5 Ways You're Making the Violin More Difficult Than it Has to Be

[Carl Stross]

I watched  two or three videos from this young gent and he seems competent and the videos are informative. For some unknown ( to me ) reason he is extremely agitated and I suggest some degree of patience - it's worth it :

 

 

 

 

[Rue]

I agree - he seems quite competent.

I think he's just funneled all the energy he's saved playing the violin into his lecturing. 

***also a personal reminder that I need to remember to lower my elbow 

[PhilipKT]

52 minutes ago, Rue said:

I agree - he seems quite competent.

I think he's just funneled all the energy he's saved playing the violin into his lecturing. 

***also a personal reminder that I need to remember to lower my elbow 

When I was a very little boy starting on violin, I remember my violin teacher showing us how to put the bow on the string. We swung the arm out and up far above the string and came down on the string.

That is stupid. Kids what I tell every kid is to come up from below rather than down from above. When you do that you automatically eliminate any issues with shoulder arm or elbow.

Edited October 20, 2020 by PhilipKT

[PhilipKT]

You don’t need to keep the bow completely straight.

his shoulder is too high. He talks a lot without saying anything.

start your kids off with the correct bow hold. No need for the “thumb in wrong place” hold.

yak yak yak “likesharesubscribe” yak yak yak “violin”

nah... just another wanna-be

Edited October 20, 2020 by PhilipKT

[Rue]

7 minutes ago, PhilipKT said:

...

yak yak yak “likesharesubscribe” yak yak yak “violin”

nah... just another wanna-be

*ouch!*

 

[PhilipKT]

31 minutes ago, Rue said:

*ouch!*

 

You know, if you’ll come to me, I can do something about that pain.

;-)

[PhilipKT]

this on the other hand is a brilliant lecture

[MarkBouquet]

8 hours ago, PhilipKT said:yak yak yak “likesharesubscribe” yak yak yak “violin”

I agree. I tried to watch it, but halfway through I realized that my mind had wandered elsewhere. That’s when I turned it off.

[Arbos]

“Your elbow is too high”

*picture of Heifetz in the background*

[Muswell]

9 minutes ago, Arbos said:

“Your elbow is too high”

*picture of Heifetz in the background*

I've just been watching the video of Alina Ibragimova playing the Bach Chaconne at the Proms.  Someone should tell her about her elbow problem.

[Carl Stross]

14 hours ago, PhilipKT said:

this on the other hand is a brilliant lecture

"Decoding" classical composers is an at least 200 years old game and the bread and butter pseudo-entertainment of composition professors and certain conductors. And some piano players who should know better.  And some composers. I reckon I must've easily clocked 500 hours of listening to this sort of stuff if I include rants on how Beeth blundered orchestration. This one is one is one of the worst I heard. An expert can take the mickey out of Mozart way better than this - this is kindergarten stuff. That M was superficial in many of his compositions is something perfectly known since M's time - really absolutely nothing new. Glenn Gould being the genius he was, I am sure could've done much better but this was probably kept low key for a general kind of public. Many thanks for this video as it contains a very precious ( for me ) insight in Gould's artistry. Many, many thanks !

[PhilipKT]

4 hours ago, Carl Stross said:

"Decoding" classical composers is an at least 200 years old game and the bread and butter pseudo-entertainment of composition professors and certain conductors. And some piano players who should know better.  And some composers. I reckon I must've easily clocked 500 hours of listening to this sort of stuff if I include rants on how Beeth blundered orchestration. This one is one is one of the worst I heard. An expert can take the mickey out of Mozart way better than this - this is kindergarten stuff. That M was superficial in many of his compositions is something perfectly known since M's time - really absolutely nothing new. Glenn Gould being the genius he was, I am sure could've done much better but this was probably kept low key for a general kind of public. Many thanks for this video as it contains a very precious ( for me ) insight in Gould's artistry. Many, many thanks !

I commented on the video that Gould’s comments, though accurate, are moot. Yes, Mozart adds a lot of noodling, irrelevant scale passages, and similar, but who cares. The result remains entirely charming and listenable, whereas a similar sonata by Clementi has us wishing ourselves dead after four minutes. Also, it is unfair that Gould only comments on Mozart’s piano work and ignores the late symphonies and other works.

His comment about improvisation is quite correct, however, and I had not noticed it before, not being a pianist. Mozart merely wrote down his improvisations instead of meaningfully developing them, which would be more appropriate in a prepared work. That is only a weakness if it weakens the piece, and at least in the example we heard, I don’t think it does.

[Bill Merkel]

His late piano pieces might be improvisations, but his late symphonies aren't.  Maybe he hadn't heard them

[MarkBouquet]

Why is no one coming to Lawrence Welk’s defense?

