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Martens, Heifetz and Technical work

April 15, 2006 at 5:14 AM

Last night, my internet wasn't working, there was nothing good on TV, so I decided that I'd have a read of some of my eBooks that I had downloaded a while ago, but never really got into reading.

I had a bit of a browse of Mozart and Beethoven's letters, but settled on Frederick H. Martens' Violin Mastery. Basically it's summaries/quotes of Martens' interviews and discussions with various violin virtuosi/masters.

I decided that I'd start in the middle - with Heifetz' section. Heifetz pointed out something that I had never really realised before, about the importance of Technical work. He said that technical work was very important - more so than practicing your pieces. The idea behind it was that if you were technically sound, you don't need to practice your pieces as much.

For example, if I was to tackle the Tchaikovsky Concerto - there are a number of technical issues that I haven't attempted at this moment in time. Now, I could start the concerto and learn each technique as I come to it on the page, and it might take me a year or so to get it to performance standard. But, If I delay starting the concerto to work on technical issues specific to the concerto, I may spend three months getting the technique downpat, but after that, I might only need 3 months to get the concerto up to performance standard.

It makes sense - and it has made me more focussed on doing my technical work. Now I'm not going to spend 3 months just working on technical work and no pieces - but I am going to be more regular in my practice of technical work and be more effective in how I practice it.

If you want to get this book (and it's a good read) you should find it at Project Gutenberg. I really do recommend it.

ON other news - I just bought a pair of shoes at a real bargain. They were $139, I got them for $49. Bargain!

Thanks for introducing me to Project Gutenberg. Can you give me some coaching? How did you find the letters of Mozart and Beethoven there?
Hi pauline,
I was put onto it from one of my lecturers who had mentioned that there are a number of musical related books on there. Just search for the composer of your choice and you never know what you might find. They do have some sheet music on there, but Mutopia is the better selection (related to Gutenberg, but all free music)
Thanks, Ben.