Next Level Violinist Practicing Issue

| practicing |
Wearing
many hats
Alex Kerr
up and
comer
eunice Kim
keys to
success
Rachel Barton Pine
summeR 2014

contents
Summer 2014
Feature Story
5 Wearing Many Hats
Alex KeRR
10 Up and Comer
euNiCe Kim
14 Keys to Success
RAChel BARtON Keys
Contributors
Ranaan Meyer
PUBLISHER / FOUNDER
Brent Edmondson
EDITOR
Edward Paulsen
SALES
Karen Han
LAYOUT DESIGNER
2 NOV/DeC SUMMER 2013 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST VIOLINIST

Publisher’s Note
it’s utterly thrilling to be writing you from the pages of Next Level Violinist!
This journal represents the culmination of months of planning to create a
resource that I hope every violinist will read and take to heart. Inside this issue,
incredible teachers and players will lay out the tools that you need to be,
as Rachel Barton Pine puts it, “a professional practicer.” That’s really what music
comes down to: how can you develop your technique and your understanding
of the instrument so it becomes the most natural way to express yourself?
I recall my early days of learning to play. I would practice the bare minimum that my
parents told me to, and fought them nearly every step of the way. One day, a friend of
mine came over and showed me how to play a boogie-woogie bass line on the piano.
Once I had learned to play it, I was suddenly hooked.There wasn’t enough time in
the day for me to practice as much as I wanted to. Finding jazz, discovering a side
of music that inspired and pushed me to play better every day, these were the catalysts
for my growth. Over the years, I learned how to refine my practicing and learn more
material in shorter periods of time, adding tips and tricks to my ever-growing arsenal.
As we make the transition from students to professionals, we inevitably find less and
less time to isolate ourselves and truly focus on practicing. Turning off our phones,
switching off the TV, and really centering our minds on the music at hand is one of
the skills that separates musicians from the general population. For me, practice is
almost meditative. I find that I have my best ideas during or right after practicing.
It is one of the most clear channels for thinking that I have developed in my brain,
and it can and should be the same for you as well.
As you read through the brilliant advice laid out by Rachel Barton Pine, one point
of focus is her innovative way of strategizing so she keeps all facets of her playing
fresh and honed at the same time. I am smitten with the idea of practicing scales in
a “Debussy” style, or polishing your Mozart tone while you are focusing on Brahms.
Her organizational principles underscore the strong need to be an efficient practicer
and use the limited time you have to maximize your results.
Alex Kerr, who is a wonderful and well-rounded violinist, provides so many fantastic
links and reference points for developing your skills as a player. Take each one to
heart and you may just find yourself with the same extensive resume of high-ranking
positions that Alex has accrued. Additionally, I think his points on reading to broaden
your horizons are right on the money. One of the best ways to improve yourself as a
musician is to improve yourself as a person. Once you have developed your technique,
you will find that the extracurriculars of life (such as knowledge, friendships, and
love) will give you more to say in your playing.
I’m glad you’ve joined us on our initial issue of Next Level Violinist. Keep searching
for ways to improve your playing, your understanding, and your love of music, and
nothing will stand in your way. I’ll check in with the next issue, and look forward
to seeing you on the Next Level.
RANAAN MEYER
Publisher Next Level Journals
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
3

4 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST

wearing
many hats
Alex Kerr
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
5

At this point in my life I have so many roles to play -
professor, concertmaster, soloist, chamber musician, father,
husband -- all of these things take an incredible amount of
time. The fact is, any one of these by themselves would be
enough to fill one’s emotional and physical cup! Therefore, everything
I do has to be done in a meticulous and extremely conscious manner.
When I’m performing as a chamber musician, it has my complete
attention, as do all of my different personas. When I’m practicing,
I have to be intensely focused because I have a finite amount of time
per day and per week. I’m having to learn a substantial amount of
music on an hour to two hours a day of practicing, if I’m lucky! My
practicing has to be so meticulous and organized that I’m not wasting
a single second. I’m very regimented in what I’m working on, what
I’m looking for, and how I’m going to accomplish it. If I’m not, I won’t
achieve what I want to accomplish and that’s wasting time I don’t have.
My practicing relies on organizational skills and a clear focus on the
certain things that need to be addressed.