[ctanzio]

I vacationed at a Welk Resort in Palm Springs. Beautiful rooms, well-run Tennis club, nice golf course, and easy driving distance to the whole spectrum of ecological landscapes:

dry deserts (Anza-Borrego State Park, used a backpack full of water bottles on a 45 minute hike),

subtropical deserts (Joshua Tree National Park, other than the road through the park, completely pristine with many spectacular views),

inland seas (Salton Sea, ruins along the shore reminded me of a Mad Max movie), 

earthquake fault lines (San Andreas fault, from the mountains you can see the ridge line where the earth is pulling apart), 

farmland (date palms stretch for miles towards the southern Mexico border),

heavily forested mountains (San Bernardino State Forest, beware the black bears!, otherwise great mountain hiking).

I think Lawrence did a a very good job!

 

 

[Carl Stross]

On 10/21/2020 at 5:14 PM, PhilipKT said:

I commented on the video that Gould’s comments, though accurate, are moot. Yes, Mozart adds a lot of noodling, irrelevant scale passages, and similar, but who cares. The result remains entirely charming and listenable, whereas a similar sonata by Clementi has us wishing ourselves dead after four minutes. Also, it is unfair that Gould only comments on Mozart’s piano work and ignores the late symphonies and other works.

His comment about improvisation is quite correct, however, and I had not noticed it before, not being a pianist. Mozart merely wrote down his improvisations instead of meaningfully developing them, which would be more appropriate in a prepared work. That is only a weakness if it weakens the piece, and at least in the example we heard, I don’t think it does.

Agree 100%. 

I must say I don't care much for his opinions on composers and for most of his interpretations but one thing is for sure - he was incredibly talented and he's "convincing". I don't hear enough musical transfiguration to make me think he's a "true genius" but I could well be wrong. Here's an excellent example of his quirky and superb artistry :

 

 

[Bill Merkel]

10 hours ago, Carl Stross said:

 I don't hear enough musical transfiguration to make me think he's a "true genius"

He edited his recordings extremely heavily, so if he wasn't a genius it wasn't from lack of trying.

[Carl Stross]

20 minutes ago, Bill Merkel said:

He edited his recordings extremely heavily, so if he wasn't a genius it wasn't from lack of trying.

I did not know that and also, it's not what I meant. I'll take a chance by horribly oversimplifying and I'll say that to my ear he is not musical enough to make the impact he seems to aim for.  Look on YT for the D Minor with him and then Lipatti or the Inventions with him and then with Nikolaeva, when you have some time and of course, disposition. 

But Menuhin, technical stuff aside, is absolutely stellar and he's stellar without effort, affectation or pretense. 

But check Lipatti's D minor - I'm curious of your opinion. Lipatti was trained at great length by the absolute best and was marinated in a certain kind of disciplined, "serious" classical culture. Gould learned a lot of piano by himself, that's pretty clear to me. 

[Bill Merkel]

6 minutes ago, Carl Stross said:

I did not know that

He considered it part of the artistic process and was all about it.  I suspect no other classical recordings of that time were as heavily edited.

[Carl Stross]

3 minutes ago, Bill Merkel said:

He considered it part of the artistic process and was all set up for it.  I suspect no other classical recordings of that time were as heavily edited.

AND he was STELLAR when live as well :

 

 

( though he IS irritating the conductor. And who put that woman on the horn ?? )

[Bill Merkel]

When I see him in that little chair I always want to feed him.

[Carl Stross]

8 minutes ago, Bill Merkel said:

When I see him in that little chair I always want to feed him.

I wonder how much of his mannerism, chair included,  is just acting. About 3/4 I suspect.    I can ignore the humming but I can not ignore that the humming is really trivial....

[Violadamore]

8 hours ago, Carl Stross said:

I wonder how much of his mannerism, chair included,  is just acting. About 3/4 I suspect.    I can ignore the humming but I can not ignore that the humming is really trivial....

Shoot, if you want to focus on stuff like that, here's the all-time epitome:                             

 

[Bill Merkel]

On 10/23/2020 at 4:48 AM, Carl Stross said:

I wonder how much of his mannerism, chair included,  is just acting. About 3/4 I suspect.    I can ignore the humming but I can not ignore that the humming is really trivial....

his william f buckley intellectual accent was affected for sure.  you hear that only in his time period

[Carl Stross]

21 hours ago, Violadamore said:

Shoot, if you want to focus on stuff like that, here's the all-time epitome:                             

 

I like him. Very, VERY talented, very well trained. I think his mother was a professional concert pianist. Sure, he's a bit sloppy here and there but then he's not trying to better Gieseking. Liberace's mannerisms work pretty nicely with his act. Gould's do not work with his act at all. I speculate here but I think sometimes the mannerisms ( which I believe to be substantially intended ) hinder his music making i.e. he changes interpretation to suit the mannerisms. His 5th symph has a lot of moments which musically make full sense if you would listen to his after-moaning....