Are Warm Up Exercises Necessary?

December 30, 2023 at 03:31 AM · I agree. Milstein was opposed to warming up, probsably for the same reason. I don’t frequently advocate Simon Fischer’s book ‘Warming Up’ on this site as a means of warming up . Rather, I have found it to be a great collection of exercises for technical development. There is a big difference!

December 31, 2023 at 03:08 AM · Thanks for your thoughtful comments Stephen, I agree with this principle absolutely. And yes Simon Fischer has a lot to offer, I watched him teach at the Menuhin School in the UK, really excellent ideas. By the way have you seen Terje Moe Hansen's "All-Interval System for Violin"? He is an amazing player and teacher at many conservatoires. The book is an very practical guide to develop fluency in all intervals over the entire fingerboard..basically his development sequence which he used when he began violin at the rather late age of 19 yrs. Within 6 months he was enrolled in the Sibelius Academy, and within 2 years playing in the front desk of the symphony orchestra. I got my copy on Kindle. Interested to know what you think of it. Best wishes!

January 1, 2024 at 02:59 PM · Would it be appropriate for Rupert to be invited to devise a weekend vote on this subject?

January 1, 2024 at 05:14 PM · Sometimes when I meet with friends I play violin for them. It works as a nice break in between great discussions on various subjects. It can happen that I play Czardas by Monti and here the subject of warm up is important.

I know by experience that the quality of my performance of that piece is so much better if I warm up before playing it. Therefore I warm up first. How do you warm up in such a situation? That is simple, you start playing some simple pieces that are relatively calm.

So I regard warm up as important. Start small so to speak, doesn't have to be scales or technical drills, can just be easy pieces of music. As a matter of fact if you are together with other people like above you have to start with something that can be enjoyed by others.

If you are alone in your practice room you can actually do the same thing starting playing some simple or easy music instead of starting with scales or technical drills.

By the way I also have Simon Fischer’s book ‘Warming Up’, but I also regard it as a great collection of exercises for technical development.

Thus for me warm up means start calmly playing whatever fits for you. You can also make a few simple body exercises before playing.

January 1, 2024 at 06:44 PM · As from ~ Carrier of the Heifetz - Milstein Legacy of Violin Mentoring, Elisabeth Matesky, Internationally recognized Violinist, Artist Teacher of Violin & Bowing Studies, {5} Happy New Year!!!!

First off: Thank You for the word, 'spatialisation', which I'm sure my Mentor, Nathan Milstein, never heard of nor wished hearing although 'Up There' and celebrating yesterday on the 31st of December in Anno 2 0 2 3, for his would've been One Hundred Twentieth Birthday across The World and by his Family, with whom I am regularly In Touch, & on Facebook in a Grand Happy Way!!!

Having read Replier, Stephen Brivati's Comments prior, I find his assumption & never ever having met my private Violin Mentor, Nathan Milstein, nor studied w/Mr. Milstein, nor if I am to fully understand this, meeting or speaking with NM re anything technical or anything period, How can he write re Mr. Milstein's Never advising Warming Up and never did so???? This is utterly False because I was studying & privately with Nathan Milstein at his Chester Square London, SW1, home for 3.5 years, and on all major concert violin and other violin repertoire yet Not Once did I hear NM tell me to Not Warm Up & he Never did in our 24 Year Friendship!!!! This is a mythical idea which (and I like Stephen Brivati), yet not to be set down on an international Violinist Website as Milstein 'Gospel' not to mention a Falsehood re Nathan Milstein & his own unique RX violin preparation! All NM ever told me was: 'PRACTISE!!!!' Simple and Direct yet in our over 4 + hour Twice Weekly 'Tutorials' he would address all of my needed to improve weaknesses which focused on my Franco-Belgian from youth Bowing & rounded completely in the space of only 1 year to mirror Milstein Rare Bowing re Violin technique and which NM rarely shared with anyone in an NM Violin Master Course in Zurich, first debuting in Summer, 1970, with myself, NM's invited 'Help-Assist' to his 1st Nathan Milstein International Violin Master Course/s, 1970 and throughout the 1970s, and "On Standby" due my return home to the US to Soloist Concertise and Teach/Sub for a superb US Violinist, Louis Krasner, of NY, teaching his 22 pupil's @Syracuse Univ, while on his sabbatical, {who had premiered Alban Berg's Violin Concerto in NYC, NY in Carnegie Hall, to grand acclaim for both the Composer and Violinist} and keeping one's Solo Violinist Concerto Engagements in the UK and Europe fulfilled whilst doing all in the US ... My Point-Request: Kindly do Not write about a GOAT Violinist & Only Peer of Heifetz, nor my First Iconic Violin Mentor, Jascha Heifetz, unless one knew both/studied and seriously with both and knows exactly what JH and/or *NM always prescribed to very rarely accepted private NM pupil's!! Okie Dokie, friend of V.com and mine, Stephen Brivati!!