Although I wouldn’t call myself an “etude person,” I use specific etudes
for certain overarching concepts that I think are important. A typical
warmup for me would be practicing Sevcik op. 1 no. 1 left hand
etudes, which are useful for the frame of my hand, agility, the speed
of the drops of my fingers, and the angle of the drops. I also use scales
for these purposes, adding the complexity of vibrato and shifting. I’ll
go from there to practicing the Yost etudes - basic shifting etudes that
are out of print but available on IMSLP. Throughout all of this, I’m
focusing on producing a beautiful sound, the contact point between
fingerboard and bridge, and getting focused for what I’m about to
practice. There are certain elements that are key no matter what you
are working on. The only thing that changes is the context. If I can
focus on those basic principles in a simplified form, then I can take
them and bring them into the solo repertoire.
Schriadieck exercises are a great resource when it comes to building
the frame of the left hand, intonation, and agility. Kreutzer is another
one - Josef Gingold was absolutely right when he said you never
finish Kreutzer! I think of the Paganini Caprices as competition pieces,
or perhaps the “final etudes.” The Ernst pieces or the Wieniawski
pieces go into this category as well: pieces you play when you have
the basics and you’re trying to hone them to the point where you can
do anything on the instrument. There are things on the way from
Kreutzer to a Paganini - Rode and Gavinies are very nice, but the most
important thing is you have to know what you’re trying to achieve. The
etude is there to address a specific issue, so if you’re going through the
book reading the notes without trying to discover the issue that you’re
trying to address, you’re missing the point and wasting your time.
Every student has to have the mentality that they’re listening to themselves
with the ears of someone who doesn’t like them. People get too
comfortable in the practice room. I practice always with the thought
process that I’m going to have to play this stuff in public. Practice must
always be solution oriented, or else, again, it’s a waste of time. I tell my
students to constantly listen to themselves. Technique is the means
to the musical end; it is not merely a math equation to decipher
(even though we work from physics and athletics). Sound and music
dictate everything, therefore not knowing what you want to sound
like and not knowing what you want to do musically creates too many
variables. These have to be thought out first, and then everything else
is teachable.
If you think of music as a sandwich, the bread is the difficulties. One
slice is knowing what you want in the first place, and the other slice is
knowing when it’s right. This is aesthetics and hearing. All the meat,
cheese, mayonnaise in the middle is teachable, and it all comes from
working hard. The outside material is much more difficult to achieve,
and honestly impossible to achieve if you’re not focused on what
you’re doing. Here are some ways to get the most of your time seeking
the “bread” of this sandwich.
When working on intonation, always practice with a drone - specifically
the lower open string of two. I find that people who use a tonic drone
end up with a different tuning because we are tuned in fifths and not
in octaves. I always try to temper my intonation. Practicing intonation
without a drone is exceedingly difficult and pointless.
I always make sure that my body is as relaxed as possible, because
tension is the worst enemy of the musician. It’s tension that we’re
trying to address, because anytime we get on stage, nerves are the
effect of it. Addressing tension cannot only happen on stage. It’s not
a spontaneous act - one has to actively practice releasing tension in
order to make it occur on stage. I’m always working on releasing my
joints, getting the proper weight into the strings from both hands,
and always doing so in a manner that is efficient and avoids locking
any of the joints in the arm or neck.
When it comes to sound quality, I believe the contact point is one
of the most fundamental elements of being a good and consistent
violinist. A control over a variety of contact points for different
contexts is literally one of the things that separates a great violinist
from a mediocre one. I was never told this in a scientific manner. I
think that a lot of the great violinists of the bygone era were trained
very well at a very young age and didn’t have much inward analysis
of what they were doing. I always thought of myself as a late bloomer,
someone who needed to fully understand things to make them work. I
read books on physics, acoustics, the human body, Alexander technique,
physical therapy, and others to further this understanding. Guy Voyer,
a French osteopath, is a genius in showing stretches that keep one
from getting too tight and allows one to maximize use of the body.
I’m constantly dividing my practice focus between intonation, sound,
and relaxation. I also consistently practice with my metronome. I
think of the metronome not just as something I need to stay with, but
as my pianist, as my orchestra. It’s something that keeps me in check
with the music, with the overall pulse. I don’t think of it as a crack
addict needing his pipe, I let it reflect my tendencies so I can see more
about myself. It’s a much different mentality - you’ll always find people
who practice with a metronome and upon leaving it behave like Linus
having lost his blue blanket, or Moses being lost in the desert. They’ve
removed the one map they had, rather than using the map to create
an internal map. That’s the point of using the metronome. Take the
external beat and use it to understand your internal beat. It’s not
natural to us, so we need to use this technology to try and create
something from within that’s as close to it as possible.
