Intermediate violin-viola course

1. Introduction: Now we are at an intermediate course and I want to show you a few tips about left-hand and right-hand studies. And then we're going to talk about scales. Why are they important? We're going to talk about vibrato as well. And it's going to be exciting. I can tell you. When you think about vibrato, Whoa, everybody wants to play vibrato. Vibrato. Vibrato. I wanna sound like that, Well... it's very good. And this is the right attitude, but it is going to take time. I'm gonna give you the right tips for that. Let's do it. 2. How to practice scales: So how do you practice a scale? You make sure every single note is in tune, starting with the first one. You have the right position, of course, first. And then you just play. What you can do is listen in advance. You can also practice a few technical things that will help you play more articulated, more clear actually. So, you can practice a scale by lifting the fingers. And what else you can do when you play, for example, C major, this one. When you place the first note, think about the next one, which is D. Really think if it's in tune, if it's too sharp, correct it, play again. It's too sharp. That was quite good. What else you can do, is to control with open strings. So if you have a D, you control it with D string. Because octaves, fourth, fifth, you can hear them right away. So they're the easiest intervals and the quickest intervals to hear right away. I suggest when you play a scale, you control anything, for example D, or when you have an A you control it with A. Every time you play a scale, you control with open strings, as much as possible. This is one tip, Another tip, as I said before is - you lift the fingers. So, during your scale, you lift your fingers before you put them on. And third thing: you listen in advance. Every single note. When you play a note, you listen. I will explain again. I have the D already in my head...and the I put it on the string. And then the next. Now I listen to this one and think about the next one. Eeee, I have it in my head and I know how it sounds like. In this way, you will achieve better intonation, because this is what we need when we play scales - much better intonation. Because you already prepared the sound in advance, with your brain. So, when you practice, the most important things are: focus, energy and think in advance. So this is the basic approach to playing a scale, and I hope it works, I hope will help you, because people just play scales because they are scales and it's good for intonation. But it's important to know how to approach a scale, how to practice, and how to play a scale. These are basic things that everyone, any professional, anywhere you go, they will tell you more or less these things. Maybe I told you something more. And I hope you will learn something from me. 3. How to practice studies: Okay, now let's talk about studies. Why are they important? What type of studies you should practice? Any study is more or less helpful for your technique. They are very, very important for both hands. Of course. The ones I will show you are from Otakar Sevcik These are very, very simple but efficient studies and they could be quite boring. So, if you sleep when you practice, anything is boring. The Sevcik studies, you should practice each line. Don't practice from the beginning until the end. You can practice actually each bar if you want. These studies take you from crotchets, minims, quavers, semiquaver, everything you need. It's important to practice them with metronome and then without metronome. Let's say one day you take the first study, you practice, for example, 10 minutes on one line. And then you take the next day, the second study. Once you played through a study, you don't like it, you go back. So, if you don't like something repeat it until you achieve the sound you want or the technique you want. When you practice, you should record yourself as much as you can. Because you are your best teacher. When you practice a scale, when you practice a study, whatever, a piece and you think: Oh my god, this is fantastic! I play like Anne-Sophie Mutter or Yuri Bashmet.... Recording yourself will give you the right mirror. When you record what you play, you can listen from outside.. you are a person listening to you, yourself. You listen to the recording and you can hear exactly what you are doing. When we practice, very focused, we can miss some things. We are not aware of everything, That's why practicing with the recording give you the right and objective way of saying: yes, this is good, this is right, or this is bad. Sometimes you can play something and as I said before, you think you are amazing. Then you listen to the recording and think: who is that?? you know, or the other way around. You can achieve a point where you think, Oh, it's so bad, I can't play. But actually because you practice so many times, you get to play and you're not aware that your level is actually very good. So you play the piece and think,( because you probably slept three hours, let's say) and then you can play the piece and you play it, you record it. Let's hear the recording and the recording could sound amazing. It happens sometimes. Recording is the best, the most objective way of judging your playing. So, record yourself every time you practice something. 