Embrace your stage fright, practice your performance
By Prof. Lihay Bendayan, Head of the Violin Class, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Can We Unlock the Secrets of Virtuosity?
Fundamentals Underlying Techniques and Methodologies
By Prof. Lihay Bendayan, Head of the Violin Class, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
Double stops
By Prof. Lihay Bendayan, Head of the Violin Class, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
Double-stop passages, particularly quick ones, are often challenging and require serious attention as we aim for a perfect result.
When practicing double stops, we need to deal with several technical elements that create challenges for intonation when combined together: the distances between the fingers are sometimes less comfortable; shifting – often requiring fingers to travel different distances simultaneously; tensions are created when lifting some fingers while others stay on the strings (e.g., thirds); and finally, the perpendicular extensions between the fingers which occur due to the distances between the strings are added to the horizontal extensions, creating diagonal extensions…
full article and demonstrative videos in "Master your violin course" on iclassical academy
full article and demonstrative videos in "Master your violin course" on iclassical academy
Shifting positions
By Prof. Lihay Bendayan , Head of the Violin Class, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
Why and how do we shift positions?
We shift positions either when distances between notes exceed the extension capacity between our fingers or for musical reasons. In a musical context, our shifts create vowels inside the words we use. The aesthetic choice of where we place our shifts (i.e., the fingerings we select) can be compared with word choice in poetry or literature. For example, consider the first four notes of the second movement of the Mendelssohn concerto in E-minor. If we start with the 2nd finger in 3rd position on the A string (Mi) and stay on the A string for the next three notes, we can play either Mi-Fa-Re-Si: 2, 3-3, 1 with a vowel between Fa and Re; or 2, 3, 1-1, with the vowel between Re and Si. The vocabulary changes by means of moving the vowel to the next syllable, creating a new word that is aesthetically different – in the same way we employ the beauty or aesthetics of words in shaping poetry and literature…
Paganini Caprice # 5 – Middle Section
Structure:
Before we learn this caprice, we should be aware of its roughly ABA structure. The first and last sections are made up of ascending arpeggios and descending scales (minor and major), bookending the middle section, with its quick spiccato (or saltato according to the original bowings).
How do we approach the middle section?
After taking the time to read and learn the notes slowly, it is important to deal with the difficulties of each hand separately at first. I suggest the following exercises…
full article and demonstrative videos in "Master your violin course" on iclassical academy
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