One of the things I’m naturally good at is phrasing. I’ve always had a
natural way of feeling music. Let’s say there’s a person who isn’t natural
at it. For this person, I like to take all distractions away, removing
vibrato and all other external elements. Just phrase with the bow.
Analyze how the phrase works. Listen to recordings to figure it out.
If someone doesn’t have access to theory classes, harmony training,
music history classes, etc. they can look at the score while listening to
the recordings. I encourage students not to listen to a single recording,
but to listen to 15! Get hundreds of ideas going through your head.
I remember studying the Debussy sonata, and I was listening to a
recording of Frank Peter Zimmermann. I was getting so many ideas
6 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST

from it! I listened to a dozen other recordings, but I still found
Zimmermann’s interpretation resonated most strongly with me.
There was something organic about it. I learned it and performed it,
and then I listened to the tape of the recital. I was relieved and inspired
to find that it was completely different from Zimmermann - I wasn’t
imitating him in the slightest. He started me on the path to thinking
about certain things, and yet I totally diverged from him. That’s what
the benefit of listening is - I completely disagree with people who
encourage students not to listen to recordings. I think you should
listen to hundreds of them. Find out what you like, find out what
you don’t like! I’m always amazed as a professor that a resource like
Youtube exists where you can go listen to all the great violinists of the
recording era, and yet all people do is look at cat videos, and don’t use
it as the resource that it could be - not even to cheat with fingerings! I
offer my fingerings and bowings to students, but I don’t want them to
become addicted to them, so I’ll make them create their own. They’ll
come in and say they are so confused, and I’ll wonder why they didn’t
just go look at a video of Leonidas Kavakos to see what he was doing!
People don’t really see that these basic resources are so tangible that
you could touch them. I would have used everything at my disposal
at that age. We used to go to concerts, buy the nosebleed seat tickets,
and run down to the stage when the soloist would come on so we
could analyze every fingering and bowing. We don’t even need to do
that anymore - use the technology at your fingertips!
I used to listen to a lot of violinists, which I think made me improve
rather quickly. The negative aspect of this was that I didn’t have as
much knowledge as I did will power! Michael Rabin, my teacher
Aaron Rosand, Itzhak Perlman, David Oistrakh, Jascha Heifetz - I
wanted so much to be as good as all of these people, which made me
improve by sheer will! There were certain things that were natural
for me, but other concepts were completely foreign to me; I felt lost.
Technically, things like contact point weren’t presented to me because
teachers assumed I already knew. I became so envious of all the violinists
around me that were so much more consistent than I was; this was a
feeling I still had into my 20s, even after I had already won positions
in prestigious orchestras! I hadn’t yet achieved a total understanding
of violin playing; it came later as I began teaching and developing a
consistent method that I believed in. I researched everything, read every
single book you can imagine. This extended beyond the literature
on how to teach and play violin and into physics, natural science,
and beyond. I developed a method for doing what I was doing in a
consistent manner. I realized my whole life had been a process leading
to these realizations. In the end, knowing what I wanted to be when
I was young made it easy to get some recognition quickly, but it
made my overall journey more complex because I gave people the
impression that I knew what I was doing when I really didn’t.
Not everybody loves what they do. Some people think they do but
being a musician means loving to do even the things that aren’t as
artistically rewarding as the most invigorating concerts. One has to
be fascinated by the violin, to enjoy the most mundane tasks and even
one’s worst days. I love being a concertmaster, playing in an orchestra,
playing chamber music, every day.
When kids are young and they’re trying to learn, they’re always
searching for something to hold onto. They need to realize that there
are resources out there, and that in the end, achieving a quality and
consistent technique is really doable. I actually find now that the
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SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
7

most difficult thing one can do on the violin
is learning how to do what you did in the
practice room in front of 2,500 people every
night. The other parts are teachable, and there
are resources and basic things that can help.
When you are aware of these, you can manage
your own progress.