4. Long notes: Okay, now let's talk about long notes. Why are they important? And I would say they are probably the most important, probably the most important technique anyone, any string players should do every day, I would say. So. Why are they important? How do you do them? Let me show you. I know, you know, but let me show you. You play them on open string, first, open strings. You start with C on viola or G on violin. This time we have a viola. When you play long notes, you control these long notes with the right hand, obviously. What you need to do is: achieve a very constant sound. If you want to play piano, you play that in piano as long as you can. But the crucial thing is, in this technique, to relax, of course, I will repeat this so many times, you're going to have enough of this. But maybe it's the only way we learn. Because I haven't learned when I was a child, when I started to play violin and viola, my teachers didn't repeat that enough. Try to achieve a very, very constant sound, very constant in piano, then you take mezzo piano, mezzo forte, and then forte, depending on what you need to practice, what your piece is about, what your exercise or whatever. But it's good to play on each string, open strings. You can play this on scales if you want. It could take up to three hours, depends how patient you are. You have to be very patient and listen. When you play these long notes, you'll have to listen every time, because you have to listen the constancy of the sound through the open string. And then you take, when you finish, we know C for example, you take up bow next string and do the same. Yeah. I need to practice this every day to achieve a very constant sound. Why is it so important? Because it helps you with: the quality of the sound. When you play a piece of music, you have to build a phrase. Building a phrase, you don't just think how you build a phrase. You need control from the right-hand. Right hand helps you achieve the phrase. For example, you have:.... Let's say a phrase like that. And you want to do a crescendo and then decrescendo. That crescendo is actually ... The connections between the notes are these long notes... Because every single note has an expression, every single note has a colour. And that's why... 00:03:46.790 --> 00:03:48.455 the more you play long notes, the more you can control the expression, the expressivity between these notes, each note. Another thing is - it helps you develop the dynamics. Actually, the right way of playing the dynamics, the difference between them. You will see between piano, mezzopiano, there is a subtle difference there, depending on what you play as well. You will be able to control these subtle differences. And you will be able to control and know exactly what you want to express. That's why long notes are so important. Of course, it helps you relax. It helps your listening. It develops your listening so much, because you have to listen that constant sound all the time. And when I play, sometimes I can listen to...., oooh, it's a bit loud, it's a bit interrupted. No. You have to achieve a level of non interruption and constant sound. The more you play them, the more you can control it and the better your sound gets, in any way, It is probably the most important technique as a string player. And you play them as a beginner, as an intermediate, advanced player, professional and soloists. Some soloists practice these long notes every day. I know for sure. 5. Vibrato: Now let's talk about vibrato. Vibrato is something people need to colour their sound. In time you will achieve your personal vibrato. Vibrato is the one that gives you personality. Through vibrato, an artist expresses feelings. But of course you can do vibrato in so many ways. You can do vibrato actually, you can express a note without vibrato but listening, you could have the feeling that something vibrates there. You can express that with the right hand. All sort of things you can combine. But, now we are going to talk about the basic way of practicing, the basic technique of practicing the vibrato, which is this: You put your violin or viola up and the scroll of the instrument should be leaning on the wall Yes? And then you put your left hand up first finger, and move it towards you and towards the wall. Move the finger like that. You can see, Left hand, just move it like that. And the instrument must be fixed in the wall Yeah? And very, very slowly move towards you, towards yourself, the finger, and towards the wall. And then you take the next finger, and the third, and then the fourth. Firstly, you move just the hand, you move just the hand. And you will then develop a vibrato from the whole hand, like that. You can achieve continuous vibrato, between the fingers, you just move your hand. Or you can do the vibrato only on the note, on the finger, moving, like that, interrupting, before you play a note with the finger. Vibrato is something very, very complex. You will understand once you start practicing it. And it takes, it takes quite a while to understand, to actually build phrases. You will see that a phrase, a musical phrase, you can express with the right hand and through left hand, which is vibrato. But you can express it without vibrato as well. Of course. You can achieve a very expressive tone and a very expressive note without vibrato. I know some orchestras play... actually some conductors, they ask wherever they go, to play without vibrato no matter what type of music, no matter what they play. So, even if you play a romantic composer like Brahms, for example, where you need a lot of vibrato, they ask to play without vibrato, but they can achieve a very, very interesting sound. The orchestra, they can sound very expressive. So it's very interesting. It's a lot to talk about this, really What I can say, the most important thing about vibrato is: the more you practice, the more you use it, the more personal it gets. You will control it in such a way that every single time you play, every note you play is going to have a specific type of vibrato. You're gonna use just the tip of the finger, or just the hand, or just the whole hand. Or even, actually, you can express vibrato by moving very, very subtle the hand or the bow. Vibrato is actually a combination between the left hand movement, what I showed you, and the right hand. Right hand helps the vibrato, you will see. Once you control the vibrato with the left hand, you will feel it with the right hand as well. In time, you will develop your own vibrato. You will see. So it's a lot to talk about vibrato, it's very specific technique and it takes time.