (for downbows).

Now of course these are general observations and there are many exceptions depending on the musical context. However, here are some basic ideas:

1. Many phrases, like spoken sentences in Western languages, have a gentler ending. Some of course, do not always have to have such an ending, and a clear example is the opening three notes of Bach's E major concerto:

which technically is a motif/motive and not an actual phrase, but still uses some of the same ideas we are discussing.

Most recordings (Kennedy, Kremer, Grumiaux) will have a bold and strong movement throughout this section - one artiste who has tried something different is Viktoria Mullova, who actually does a diminuendo through the three notes. No matter which choice one chooses to make, the bow should not entirely stop the sound of the violin by remaining on the string after the third note, but rather let it ring out and resonate. I personally would play it off the string, but another option might be just to use bow pressure (see No. 2) - in whichever case just ensure that the bow doesn't press down and stop the string from vibrating.

Why do we like to stop the sound with the bow on the string? Most of the time it is the security of starting the next note, but if you look at the example above, that means that one would be stuck in the upper part of the bow - not the best place for tone production for this section.

2. Let's take the last bit of that section in more detail:

Which will really help us deal with the ending of a phrase (or a phrasal fragment). If we use too much bow for this note (and for all of the first three notes), we will end up at the tip of the bow - so the first thing to do is to make sure we have control over the bow speed.

Many times we may want to have a graceful sound for this note, sort of like a diminuendo within the note to get some tone colour. If this is the musical choice that one wants, then try to get the same effect without having to use too much bow - in fact one may find that the effect will be better with less bow.

In the older school of violin technique, teachers used to get students to move away from the bridge to get this effect. The more modern approach is to try to avoid this, or at least not to use only this, but rather concentrate on bow weight (or as is commonly and mistakenly named, bow pressure).

3. Hopefully we now have a good ending to that little sub-phrase. The next challenge is what to do with the next phrase.

Here we have to check where in the bow we want to start this. We don't want to just continue where the last note ended, because that would be too high in the bow. The next note is a downbow but that doesn't mean that it has to start all the way at the frog. It should be lower in the bow, for sound quality in this particular case, but in down bows can start anywhere in the bow depending on the different contexts of different selections of music.

So in this little rest we have to move the bow to a new place. Here are some suggestions as to how to make it a smooth transition:

a) Move the bow more horizontally (in a straight line) rather than vertically (in a big circle).
b) Some times the speed which you need for an uptake is faster than seems musical - that's just something to get used to, or perhaps a warning sign that the last note or the next note may be in the wrong part of the bow. Check your bow speed.
c) In order to avoid "crunching" the next note, the uptake should have more than one speed - in other words, a really quick uptake but leaving a split second of slowing down as you approach the string. If you want to start the next note on the string, then the uptake must be even quicker.

This last suggestion seems to ask a lot for such a short rest, and indeed it is much to do, which just goes to show how many things happen in music when there is supposed to be no sound.

Remember though, that in this section the uptake should be no more than a couple of inches, say 6cm or so. Once again, if you are moving more than that, then you may want to check your bow speed.

Here's to phrasing, the foundation of all things musical.

Graphic source: Photoflavor.

Violin Posting No. 14: More on Vibrato

Based on some things which I have learned here in Fall 2006, and some new things I discovered while teaching, this post will elaborate on vibrato.

A. Vibrato Speeds

Those who have problems slowing down or speeding up their vibrato can try these steps - especially in slowing down vibrato.

1. Make sure that the wrist is free - sometimes the problem comes from doing arm vibrato when wrist vibrato is intended.

2. Try keeping the other fingers free - if the other fingers are loose enough, the wrist will likely be more free as well. In the end a lot comes down to having a good violin/viola holding position - something we all need to work on, myself very much included.

3. Try taking apart the vibrato - play just one vibration like this:
Check that the vibrato is a smooth, consistent motion, and try it very slowly, then faster. Use a metronome and time how long the pitch movement takes. Then try two vibrations, three, etc, at faster tempos.

B. Other Areas

3. Be able to start vibrato from the moment that the finger hits the string - good to have this as a default position.

4. Match the vibrato with the bow speed - if the sound isn't what is in one's head, maybe it's not only a vibrato issue. Try matching the bow speed with the vibrato.

With thanks to Cheng Hou and Tony Devroye, currently at Northern Illinois University.

Violin Posting No. 13: Pizzicato

Pizzicato is a misunderstood concept in classical string playing - jazz bassists have a unique part of our society in this sense, since just about everything they do is pizzicato.