Vibrato
Let’s talk about vibrato. The components of
vibrato are very simple: it’s one part arm,
one part wrist, one part the first joint of each
finger. The arm is basically a spark plug - it
gets things moving. If you want to talk about
what controls the width and speed, it’s much
more the first joint of the fingers. Go on
Youtube, watch Ivry Gitlis. There are two
videos of him playing the Rondo Capriccioso
by Saint-Saens. One recording is when he
was about 35 years old and the other is from
when he was 88. Observe how his wrist is not
straight but slightly out when he vibrates. The
reason for this is he keeps the weight of his
hand forward and he’s able to vibrate quite big
with the joint without taking his finger weight
off the string. Ivry always got violinists to
think outside the box, and some people might
take issue with his interpretations; however,
one thing you can’t argue with is that he has
the same vibrato across his entire career,
50 years later. How many people do you know
that can do that? Probably no one! You simply
can’t argue with the mechanics.
Left hand articulation
Watch Hilary Hahn’s performance of the final
movement of the C Major Bach Sonata and
observe how she drops her fingers from the
base knuckles. Look at how every finger is
independent within that frame, how she gets
a lot of finger weight from the acceleration
of the fingers into the string. There’s a reason
she’s doing that, and it’s because it is efficient.
She’s getting all the weight that’s necessary to
make the string stop, but she gets most of it
at those speeds from the acceleration of the
drop. You can see the same mechanic in
Julia Fischer’s left hand. Ruggiero Ricci used
to say that a violinist is only as good as their
intonation. I disagree with that because I’ve
heard people play in tune and still be quite
awful! I will admit that a violinist is only as
good as their left hand, though. If your left
hand is not at a very high level when it comes
to using weight, using agility, using those
gigantic drops, intonation, frame of hand -
it doesn’t matter if your bow arm is fantastic,
it’s not going to work. It’s very important to
observe the great violinists of today - they all
share many similarities in their left hands.
8 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
Use videos as a resource to find what
you need.
Bow grips
There are a lot of successful bow grips. You’ll
see Franco-Belgian, Galamian grips, Russian
grips, and hybrids of these. Each one presents
certain advantages, especially if you look at
the repertoire of the people who exemplify
these various bow holds. If you’re talking
Russian, basically Heifetz is the epitome. He
was amazing for Romantic repertoire, but he
wasn’t as successful in Classical and Baroque
repertoire. Why? The Russian bow grip
doesn’t lend itself to having a lot of “touch” -
your joints are quite fixed and there’s not a lot
of movement in the joints of the right hand.
It makes it very difficult to produce a brush
stroke, and that’s why Heifetz didn’t excel at
that repertoire. Find out based on observation
which grip you think is most effective. The
thing that all grips have in common is the
control over contact point. I challenge you to
look at any violinist that’s good (any one of
them!) - Frank Peter Zimmerman, Leonidas
Kavakos, Julia Fischer, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham
- all of them have impeccable contact point
control. They have all discovered, either
consciously or subconsciously, that the more
consistency they
have over the
contact point, the
more consistency
they’ll have over their
sound in general.
It’s important to
observe what all great
violinists do in the
same manner.
Finger
Drops
People get frustrated
trying to learn how
to play the violin, and
want to do what they
think makes sense,
but sometimes the
technique for getting
good is counterintuitive.
Why would
you think that using
larger finger drops
would help you
play faster? It seems
illogical, but in order
to keep the hand
relaxed and move
quickly without
making a fist, you
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need those larger drops so that the
acceleration of your finger will give you the
force you need to stay relaxed and press the
string down. Force + mass = acceleration, it’s
basic Newtonian physics. Technique can and
must make sense. When you can approach
the instrument with the knowledge of what
you want to do, you can then employ your
listening skills and logic to find which way to
go. I’m sure there are teachers out there who
tell students to keep their fingers extremely
close to the string, and they are wrong
because the physics are wrong. The thing
that drives all of this information is music -
this is why we do all this research to improve
ourselves - physics provide a road map to
make the journey easier. If you can combine
that with a well-rounded knowledge of
technique, you’ll get there faster and easier.
