Exercise eight: Pressure exercise + Sounding soundpoint
Lesson time: (1min 44sec)
Simon Fischer expands the pressure exercise with new variations, working 'heavy-light' bow strokes and moving in and out of the bridge to find your sounding point.
Course preview
This lesson is part of the course The Secrets of Tone Production Part 4: Final Fundamental Tone Exercises
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Pressure Exercise Techniques
You can do a similar thing with the pressure exercise.
Key Considerations:
- Be Light Near the Fingerboard: It's essential to maintain a light touch near the fingerboard.
- Start with a Higher Number: Consider starting with a higher number than just one heavy light in each stroke.
Experimentation:
You can try different ways of doing the exercise:
-
Begin with Four Heavy Lights:
- Two in each half of the bow.
-
Increase the Count:
- Try eight or sixteen heavy lights.
-
Bridge Variations:
- Go into and out of the bridge once.
- Go into and out of the bridge twice.
- Experiment with going in and out three times.
Repetition:
- Practice Sets:
- Perform three and four heavy lights each time for consistent practice.
About the instructor
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. read more