As to Warming Up: Agreed in that it is each violinist's perogative to warm the hands up and if in cold weather or frigid weather, {aka, Hameenlinna, FI, in Sibelius' Birth-House, as I was, and prior to performing the 'Adagio di molto', Mvt of his Violin Concerto on a frigid Finnish Winter December 8, 1965, Birthday Centenery Day of Sibelius before All Five Sibelius Daughter's in his Birth-House so small it got warmer, with other Sibelius Family et al plus 8 Int'l plus TV Cameras filming squished into a corner of the Sibelius Living Room where we offered the 'Prayer' from Sibelus' Violin Concerto requested by ailing Madame Sibelius at the time ...} I do warm up in my own long devised exercises way teaching some to pupil's both in Europe at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, FI; London's Trinity College of Music and later its New 'Self', Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, on the grounds of The University of Greenwich, London, tho' put forward, or in the US at the 100+ Yr old original American Conservatory of Music w/former Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mischa Mischakoff's tenure long before, preceding my Tenure as Artist Teacher of Violin & ACM Chair, International Strings Programme and recommended by Nathan Milstein, who knew I was carrying his Legacy of Violin Playing & beyond as only 3.5 official years NM private London tutored, yet more importantly, NM's passed on to me rare Bowing Ideas!! Therefore, and not intending to identify my violin pedigree here on New Year's Day, but possibly necessary for the Author of this All Important Discussion, and whom I confess not knowing, it is somewhat set down here for authenticity purposes and Real Life Experience Knowledge re Nathan Milstein's "Never warming up" w/something to the effect stating "Milstein was opposed to warming up." Not So, dear Stephen Brivati! NM was always 'warming up' because he Never set his Strad away from chin, excepting to have English High Tea's on our Breaks & when waxing eloquent in his NM Chair re Everything Imaginable and a few things Unimaginable!!!! So, kindly retract your non valid yet well meant statement!!

I will not comment on the vital RX's of Igor Ozim as passed down to the Author, because I know Not everything Igor Ozim taught, {though an internationally respected & revered Violinist} did nor did not when teaching but respectfully accept all the Author has set down about his teacher, and a must have been wondrous one being a consummate Artist!!! IMO, from a Veteran of International Concert Artist Touring of over 5 Decades including Violin Master Classes mentoring, and One-on-One's since a pupil of Heifetz at USC's Institute of Special Music Studies, in the Original Jascha Heifetz International Violin Master Class, subsequently filmed and on YouTube with All 7 films {YT mine, JH VMC-Khachaturian, JH-7, EM, Russian vers. Library Master Performers}, I do respect the idea of all violinists if going to a lesson or audition or competition and in varied types of weather, depending on Cold; frigid freezing; Warm; Hot as Heck & etc., needs to warm up or soothe the brow prior to performing and also playing Chamber Music with others as part of an ensemble and as a member of a Pro Orchestra or non Pro even more needed to warm up on repertoire to be publicly offered whether orchestral or soloist, always certainly needed & to calm nerves by most; plus if chamber music to review one's part to blend in with all other's in the SQ or other varieties of chamber music and becoming a helpful musician to one's colleagues and friends ... Each individual String Player needs to find his/her own kind of Warm Up, but I for one, feel most prepared practicing rugged passages from/ within a work, specifically a Violin Concerto, prior to walking out on a stage before major musical loving audiences, and especially before cultured audiences coming for The Repertoire and oft not necessarily the Artist if yet unknown or making a Debut in given City despite advertisements! It really harkens back to The Beginning of one's training and How the Hands are formed at birth; the one who can't make up for birth boney hands if born with them; nor can one apologise for what I term "Puppy Hands", aka, soft & supple during and throughout one's entire playing life, Oh, to die for! nor for the hands not first originally when earliest studying with Scales, All of them w/all variations, Alla Heifetz, who Insisted on Scales non stop before allowing any of we 7 to perform or play a violin concerto or violin & piano Sonata or Solo Bach for him when our turn on Tuesdays or

Thursdays, and when it came to Friday's, only a few invited to play Chamber Music w/JH; Primrose, Viola & Piatigorsky, Violoncello!!! {I did and it was wonderfully exciting yet greatly challenging re all Allegro Tempi trying to mirror 1st Violin, Heifetz, sitting 2nd Violin to the GOAT Violinist to my Right And, btw, Primrose to my Left & Piatigorsky on Violoncello!!!! WOW!!!!}

So, in the final analysis, it does remain the province of very early teacher's who hopefully know their pupils temperament; body & hand construction and for a future long range; plus lots of other

issues related to the pupil via Goals: wanna' be soloists? Chamber players? or All of those mentioned and professionally. There are many non professional orchestras now all across the US plus I do know in the UK, so many loving music 'amateur's' love playing in

community orchestra societies & excelling in major orchestral repertoire with my own RX: Do Warm up on passages from varied Symphonic works you are going to be offering in public along with your other section players to be able to nano second turn pages; to know all in the Full Score or to blend in with the bowings in either the First Violins, if sitting Second Violin and/or to Hug your fingers on The Board who will appreciate some 'down-time' with you their Owner and like a dog owner, Love when Time to go 'Walkies' but on String Cousins' Finger boards!!! Happiest of New Year's in 2 0 2 4 to All Repondents here and no hard feelings to Stephen Brivati, and who would've loved meeting and watching Nathan Milstein Yell at Me!!!

{And, folks, an NM Honour, as told to me by his wife & a wondrous pianist, to 'not cry yet to rejoice' due to her husband's confidence in his self-proclaimed, 'Nathan Milstein Guinea Pig Heifetz Pupil, EM'!! }

~ ~ Gladly Submitted January 1, 2 0 2 4, New Year's Day ~ ~

........................... Elisabeth Matesky ............................

Fwd ~ dmg '24