Nerves and Anxiety
One of the most crucial things about
performing is being able to overcome the
fight or flight response. You spend a lot of
time training your body to relax, but the
mind is going at a quick pace and it is
subconsciously perceiving danger when you
walk on stage. Your body wants to fight somebody
or run, but there is nobody to fight and
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nowhere to run! All of your natural instincts at that moment are wrong. The first thing you can
do is just drop your shoulders and let your arms hang at your sides. I strongly recommend reading
the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In this book, he identifies the ideal space where
your body can relax. In my mind I think of this place as somewhere between boredom and
frustration. The boredom component allows your body to relax and have weight in it. Frustration
brings focus to your mind. Once your body is settled and relaxed, your focus can slow down
and zero in on the music - that’s the easiest setting to perform in. This process may be easier
some days and harder on others. Michael Jordan said that on his easier days, he felt like he was
shooting an orange into a giant trashcan. Sometimes it feels like that, and sometimes you need
to get out of there without falling on your ass. I deal with every situation the exact same way,
whether I’m playing in Carnegie Hall or a nursing home. Sometimes I’m actually less nervous in
nowhere to run! All of your natural instincts at that moment are wrong. The first thing you can
Carnegie Hall than I am in my own living room. Another book that I find helpful is called Talent
do is just drop your shoulders and let your arms hang at your sides. strongly recommend reading
the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In this book, he identifies the ideal space where
is Overrated. There are books by Daniel Pink that talk about the mind and how it works, and
performance anxiety books by Don Greene.
your body can relax. In my mind I think of this place as somewhere between boredom and
frustration. When it comes The to boredom tension component and dealing allows with your body, it to is relax so vital and to have treat weight your body in it. as Frustration
you are brings an athlete. focus to I your would mind. develop Once a stretching your body and is settled exercise and regimen relaxed, that your is focus low impact can slow but down high
though
and gain. zero I think on all these music things - that’s together the easiest can help setting one find to perform one’s path. in. This ■ process may be easier
some days and harder on others. Michael Jordan said that on his easier days, he felt like he was
shooting an orange into a giant trashcan. Sometimes it feels like that, and sometimes you need
to get out of there without falling on your ass. I deal with every situation the exact same way,
whether I’m playing in Carnegie Hall or a nursing home. Sometimes I’m actually less nervous in
Carnegie Hall than I am in my own living room. Another book that I find helpful is called Talent
is Overrated. There are books by Daniel Pink that talk about the mind and how it works, and
performance anxiety books by Don Greene.
When it comes to tension and dealing with your body, it is so vital to treat your body as though
you are an athlete. I would develop a stretching and exercise regimen that is low impact but high
gain. I think all these things together can help one find one’s path. ■
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
9
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
9

“it was a lot of work and a lot of anxiety imagining a career
in music, but being apart from my violin and not being able
to make music made me determined to really go through with
this passion I had, and it clarified what I needed to do.”

Up and Comer
I truly have to thank my teachers, my colleagues, and my family
for supporting me and believing in me. My teacher in San Francisco,
Wei He, is definitely someone who understood me, nurtured me,
and encouraged me to keep going, even through my difficult times
of tendonitis and scoliosis. Getting into Curtis really changed my life,
and I’m so grateful to my friends and teachers who made my 5 years
there so meaningful. I’ve had so many people who brought me to
where I am now, especially Ida Kavafian, who has been like a second
mother to me. She is more than just a teacher- she is my role model
and an inspiration to me. I’m lucky that I had the privilege of studying
with her.
I started playing when I was 6 years old. I had a babysitter from
infancy whose son was the concertmaster of the San Jose Symphony
in California. As a very young child, he was always practicing around
me, and after years of listening to him I told my mother I wanted to
play the violin. My mom was disappointed, because she had wanted
me to play the cello. When the day came to get a cello, the people at
the string shop told us I was too petite to start the cello, and they gave
us the violin.
It was quite a year for me since it was my last year at Curtis, which was
extremely bittersweet. I was the concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra, and I had a lot of orchestral responsibilities. I performed
constantly and collaborated with many great individual musicians,
ensembles, and orchestras, which I hope to continue doing in the future.
I was the violinist of Ensemble39, a contemporary ensemble that
formed at Curtis. Now that I’m out of school, I have a lot of freedom to
experiment with everything right now. I just came back from Ravinia’s
Steans Institute, which was an amazing experience. I’m doing whatever
is coming my way, and I think now is the time to do that. I don’t like
the concept of “settling down,” rather I’m trying a variety of things out
until I see what I want to do.
My “routine” differs every day, but I try to stick with a scale or two
each day. Before college, I was very faithful to arpeggios, double stops,
etudes, and those dreaded Paganini Caprices, but on very busy days
where I don’t have an hour or two to work on warmups, I may start by
picking up the violin and working on a difficult passage very slowly.