Let us first examine the word "pizzicato" - which is "to pluck". If we really go to a garden and pluck something, we'll see how many violinists pizzicato is more like pulling out a stubborn and unwelcome plant than picking a beautiful flower. That's not plucking - that's weeding.

It will help somewhat to have a look at how harpists approach pizzicato - as well, as mentioned earlier, jazz bassists. For the harp, one will find that:

1. The use of the wrist and fingers (more accurately the closing of the fingers into the palm of the hand) is more important than any use of the arm.

2. Unless a special effect is required, pizzicato is done right in the center of each string, because that is the place is where the string rings out the most.

We can learn much from this, but of course there are many differences that don't allow us to apply these techniques directly. Two of them are as follows: first, the position of our strings to our hands very different, and we are usually holding the bow while we pluck; secondly, harps generally use all "open" strings. But the ways we can adapt and apply these ideas is as follows:

1A. While the arm may move in pizzicato, think also about how the finger and wrist acts after it leaves the string.

2A. Try not to think of pizzicato as being the same place on a string - the best place changes as we put fingers on the string, because the length of the vibrating string becomes smaller. The best place is really halfway down the vibrating string, or one octave above the written note.

Let's take, for example, this common chord:

Here, the position of the fingers (shown in squares) change the length of the vibrating strings (shown in brackets "[" and "]").

Green: open strings. Blue: the first finger, B. Yellow: the second finger, G.

Because of that, the best way to pizzicato is shown with the pink line. That being said, due to the constraints of the position of the arm, it may be more practical to pluck just slightly closer to the bridge than shown.

The Guaneri Quartet in The Art of String Quartet Playing (The Guaneri Quartet and David Blum), also make the following suggestions:

a) Stop the left fingers tightly as if to create a new nut, and make the pizzicato clearer.
b) The right hand should move quickly, even in a piece with a slow tempo.
c) Vibrato to make the sound continue longer
d) Pluck sideways rather than vertically - this provides more resonance and the string will less likely hit the fingerboard.
e) The sound of a pizzicato will come out more immediately than a bow - so if you are playing in a string ensemble, pluck slightly before the bowed note.
f) Play pizzicato one dynamic above that written.

Some other possibilities to consider:

• Strumming like Lakatos - avoid using the nails, but hit with the skin on that side of the finger.
• Using more than one finger to pluck - helpful in fast sections, but difficult to maintain the sound quality. Sometimes, a two-note pizzicato may be better in unison (two fingers on two strings) than spread.
• Left hand pizzicato - try using a different finger... or placing that finger higher or lower.

Lastly, try listening to these suggested pieces to hear how pizzicato is used: the third movement of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, J. Strauss Jr.'s Pizzicato Polka, Sarasate's Ziguenerweisen.

Violin Posting No. 12: Scales

Playing scales is usually the least liked and probably the most misunderstood of things that a string student is asked to do.

1. Many students just run through the one easiest way to play a scale, and if it's in tune, that's the end of the process. This is a misconception.

A scale is not the end-product - it is a tool to be used in preparation for playing music. So it's not good enough to be able to play a scale one way - it's important to be able to play it with different fingerings just in case those fingerings will be necessary (and some day they probably will be). Let's look at a scale:


While there are many different books of studies and scales and of technique which you can use to get different fingerings, you can also experiment on your own. For example:

i) move up to the second/third/fourth position as soon as you can, and stay there as long as you can

ii) play the first D with the 4th finger, and play the next notes all with the fourth finger and see how far you can go up the scale using just your 4th finger

Of course you will find many books on different kinds of bowing as well, but in this post I want to focus on the use of the scale in terms of left hand use.

2. Using a chromatic tuner in playing scales

Chromatic tuners are helpful in some ways and not helpful in others. They are most helpful in in the early stages - at determining whether you are sharp or flat and don't know it yet. After that, if you keep looking at the tuner and stop focussing on your fingers, it can do more harm than good.

I recommend trying out this process in using a chromatic tuner:

a) Play a scale as in tune as you think it is, without using a tuner.
b) Play the scale slowly again, and look at the tuner after you play each note - but when you play a new note, focus on the violin, and your fingers.
c) Check which notes you thought were in tune, but were not in tune. Keep these notes in mind.
d) Play the scale again, checking each note with the tuner - where notes were out of tune, anticipate and you should have fewer notes out of tune, or less out of tune than they were before.
e) Play the scale again, checking with the tuner only the notes which were still out of tune.
f) Play the scale again, without the tuner. If there are notes out of tune, first guess whether it is sharp or flat, and by how much, and then check with the tuner. If you are out of tune but at least still know whether it is sharp or flat and by how much, this shows that at least you are more certain mentally - that is, your understanding of the scale is better.

