Adding the left fingers
With
Simon Fischer
What's in the course
11 lessons (1h 7m) · 1 free
01. Warm up to exercise one with a simple straight-bow exercise
Free lesson1:53
02. Explanation and demonstration of exercise one
27:16
03. Exercise one in more detail
12:03
04. Isolating the elements
3:16
05. Playing musically
4:41
06. Making the perfect change of bow
7:03
07. No such thing as an inaudible bow-change
1:22
08. Feeling the momentum of the bow
3:18
09. Adding the left fingers
You are here1:15
10. Applying soundpoint practice to passages
2:53
11. Sounding as good as the best player in the world - right now
2:08
Lesson transcript
Focusing on the Bow Technique
Here we're working only on the bow, but afterwards, when you add the left-hand fingers, the essential thing is that they don't disturb the bow.
The Challenge of Coordination
The trouble is that most of the time:
- The bow works horizontally
- The fingers work vertically
You don't want the fingers to disturb the bow like this, instead of the bow being even. Nor do you want to over-press the left fingers just because you might be playing heavily into the string with the bow.
A Practice Method for Smoothness
Here's a wonderful practice method that makes the bow feel extraordinarily smooth and even:
- Simply finger on one string and bow on another.
You can do it as an exercise, or you can take any phrase and sometimes a whole passage from a piece, bowing on one string and fingering on another.
You can do this constantly during practice. There's always a better legato you can discover by doing it.
11 lessons
1h 7m of structured video lessons
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Meet your guru
Meet your guru
Simon Fischer enjoys a distinguished and wide-ranging career as a performer, educator and recording artist.
He has performed worldwide as a recitalist, and committed three Brahms Sonatas to record, a recording that received high praise in Gramophone Magazine.
Simon is recognised as having a place amongst the world's elite teachers. He is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music, and has held positions at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Wells Cathedral School and the Purcell School, and for 15 years was a visiting professor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. Having studied in London with Yfrah Neaman, and in New York with Dorothy DeLay, Fischer's approach unites the best elements of the French, Russian and American violin traditions.
Fischer's published work greatly influences the teaching of the violin. Having written for The Strad magazine since 1991, his monthly articles have attracted a worldwide following. Published by Edition Peters, his technique books Basics and Practice (translated into Korean, Italian and German), Scales and The Violin Lesson, and the DVD The Secrets of Tone Production (now available to stream via MusicGurus), have become standards on many continents. His book and DVD Warming Up was described by The Strad magazine as "23 pages of pure technical gold".
In 2014 Simon Fischer was awarded the European String Teachers Association prize "In celebration of a lifetime contribution to String Teaching".
In his four-part Secrets of Tone Production course, Simon guides you through getting to know your instrument and then working through his fundamental tone exercises step by step, so you can produce a richer, more controlled and more beautiful sound on the violin.