One of my favorite ways to start the day, which I learned from working
with my colleague and friend Tim Dilenschneider (see Next Level
Bassist Left Hand Issue), is to play some passages from Edgar Meyer’s
Concert Duo. I thought it was so much fun playing his music that I’ll
just go back to that at the beginning of the day. It’s probably pretty
funny to listen to me warming up!
I absolutely do, but it’s always a “good” kind of nervous. I think
performing gets more nerveracking as you grow older because your
expectations grow as time goes on. The difference for me now is that
I have embraced the fact that I will get nervous, and prepare myself
for it.The day before or the day of the performance, I accept that I
will get nervous, and I mentally prepare by telling myself that it is
a good thing to be nervous since it means I’m just excited to perform.
I physically practice by doing jumping jacks before I play a slow piece
or movement, because that is always the hardest part - when your heart
is beating fast and you have to have complete control over your body.
I’ll also try putting my hands in the fridge for a second and then try
to play the violin, because I sometimes get cold hands before I play.
Pam Frank told me that it’s good to find ways to practice being nervous
and deal with it, which has helped me a lot.
Every day lately has been very different! If I’m not traveling, I like
to do my practicing in the morning to get it out of the way, and I’m
typically off to rehearsal soon after. I deal with scoliosis, and tendonitis
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST 11

comes very easily to me so I try to be as active
as I can. I’ll either do some yoga or go swimming,
whatever keeps me moving instead of
sitting in front of my computer! If I have a
concert that day, I like to keep my schedule
light, but if I don’t, I will typically round out
the day with some more practice time. When
I’m traveling, I like to have travel days off.
You need to let your body catch up on rest
when traveling! I don’t like to be the person
practicing a million hours a day - I know that
I have to watch out for myself both physically
and mentally. It’s no fun watching the walls
of a practice room all day - but don’t tell my
teacher that!
Last week was very exciting for me, making
my solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
I had never played with a group like that
before. Getting prepared for that was a little
bit scary, because I had spent an intense
5 weeks of chamber music at Ravinia. We
were rehearsing 5-7 hours a day, which meant
that I barely had the time to practice while I
was there. I played at the Mann Center in
Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, with a great
crowd between 3,000 and 4,000.
It was a very supportive crowd, even sitting
on the lawn while it rained! When I came
to the rehearsal, it was so amazing to see so
many familiar faces - it was great to play with
my favorite orchestra that I frequently listen
to. I knew the conductor, having met him
at Curtis. They were very supportive, and it
made a stressful rehearsal flow nicely into
a great concert. Upcoming for me is Music
at Angel Fire in New Mexico for the next
few weeks, performing as a guest artist with
Roberto Diaz on a Europe/Asia Curtis on Tour,
collaborating with BalletX in Philadelphia,
playing my Astral Artists debut recital, and
performing with the Louisville Symphony.
I learned a lot from my teachers on how to
learn pieces in a smart way, and not wearing
yourself out by over practicing. This year was
a great test of these skills, because there was a
lot of repertoire to learn in a very short time.
I would give myself 45 minutes to an hour to
really hit spots, things I needed to work on.
I would get the difficult things done first and
then allow the less challenging spots to play
themselves. Pinpointing the spots that were
most difficult for me, I would give myself a
few tries to get them right instead of trying
them over and over again. If I didn’t get it
right in those few tries, I would revisit the
passage at a later time. This is another lesson I
learned from Pam Frank, who was also dealing
with injuries when she was a performer.
That forces you to work efficiently instead of
repeating mistakes again and again for five or
six hours. When you find yourself repeating
mistakes, you have to stop and give yourself
time to rethink the problem. It also helps to
think of difficult spots musically. The technique
often comes easier if you are thinking of
shaping the passage or phrase that is a
troublesome spot.
I’m really loving what’s going on right now!
I had the honor of graduating Curtis with the
Milka Violin Prize, which is a grant given to
a graduating student who is committed to
participating in international competitions
for the next year. Therefore, I will enter
international competitions when I have the
12 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST
Next Level Journals
Next Level Violinist
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time to, take auditions, and continue to perform and work with all
of the amazing people around me. Anything is really possible at this
time, so I’m keeping an open mind to see what’s out there.
