Playing musically
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
You are here4:41
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
1:15
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
Teaching Technique Musically
But after all the talk about technique and how to do it, the most important thing is actually something else:
Play Musically
To play the exercise and all exercises musically. Countless times I've seen people trying to do these exercises using a sort of detached mental control.
- It's as though I am in here somewhere behind my eyes and between my ears.
- I have a hand; I hold the bow with my fingers.
- I have to put the bow on the string and somehow draw it straight to the bridge and adjust the speed and the pressure.
And it just doesn't work like that.
The Importance of Context
Often you hear somebody play a piece of music with talent and a pretty good range of tone. Then, they try to play a sound point exercise, and they sound like this:
"This simply never works."
Instead, all you have to do is to imagine that this one note is in a piece of music:
- A note in a solo piece
- A quartet
- A symphony
Then everything feels different.
Focus on Sound
- "Watch your sound point. Watch it."
- "That's it. Keep it even heavier, Olivia."
- "Play into the string, Olivia. Very good."
With your finger, would you please press the string near the bridge?
"Do you feel how hard it is? Very hard. So you've got to engage that with the bow. Go deep into the string. Keep it even."
Okay, okay. Very good.
Visualization and Emotion
Just one more thing:
"Would you please imagine that this note is in your favorite piece of music? And you love this bit of the music. And this is the bit where you go, oh, yes, oh, yes."
You can think of other instruments, you can think of a rhythm, you can think of whatever you like. Just imagine.
- Play something expressive and heavier.
- "Very good. And vibrate near the bridge expressively. Heavier. Marvelous."
- "Thank you very much."
Adjusting Technique
Elbows:
"That needs to be lighter, Tim. Lighter and lighter. Well done. Careful there. Add vibrato. Bravo."
Now, senza vibrato:
- "Sound point 3. Use all the bow. Yes, yes."
Make it Musical
You know, there's a fantastic thing you can do when you do exercises like this:
"You can pretend they're a piece of music, because you don't want to just play mechanically like this and go."
Imagine it in a piece, and this is what you have to play, or what you get to play in this piece at this moment.
And play musically, see what happens.
- "And deeply in the string. Be musical, expressive."
- "Well, look at that. That's a better contact. That's right. Bravo. Fantastic."
11 lessons
1h 7m of structured video lessons
Advanced video features
Slow down, loop a passage, follow along
Mobile, tablet & desktop
Practise wherever you are
100% satisfaction guarantee
30-day money-back guarantee
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.
