Which Sevcik studies?

March 27, 2009 at 07:46 AM ·

Hey, good choice in looking at the sevcik.

If your left hand technique is well set up, and you want to improve your accuracy and strength, the opus 4 double stop book is incredible, as a resource and as a book to steadily work through.

For basic skills development, the shifting book ( all shifting excercises and nothing else) I'm sorry I can't think of the number, is really good. Just make sure you practice all shifts extremely slowly and then vary the speeds at which you shift, do heavy slided shifts as well as lighter glissando shifts to develop control.

Also a good strength builder is the trill book ( Op. 7).

There is a scale book which is probably good, but I prefer to use the Max Rostal version (blue) of the Flesch system, which you may already have, for scales in all keys and double stops.

These would be a good start I think, you also may want to try combining sevcik study with schradiek book 1 ( I believe) and work on memorization and practicing perfect intonation in all keys.

Hope that helps a little,

Matt

March 27, 2009 at 09:13 AM ·

The shifting book, Op. 8, is, I think the best shifting book ever made. Maybe that's hyperbole, but I've found it more helpful than Dounis or that suzuki shifting book.  If I had to point to a reason why it's worked so well for me, it would be because it covers all distances of shifts using all possible combinations of guide fingers and forces you to play short finger patterns before and after the shift so it's harder to enforce bad habits. 

The Op. 1 is his magnum opus really.  The part 4 with the double stops is amazing, but I think Bytovetskie is a better introduction to double stopping technique.  Shradieck also has a double stopping book (part II) and Sevcik has his Op. 9 introduction to double stopping.  The section for exercises in first position is also great, but I've found that the first book of Schradieck and Dancla School of Mechanism are less tiring to work through.  The exercises in positions 2-7 are great if only because these types of exercises in one position are not all that commonly practiced (basically in Rode, Schradieck and Sitt are all I can think of).  The Shifting section is basically just a scale book.  I think Flesch and Galamian are both more interesting and they draw heavily on this book anyway.   

The bowing book, Op. 2 is hard to work on.  Doing a few exercises a day is probably valuable, but I can't handle any more than that.  Using Kreutzer or Dont creatively or just doing Casorti is a lot more fun....the Op. 3 is basically all about bouncing bowing techniques (thrown and springing). Unlike Op. 2 there's a cute little theme at least so it's not as dry to work through. 

Basically all Sevcik is excellent for the same reason.  It's very systematic and covers all sorts of combinations of movements that are either common or uncommon in music.  This is also why so many people hate it so there you go.  In general teachers recommend that you not do too much of it in one practice session.