The Secret of Practicing Part 10

Today we’ll focus on the chords in Bruch’s violin concerto. We often come across those kind of chords in violin literature, so basically we can apply our practicing pattern there as well, no matter if we play Bruch, Vieuxtemps or Waxman.

Now let’s have a look at this:

At first glance a tohubohu of notes waiting to be sorted. To manage them easier we break them up into clearer double stops:

The chords should be played down-bow originally. With the ligature we make sure that we break the chords up correctly and, in addition, we practice every chord in a down-bow as well.
We should play the entire passage like this and repeat it if necessary chord by chord.
If we are happy with this we carry on:

Now, this is an interesting part. We place our fingers as usual in a chord, but we play just one note with the bow. It will be difficult at the beginning but the effect is great when it comes to intonation. Therefore I marked the upper note. We play the E-string solely.
But stick to the original fingering and bowing. This is very important because otherwise you would practice something entirely different. Remember to place your fingers as usual but concentrate on the upper note.
If we succeeded with this we do the same with the middle note:

That’s the same as above with the focus on the middle note. The lower note works accordingly.

When we managed this we can start to assemble the passage by connecting the different chords with each other:

We connect the first with the second chord, the second with the third chord and so on.
It is very important to play the three notes simultaneously, not one after the other. We can achieve this by aiming at the middle note with our bow. Now we play down-bows with much more momentum, more drive than usual. So we don’t limit to the middle string but the bow kind of scratches the neighbouring strings as well. The result is a chord consisting of three notes.
To avoid a scratching sound because of our increased pressure it’s important to apply a considerable bowing speed.

After successful connection of our chords we enhance the passage by connecting four chords:

If this sounds well we should be able to play the entire passage as desired. If anything horrible happens we should repeat the steps above for the chords in question.

If you stick to this “manual” you should be able to play the entire passage in good quality within short time.

Have fun!