We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:

Search the site Search

V.com Weekend Vote: What is the best way to build your technique?

October 16, 2010 at 6:12 AM

I'm talking about building good technique.

Some people swear by scales, and I know at least one who believes etudes are the answer. "Review" is a Suzuki mantra for keeping old pieces alive and well, and that also builds technique. Then there's the challenge of something new.

A diet of all these things might be the best way. Which do you think is the most effective ingredient for building a sound technique?

 

I voted ALL OF THE ABOVE.  Random thoughts right off:

Scales help me keep in shape.  Ditto for shifting, double-stops, and Sevcik-type finger exercises.

Etudes help me to keep focused on expressiveness and musicality.

New pieces help me stretch my mental muscles and keep me from getting into a comfortable rut.

Review helps me see where the technique has matured and where old problems have disappeared or are in process of disappearing.

My practice sessions are about 2 parts of technique to 1 part of repertoire.  I know that may sound a little out of balance to some, but I get a lot of fun out of technical stuff.  One thing I like to do is intersperse periods of technical drill with pure pleasure-playing; this helps my endurance.

I voted “all of the above”, and I missed Šev?ík. Fun vote, again!

edit

Petition to management: please make it possible to spell Šev?ík correctly on Violinist.com .

Jim, thanks for sharing your method. They inspire this new amateur violinist.

For some reason I only saw the poll, I couldn't see a way to vote.  Does that mean my vote went on automatically?

Not that it really matters since I agree with the outcome, its just a bit odd...

 All of the above are valuable for technique it's true, but in terms of the BEST way, I voted for scales.  I believe that scales are the primary building block of left hand technique.

something got reset because I just got to vote.  I went for all of the above (assuming of course that it meant all of the below, cause there wasn't anything above cept a title!). 

 

This subject has been more on my mind than other weekend votes. Is it common these days for teachers to focus primarily on repertoire--pieces--and especially difficult pieces--at the expense of scale work and etudes? Maybe i should move it to the discussion board, but perhaps it has been asked before.