I would love to do that, but I think it takes an extraordinary person to
be both a performer and a professor. Again, I look up to Ida Kavafian
and her husband, Steve Tenenbom. They have far busier lives than we
do, but they are incredibly dedicated to their students. I absolutely admire
how they’re still brilliant artists and traveling performers, yet find
the time to teach at multiple schools and give so much attention to
their students... Not to mention that they have prizewinning dogs who
compete! I have a couple students now, and I can see how challenging
consistency is with my traveling and performing schedule. It really
sheds light on how amazing my teachers are. While I was at Ravinia,
Ida was giving me a lesson on a piece she’s very fond of…through text
messages! She was taking pictures of her left hand position on the
violin, and then she would write out the fingerings on a piece of paper.
These little moments are very special to me since I know how busy she
is, and I hope to be like her someday.
I think the most important time for me was when I wasn’t playing.
I graduated high school 2 years early, and I was about to audition
for colleges at 16 years old. I got too carried away, tried to be involved
in too many things, and overplayed. I went to three different chiropractors
a day, and most of them told me I wouldn’t be able to play
for at least a year or two, and one of them even said I should stop
playing altogether! They weren’t sure if I would be able to go back to
playing after such a long time off. It was very discouraging, but I was
so lucky because I had a supportive teacher, Wei He, who gave me
lessons without the violin during the entire year that I wasn’t playing.
I realized during that year that I really wanted to pursue music. Before
that, it was a lot of work and a lot of anxiety imagining a career in
music, but being apart from my violin and not being able to make
music made me determined to really go through with this passion I
had, and it clarified what I needed to do. Once I had the ok to start
playing the violin again, I could only play about 5 minutes a day for
a month or two. I felt like I had lost everything I had learned over the
past several years, and it was hard to relearn how to play the violin,
but it was a very big breakthrough for me. I knew that making music
was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life after that point. I’m
almost thankful that this all happened, just because it finally was
perfectly clear to me that I was in love with music.
First of all, go and attend a lot of concerts. Rather than being cooped
up in a practice room, you can find a lot of inspiration and discoveries
by listening to music. That was what kept me going during the year I
wasn’t playing. I went to as many concerts as I could to stay motivated
- that was where I found the reason to be a violinist. It’s very moving
and uplifting to listen to amazing masterpieces in person. It’s more
personal and intimate than listening to recordings through
your earphones.
for “that” audience. You should go to your full potential and push your
limits on everything you play. You will feel more fulfilled and satisfied,
you will have grown more after each performance, and the audience
will feel that way as well. This makes performing a lot more worthwhile.
Lately, I’ve really been loving South American/Spanish music. On
my Astral Artists recital in December, I’ll be performing works by
Piazzolla, Ginastera, De Falla and Sarasate. The first time I discovered
Piazzolla, I immediately fell in love with his voice. Something about
this type of music is so liberating, so spoken, and in a way, very
comforting. My father plays guitar, and my recital falls on his birthday,
so I decided to do this mostly-South American program in honor of that.
Aside from all of that, I love listening to and playing to Schubertwell,
mostly listening to it because Schubert is so challenging to play!
His works are all heart wrenchingly beautiful in both a simple and
complex way. I can’t get enough of Schubert at the moment!
I don’t really dislike any music, but there are some traumatic experiences
that you don’t want to revisit any time soon. One example that comes to
mind is the Brahms Violin Concerto. I was playing it in a competition,
in the finals. I got nervous right before the performance, and I started
with the cadenza instead of the opening section, and I am totally
scarred now. I don’t want to deal with that piece for a while!
Keep your head up and don’t let disadvantages get to you. I was at a
friend’s recital recently, a girl who started playing the cello at age 12,
which is somewhat late for professionals. Shortly after she started
playing, she decided to audition at Curtis as a practice for other
auditions - she actually succeeded and got in. Even if you feel like
you are at a disadvantage, keep trying because sometimes you can
evolve quickly and do things you never expected.
Keep your mind open too. I didn’t really explore many different genres
for most of my career, but I met my friend Tim Dilenschneider and
other bass players, and they introduced me to bluegrass and Edgar
Meyer. That brought me to Piazzolla and my love for jazz, which sums
up a lot of who I am today. You can be a classical musician and still
experiment with all different types of music. Also, don’t just look for
inspiration in music. Other expressions of art such as films, visual art,
and dance are all part of our world too. This is sort of a secret,
but I am obsessed with Broadway! ■
Stay humble, and respect your colleagues, teachers, and audiences.
