Page 89 - The Strad (February 2020)

TECHNIQUE

starting with an up bow and sometimes with a down. Make sure BEAUTIFUL MELODIES (3–5 MINUTES)
that every note is of a consistently good quality and in tune. Take a slow piece, like Paganini’s Cantabile (exercise 5), or Gluck’s
Melodie, and play it with the most gorgeous, controlled sound
LONG SUSTAINED NOTES AND SWELLS (5 MINUTES) and phrasing that you can produce, with perfect intonation.
‡is exercise will test your sound control and your patience! ‡e
goal is to play a one-minute down bow and a one-minute up bow A CHALLENGING BOW STROKE (1–2 MINUTES)
with a clear, beautiful, undistorted sound, on open strings. If this is Choose the bow stroke you currently struggle with the most. For
too diˆcult at rst, begin with a 30-second bow. First practise in a year or two I practised fast arpeggio bounced bowings every day,
one dynamic, then add a swell: for example, crescendo to the until I could play them perfectly every time; then I switched to
middle of the bow and diminuendo to the end. Know where in the down-bow staccato. You can practise your bowing on anything: a
bow you need to be after 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds and so Kreutzer etude (I like number 4 for staccato, and 13 for arpeggios),
on. Once you feel absolutely comfortable and in control, push your variations from Tartini’s Art of the Bow, or even Schradieck. Be
boundaries while always maintaining a beautiful, even sound. creative: practise the same stroke using dišerent material every day.

EXERCISE 5 !+!2-2-Z9 Cantabile (38 =-3£!T !88W -9,! !£!+!23=
4
4
1 0
2 2 1 1 2 2 ± 2
4 4
II III 1 3
1
3 2 2
1 4
3
3 3 3 3

REPERTOIRE

You can use this practice regime to stay in shape, either by itself before a performance. Even if you only spend 10 minutes working
or as a support to practise on any repertoire that you are learning. your way through the list before you go on stage, you will feel
It can also be used as an emergency warm-up, 10–15 minutes warmed up when the performance begins.

IN YOUR PRACTICE TIPS FOR TEACHERS

You don’t have to practise this routine in the same order every When I have introduced my students to this system in the past,
day, to devote the same amount of time to each skill, or even to they have told me it’s fantastic, but they have never practised it
include all the skills on the list. When time is limited or you on their own. Now I give them a list of the skills in the routine
have to prepare for a performance, you could go through part of and tell them which elements I would like them to work on
the routine one day and the rest of it the next. I play scales daily, over the coming semesters. I then set them individual exercises
and I work most consistently on trills and string skips. I used to to prepare for their next lesson. For younger students, I try to
practise in ve positions daily, but now I’m so comfortable with make the exercises more fun by introducing variety. Rather than
this exercise that I omit it if I’m short of time. I also tend to be doing 1-minute bows, for example, I’ll set a metronome to 60
lazy about practising open strings and long notes, but I try to and ask them to play 10-second, 5-second, 2-second, 1-second
force myself to practise those too! If you are working for hours and half-second bows. We work on the same concepts until
every day on a piece that contains most of the elements on the they have improved enough for us to move on.
list, you may not need to use this practice routine at all. INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING

FURTHER MATERIALS
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