*Do not compare your scales to a piano unless you are sure that the piano is in tune and that you tune your instrument according to the A of the piano.

3. Advanced Material: The Nature of Keys

Even then, a chromatic tuner is only helpful to a point. Unlike a piano or harp, tuning on a violin (and other instruments including winds and brass) is adjustable, and should be adjustable. Look again at the G major scale above. You can play it techinically in tune using a tuner, but try it again, with the seventh note, F#, a little sharp (but just a little bit, not too much) - you will find that it sounds good, and it fits with the character of G major as a key. In some written music in G major, a higher F# will actually sound more in tune than one that is checked with a tuner.

On the other hand, the seventh note of a different scale like Eb major would not work - in fact, some of those notes may sound more in character a little flat. A very generalized statement is that keys with sharps have a tendency to go higher and keys with flats tend to go lower. However, this is a very big generalization, and one should experiment, discuss, and ask around. It will of course differ in different circumstances - whether you play alone or with other stringed instruments, or whether you play with piano, as well as how the piece is written.

Whatever it is - there are two scale degrees (or notes in a scale), which should always be in tune as with a chromatic tuner: the 4th, the 5th and the octave. In G major that would be the C and the D and the (next) G. That is one of the reasons we call them the "perfect" 4th, 5th and 8ve.

4. Other Tips on Scales

a) I know we are focussing on the left hand, but please listen carefully to the open strings - and make sure that they blend with the fingered notes. Also, please watch how the sound changes from string to string.
b) Listen to music in a key you are practicing, and see if you spot a kind of character with the scale.
c) Play an easy tune in two different keys - does it affect you differently?
d) When facing some difficulties in shifting, stop at each shift and check whether it is in tune. The method for playing such a thing more in tune would be in three steps:

First, hear the note in your head

Second, place the finger

Third, play and listen

It sounds easy but if we stop and do each of these steps, it helps us to play much better in tune, a process that all of us strive to do, including if not especially, myself.

"A Bangkok State of Mind"

"A Bangkok State of Mind" by Andrew Filmer, in Strings Magazine (June/July 2006 issue). Click on the images below to get the full sized graphics.

Violin Posting No 11: Basic Vibrato

There are actually four kinds of vibrato: wrist, arm, finger, bow. That’s in order of how often its used for most violin and viola players – though sometimes they are combined. In this post we will discuss wrist vibrato.

The basic rules of vibrato are as following:

1. Vibrato should be used carefully – better too little than too much vibrato.
2. Vibrato means moving from the main note, then down/flat, then back to the main note. Vibrato never goes higher than the main note.
FREQUENCY GRAPH FOR VIBRATO

Technique for Wrist Vibrato

Let us look at how the arm, wrist, and hand should move.


Note that while the wrist and the fingers move, the part where the wrist meets the upper arm stays stable.

Tips for Vibrato

Here are some tips to making vibrato if the hand feels stiff and cannot move.
1. The hold of the violin with one’s head (not just with the pressure from the chin) is the most important thing. Without this, the hand needs to hold the violin too tight and there can be no vibrato.
2. Look at the graph again. Try a very slow vibrato, starting from one note, and moving slowly down, and back again. Try with the third finger, which is the easiest for vibrato.
3. Think about the knuckle of the index finger, or this area:


Think about how this section of the hand moves in line with the neck of the instrument. If you have your thumb below the violin neck, then this part of the palm should move along the side of the neck. If you have your thumb to the side, then it should gently touch the neck.

Violin Posting No. 10: A relaxed bow arm

There are many factors to having a smooth bow stroke, and a relaxed bow arm is the most important. This is the first step in making a good sound on the instrument.

The Problem

Many teachers and students alike like to check bowgrip while holding the bow in the air without any support. While the bowgrip can eventually be shaped to look like what we think bowgrips should look like, they become very inflexible. That’s where scratchy sounds on the violin come from, together with arm weight.

James Reel in Strings Magazine, with reference to a book by Eden Vaning-Rosen, mentioned that holding the bow like that makes the little finger press down harder, creating tension that spreads through the rest of the wrist and arm.


The blue arrows indicate the natural way gravity moves the bow, and the yellow arrow shows the pressure the little finger uses to counter this to keep the bow straight.

Sometimes I feel that it doesn’t always start at the little finger and move onwards – rather the whole fear of dropping the bow tightens the whole wrist at once. However, whichever way this happens, the result is the same: a tight bow arm.

