As we launch our annual spring challenge, I wanted to share with you the three most important violin lessons from my childhood. I hope it adds fuel to your practice fire and inspires you to set high goals this spring!
TONE PRODUCTION
The first violin lesson I remember growing up was with Sister Jeanette Wood, who taught me throughout my grade school years. She was an incredibly patient and thoughtful teacher who used many descriptions of tone production, bow distribution, and bowing articulations, including the “Panda Bow,” to describe pronating into the stick to create a deeper tone. I love the notes she wrote in my books with her beautiful handwriting, they are so poignant as I look back on them now. But the moment I remember most is the day she recorded me playing the Seitz Concerto No. 5, first movement, and asked me to listen back to the recording in the lesson. It was the first time I had ever heard my own playing and it wasn’t what I expected. It was scratchy and rough, with no connection between the notes. The sound that was going on in my mind was clearly not actually coming out of my violin. It was a revelation and transformed my playing early on. Many top teachers and performers use self-recording to self-assess tone production from a third-person perspective. It’s often easy to get caught up in the difficult notes and rhythms, the technical obstacles, and miss the forest for the trees. If we’re not producing a beautiful tone, our correct pitch and rhythms get lost in the muddy waters of weak or scratchy sound production. So I try to record often, at least a short snippet once a week, to check in on beautiful tone production. For more information on self-monitoring. check out The Bulletproof Musician blog.
INTONATION
The second most memorable lesson came from Kurt Sassmanshaus at the Aspen Music Festival. His coaching style was so direct and concise, he was able to sum up both right hand and left hand issues so beautifully. I remember one lesson in particular, having played first pages of the Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No. 5, he asked what was the main difference between what I had just performed and a recording. Because it was the most difficult thing I had ever tackled, the thought to compare what I was working on to any professional recording was mind-boggling. There were so many things wrong with my playing, I thought to myself, that it was impossible to pick just one. He directed my attention to intonation, the differences between Pythagorean Intonation, Just Intonation, Equal Temperament, and how to use a chromatic tuner with those three systems. For detailed videos and exercises, check out his website, Violin Masterclass. I highly recommend it!
BREATHING
The third lesson was actually a year of lessons with my teacher, Kathryn Lucktenberg, at the University of Oregon, focusing on releasing tension in my bow arm through breath. She taught me how to connect my breath to the full range of bow movements, mapping out the extension of the fingertips at the tip and the soft rounded fingers at the frog, and the looping forearm as it sweeps up and then the elbow as it sinks down. Numbering the breath in for 8 counts and exhaling for the last 4 counts before changing bow direction allowed for my shoulders to soften at the bow changes and my fingertips to relax around the stick. Years later having learned more about yoga, her instruction was pointing to Ujjayi Breathing, where the inhale is a deep cleansing breath that fills the ribcage and a controlled exhale that relieves tension and warms the body. In those lessons, we would stand together facing the large mirror in her office so that I could mimic her graceful movements on open strings. It is still my favorite way to warm up and reconnect with my tone.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Tone and intonation are so interconnected, it’s impossible to separate them completely. When there is too much bow weight in proportion to speed and contact point, the pitch can bend down out of tune, even on an open string. Talk about double trouble when playing double stops! When the bow weight is too light for the contact point and speed, a false whistling tone can be the result and the true pitch is also obscured. The chromatic tuner, as Sassmanshaus suggested, can be used to both gauge our pitch and our steady tone. This type of slow and thoughtful practice can have a transforming effect on our tone and intonation, and when combined with mindful breathing, can unlock Dr. Suzuki’s “whale tone”
Happy practicing in the New Year!