From the monthly archives:

February 2009

The Secret of Practicing Part 5

by Steve Maus

In measure 246 in the Brahms Concerto we find a particularly interesting passage for the solo violin. We’ll have a look at this because today we will concentrate on practicing double stops or, in our case, even triple stops.

I did without fingering because first of all I want to show you a possible way of [...]

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Difficult to play like this

by Steve Maus

Anybody out there with an upcoming viola or violin concert?
Always check your tailpiece prior to the performance…

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The Secret of Practicing Part 4

by Steve Maus

To show you some more practicing techniques we carry on with this concerto. Let’s focus on the first ascent:

This one is really difficult if we want to play it well. A certain intonation quality should be present already. If not, have a look at this technique again and concentrate on practicing interval by interval to [...]

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The Secret of Practicing Part 3

by Steve Maus

Let’s summarize what we have seen so far. If we really want to get better on our instrument, if we want to save time to achieve the utmost precision we must not merely play through over and over again, particularly at the beginning of the learning phase of a new piece.
We must avoid practicing bad [...]

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