The Solutions

Vaning-Rosen gives few suggestions, including:
1. Making a fist, and then releasing the fist to feel a “spring” in the fingers. This seems similar to Ajarn Choochart’s exercise mentioned in an earlier posting on tone production.
2. Working on the release of tension in the fingers after a staccato stroke.

Last year’s Sayowe orchestra conductor Christoph Wyneken, a violinist who has played with the Berlin Philharmonic suggested an exercise with waving a piece of paper:

3. The two dark blue arrows show the areas to watch for - that the paper does not become bent while waving it. The light blue lines show that the paper does not change shape.

There’s also the rather obvious solution of not holding the bow in a horizontal position without support, especially for beginner students.

4. Allowing the bow to be held at its point of natural balance allows the student to slowly build up the strength of the little finger, and separating this from an immediate tightening of the whole wrist.

5. There's also just holding the bow upright.

6. Also, a challenging but important area is keeping the muscle under the thumb loose, a point mentioned by Mr Lim Soon Lee, violist and conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra.

7. An exercise I use with my students is holding a pen with the proper bow grip, and very slowly letting go. One second before you think that the pen is about to drop, say “NOW”. Many find that it’s still another five seconds before the pen actually drops – meaning that we have four seconds of unnecessary pressure.

8. Another exercise I recommend is having two baskets at home, one empty and the other filled with either uncooked eggs or tomatoes. Very quickly move all the items from one basket to the other, checking that none of the eggs are broken, and that none of the tomatoes have finger marks or bruises.

Violin Posting No. 9: Practice Methods

Though there is no doubt that a lot of practice is a good thing, how one practices is the more important skill of a musician. Here are some suggestions as to things to do while practicing:

1. DO use your pencil. The pencil is the most powerful musical instrument ever: feel free to use it whenever necessary in personal practice, a music lesson and even during orchestra rehearsals. Make your markings clear but concise – often symbols are better than words.

This following example is good. LH is the standard abbreviation for the Lower Half of the bow, a short line is used to show that the finger moves down, and only the important changes in position are marked. Some people might argue that having two possible fingerings is a bad idea, but I feel if it is clear, and you are clear, it's fine.

2. DON’T try to do everything at once. Pick out something to fix (such as bowing, intonation, speed, strength of the fingers), get exercises to help that skill, and focus. Then the next practice session try to maintain that skill, and find something else to fix.

3. DO ask questions. Having good questions and the search for good answers is a positive way forward. For example: Is there another way to do this? Am I breathing with the piece? Why do I feel stiff in my arm?

4. DON’T just play through the piece over and over again.* Without fixing the mistakes, all this does is to make sure one’s fingers keep remembering the mistakes. I suggest that in regular practice, just play through a piece two times – once at the beginning of practice to find out where the problem areas are, and at the end of practice to see your progress. Closer to a concert, one can play through a few extra times.

5. DO keep track of your practice. In two ways: the amount of time you have put in, and also the number of things covered. Put it some place visible, like on a notice board, or Post-Its on your wall, to see your progress. Have a goal in mind, as in to play a piece well by a certain date.

*A common misunderstanding is that the Suzuki Method teaches this, to play a piece over and over. Though I don’t use the Method myself, it should be pointed out that Dr Suzuki has said and written that it is only something correct that should be repeated many times.

Violin Posting No. 8: Slurs for Beginners

Or, if you prefer, slurring. This time we discuss how we use slurs, at two levels: first, for beginners trying this out for the first time, and second, for more advanced learners.

If you are trying to learn and figure out slurs for the first time, it may be difficult for you to do – I would suggest that you partner up with another learner and help each other to learn slurs.

Why are slurs difficult to do for beginners? One of the reasons is that we have the tendency to try and use our right and left hands together – so if we move a left finger, then we should change the right hand too. Slurring requires that we move one side, but remain the same on the other – meaning that we change left hand fingers, but keep the bow moving in one long bow stroke.

How do you work together to get it done? Well, my advice is to try to get your mind used to not using your hands in coordination (moving together), here. Try it out without the violin or the bow – keep the bow hand moving while move one finger of the violin hand. If this doesn’t work, just move the bow hand, and sing out the sound of two notes changing – like in the beginning of Fur Elise.

Then, meet your partner, and you bow a long bow stroke while your partner moves fingers on your violin (your partner does this by treating the violin like a cello - see the picture above - standing away from the scroll). First concentrate on keeping your bow moving smoothly, but then try and look at your partners fingers changing on the string while your bow keeps going. Then trade places, and you concentrate first on your fingers moving on the violin, and then keep that going while watching your partners bow moving in a long bow stroke while you change fingers.