Comments

Good blog as usual, Buri. I would like to point out, however, that Mr. Vengerov was barely 18 years old when he recorded that Paganini, so maybe a slight lack of artistic maturity is forgivable there. :) I personally like that recording a lot--it's him at his bold, swashbuckling schmaltziest. A bit like Paganini himself?! :) After reading your blog, I realised that my cello teacher is doing the same to me in terms of bowing. In the first 3 lessons (I just had my 4th lesson), he had me practised “invisible bowing” and “long tone bowing” designed for using the whole bow.

Invisible bowing:
left hand holding the tip of the bow, placing the bow on a string parallel to the fingerboard. Right hand in the “bow holding shape” at the frog, then shift slowly towards the tips, maintaining the knuckles of the right hand parallel to the bow (the wrist has no choice but to adjust), then back to the frog. The bow itself does not move at all.

long tone:
Playing whole bow as slow as possible while maintaining the tone at mf. To maintain the tone and volume throughout the bow stroke, the finger pressure has to adjust from 4th to 1st finger and so on. So far I’m able to play a down bow for about 10 seconds, and up bow for the same time. (I can apply this exercise to the violin as well)

There are a few other bowing exercises he taught me, including “ribbit" for the purpose of feeling the different weight of the arm on different strings and getting the “bite” on the stiring.

I’m glad he is putting so much effort on my right hand at the very beginning because this is where I have my problems with the violin.

Greetings,
Maura, didn`t say I didn`t like it.;)
The point you make does raise questions that I suppose will remain largely unanswered until the end of time: when should an artist of this stature record something and how does one fit it into the general scheme of things? if it@s not definitve, when will the defintiv e be released? What chances do the great players get to say okay that was then this is now, lets do a big educate the public on this kind of thing?
Incidentally I don` completley agree with giving slack because they are eighteen. If you make a record you are to somee extent making a defintive statement about the music that has to take its critics as well as its worshippers. I am not cutting that much slack because I want a Paginini that I can enjoy that is worth the money I pay for it.
I think thi sone fits the bill. He could be three for all I care,
cheers,
Buri Hi,
I like your approach with adults! too bad you live so far from Canada.... Setting goals for adult is really important. Really you should teach some teachers, most of them are good, they are just not used to adult. I also start beginners on whole bow open strings (insert ubiquitous smiley face here ). However, it has never occurred to me to start out children and adult students differently. Fascinating...my experience has been the opposite of yours...I haven't had a child complain about the whole bow open strings, but many adults get itchy and want to get to "the good stuff" right away.
Maybe "childish" and "child-like" has something to do with it? Thanks for the response, Buri. I appreciate your encouragement and feel quite honored to hear my name mentioned in the same sentence with Vengerov. Now I'll have to go hear what he sounds like.

An interesting aside on your reference to "macho playing." Watching Bruno Monsaingeon's documentary, I noticed that the difference in the ways that women (Hahn, especially) and men (Menuhin, especially) talk about playing conforms to the difference between male and female psychology advanced by Harvard psychologist/philosopher Carol Gilligan. Gilligan notes that men tend to see responsibility to oneself as the foundation for responsibility to the community, while for women it's just the opposite: responsibility to oneself is built on one's being responsible to the community first.

In Monsaingeon's film, Hahn complains about certain male violinists who play as if the rest of the symphony were not even present. And indeed, later in the film, we hear Menuhin expressing admiration for one violinist's playing "without asking permission of the metronome."

Two different and equally valuable approaches to playing, I would think.

Anyway, thanks again!

Jim