Straightforward works for me.

October 19, 2008 at 10:41 PM

Greetings,
probably this seems banal to people who own computers, cordless phones and don`t regard the blackberry as an adjunct to apple crumble, but I still find you tube one of the most astonishing things ever to happen to womankind. If one can be bothered , with virtually no effort one can educate oneself about so many styles of violin playing. It`s instant inspiration at the fingertips.
Here`s a quick run down of what I looked at the other night at a friends.
Started with Kavako and his legendary performance of caprice no5. Found it extremely unsatisfactory except as an exercise in making the jaw hang around the ankle bone. Switched to him playing an arrangement by Ricci of some work by Arriega. The most perfect bowing and intonation . Flawless and rather dull. Jumped to Nel Cor Piu thingummy halfway though. Don`t think there is another playerin the world right now who can play with the absolute robotic perfection of this guy. Looked elsewhere after becoming vaguely bored.
Meandered to a young ASM playing Bach. A lady playing absolutely as she sees fit, perfect tehcnique, huge sound, range of colors and complete musicianship- sort of like Szeryng but much more moving to me. Awesome. If This lady does not record the Bach sonatas it will be a major tragedy. Tried some contrast. Turned to my favorite modern Russian violnist who is always experimenting and growing in odd directions. Clearly influenced by contemporary scholarship and approach his Sarabande floats all over the place dynamically and musically. Didn`t enjoy too much. Tried a wodnerful old German (Austrain?) player not exactly rated with the greats but still widely available on CD for a lot of classical period stuff. Seemed to be a loud hacking approach, especially after the the slightly contrived Russian performance.
Enough is enough. Back to ASM for sheer, straightforward, beautiful music. Cleared my head. No questions asked.
Cheers,
Buri

From Terez Mertes
Posted on October 20, 2008 at 2:10 AM

Someone should make a list of "YouTube over lunch break" hits. This is a good start - I'd love to see a young ASM. Thanks, and off I go!

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on October 20, 2008 at 6:03 AM

I agree with you, Buri. Youtube is an unprecedented collection of music, some of which can not be found anywhere else, and a tremendous boon to all who play music. Only one problem: Once I get started, I can stay there for hours.

From Jerald Archer
Posted on October 20, 2008 at 9:39 AM

I agree with the above statement, as well. I am a great fan of authentic baroque and there are several members that post new additions on a very regular basis. I also learn a great deal from other traditional fiddle players and their unique regional styles, which is a revolutionary step in gaining access to different cultural styles, in that type of music. In the old days, one would have to do a fair amount of travel for such research, as it is impossible to learn from the "styles" from written music. Classic recordings can be seen as well, and this is a good practice of preservation. It allows access for younger violinist, as well as more seasoned players, to review an old work or something new.
I only have one disappointment with YouTube, and I don't know if anyone else has noticed this. I have ceased using it for teaching purposes for this reason, and the comments are helpful to the student to understand the work, but the comments are not always very scholarly. It concerns the lack of posting moderation, concerning the comments left by other viewers. In the beginning, it was not overly present, but now it seems to be rampant. I have a page on the site, and had placed a video of a 4-year old child relative on the page. She was playing a little fiddle, and most people found it charming. But some person had left an extemely disturbing sexual comment concerning the child. Others seemed to immediately follow suit. I removed the video and immediately notified the top brass of YouTube about this incident. Their only response was that "people have a right to expression." I agree they do, but when does one draw the line between freedom of expression, or speech, and possible criminal intent? Does this suggest that YouTube has no concern for the respect of it's viewers? This would seem to be the case. I was floored by their reaction, especially the absence of any apology, but I was not suprised. Other comments I read, and they are just a disturbing as well, usually have nothing to do with the video itself. The comments are often pointless opininated arguments, which insult not only diverse cultures and religious beliefs, but human intelligence, as well. Often, due to the nonsense some post, it makes me wonder if there is not some secret communicaton going on. Think of the possibilities of this, and I soon starts to make one think about the real activities of the posts and their users.
Who in the world would ever suspect that a post, on a seemingly unrelated video would be overtly suspicious or engaging in illegal correspondences? A detective? Perhaps. I do realize I could just ignore the comments altogether by disabling the function, but I would be robbing myself of a good study in social psychology, which I find is very useful to me, personally. Anyone with any good understanding of social science and a even a minimal amount of psychological observation training can acertain much about the writer of any post that is presented on any forum. The average poster gives a great deal of information about themselves without even realizing it. A psychotic individual is a master of deception, and are the most difficult to "read" into. These are the dangerous ones and it is their usual practice not to do this anywhere that they could be traced down. They tend to be very convincing in their delivery and can appear to be anyone or anything they want.
But this is what one must put up with and accept (to a certain degree) when you deal with an entire planet of opinions and psychological makeups.
But still,YouTube is an excellent learning tool in itself.

From Jodi B
Posted on October 20, 2008 at 11:01 AM

My daughter's teacher just last week asked us to look up "hora staccato" on youtube. She has been studying upbow staccato and he thought that she would benifit from watching. We both watched together and found many neat examples.

Ever since we FINALLY have gotten highspeed internet (just 2 months ago), Youtube has been a favorite of mine. I agree it can be so helpful getting different interpretations of the same piece.

However, I would like to add to Jerald's comment about the comment section of Youtube. Not only do I find it borderline cruel, but I find most Youtube comments to be quite vulgar using the F word many times etc. They also tend to tag inappropriate "other" videos to the related section.

Other than that, I find Youtube to be useful... just don't scroll down :)

From Erica Thaler
Posted on October 21, 2008 at 2:23 PM

OK: YES! Please share your lists of Top Ten You Tube "Must See" violin videos...consider it your community outreach project for us relative newbies and our kids! Thanks! : )

From Corwin Slack
Posted on October 21, 2008 at 2:24 PM

I have been led to believe that poster of content (to Youtube) can disable comments. I believe that more posters should do this.

I am sure that no matter how outstanding the artist some bozo with zero accomplishment will have something negative to say and in all likelihood they will expose the limits of their vocabulary to say it.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on October 21, 2008 at 10:15 PM

Greetings,
Erica, take a look at the Menuhin/Gould performances of Bach, Vengerov Masterclasses and the Handel Halvorsen Passacaglia with perlman and Zuckerman. or any Perlman for that matter.
Cheers,
Buri

From sharelle taylor
Posted on October 21, 2008 at 10:39 PM

I agree with the comments being an aggravation on YouTube. I would dispute it being 'psychotic individuals', rather they are psychopathic - an important distinction.
REcently in Australia we have had an experience of a young girl backpacking in Croatia, murdered and found floating 2 weeks after being reported missing. Her family had used You-tube to ask for assistance. But the comments that returned showed some seriously damaged minds at work. I don't believe that individuals l;ike the ones JErald encountered, or those commenting on Britt's family's videos, restrain themselves to commenting on the internet, and that is a really scary thought.
AS to unmissables on the site, Cho Liang Lin and Kyung wha Chung's Bach double is a great piece of playing, and also sympathetically video'd with good sound quality.
It has also helped me develop a better ear for phrasing and intonation. I start off thinking that everyone is playing perfectly but can't hear much difference between many of them, and then as I become more practised and distinguishing, I start to hear differences and errors. I don't mind errors so much, it rarely diminishes my enjoyment, so long as I can hear involvement I'm pretty happy.

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Straightforward works for me.

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