Don’t settle for “it’s good enough!” I find it very troubling when people
are preparing for a concert and walk away saying that it’s good enough
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST 13

KEYS TO
SUCCESS

I am a professional practicer. It doesn’t
sound as glamorous as “concert violinist.”
If I’ve done my job, all anyone will ever think
about is the time I’m on stage performing. No
one will even be aware of the 35 hours
or more of practice logged before I ever
arrived in town to rehearse and perform
that 35 minute concerto. The reality is: if
you want to be a professional performer, you
have to train to be a professional practicer. I
love to perform and share my art with others,
so that’s what I am – a professional practicer.
Performing is about being prepared.
Preparation has a cumulative effect. It’s not
something that can be “crammed” or rushed.
Proper preparation inspires self-confidence
in performance. Over the years, as a student,
performer, and teacher, I’ve developed an
approach to practicing that has been very
effective for me. I believe it’s one of the
major reasons that I don’t get nervous
when I perform.
I’m a big believer in the legendary American
violinist Maud Powell’s advice regarding
practicing: concentration and consistency.
Concentration is essential. You can accomplish
a surprising amount of progress in short
periods of time if you spend it fully focused.
Practice time without concentration is often
detrimental, reinforcing bad habits that will
become harder to correct over time.
Consistency is also critical. One hour a
day of focused practice is far more valuable
than three hours a day every few days, with
empty days in between. Routine and regular
reinforcement greatly increases retention.
These were fundamental principles of my
childhood practice sessions. I carefully
planned and organized each one and practiced
nearly every day. In fact, between the
ages of three and 13, I never missed a single
day of practice. Now, as a professional who
travels the world and has many demands on
my schedule, I have far less time available in
which I can schedule my practicing. I’m more
dependent than ever on concentrated and
consistent practice to insure that I’m prepared
for every performance.
Structuring and planning your practice
sessions before you begin playing is critical
to maximizing the benefit of your practice
time. If you just jump in thinking “I’m going
to start with the first thing I’m inspired to
play,” you run the risk of under-utilizing your
limited time.
Start by listing the repertoire you need to
prepare and the deadlines by which you need
to have it prepared. Include everything that’s
on your plate: youth orchestra music, chamber
music, a concerto for a competition, scales,
etudes, or a sonata your teacher wants you to
learn. Assign priorities and deadlines to each
commitment. Then, work backwards and
consider priorities, deadlines, and preparation
time based on each work’s challenges. Map
out a plan for each day, one week at a time.
It’s a jigsaw puzzle for any musician, but I
have learned that when you already know
what you will be practicing on any given day,
you avoid panic and cramming.
These days, the majority of my concerts
consist of standard repertoire, perhaps
a Tchaikovsky concerto for one concert,
a recital with Romantic sonatas, a Classical
period sonata and virtuoso piece for another,
and then I might play the Mendelssohn
concerto and following that perform another
Tchaikovsky. It’s the repertoire you might
expect, with less-usual pieces peppered
in occasionally.
When I’m preparing works I’ve played before,
like the big concertos, there are three main
factors that go into deciding how far in advance
to start preparing. One is the inherent
difficulty of the piece; some pieces are simply
longer and more physically challenging than
others. Another is how recently I last played
the piece, and the last is how many total
lifetime hours I’ve practiced it. I also take into
consideration how much other repertoire I’m
performing shortly before I have to play that
work. I calculate all of these factors and work
backwards to figure out when I have to start.
For example, the Brahms Concerto is
“harder” than the Khachaturian, but I haven’t
played Khachaturian in a while and haven’t
played it nearly as often over the years, so I
would actually start re-visiting Khachaturian
much sooner than I would Brahms. I’ll realize
that this week, I have to start practicing one
piece for three weeks from now and another
piece for six weeks from now, but actually,
I don’t have to start the piece I’m performing
two weeks from now until next week because
I’ve done a lot of work on it recently as I just
played it last month.
I have to be extremely organized, especially
if I am playing concerts with any of my other
instruments. In addition to the 1742 Guarneri
del Gesu “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat” on which I
usually perform, I also might be playing my
viola d’amore (12 or 14 stringed cousin of the
violin), baroque violin, or even my medieval
rebec. It’s not always feasible to be lugging
around multiple instruments on airplanes,
because you don’t want to go through the
trouble of arguing with flight attendants any
more than absolutely necessary. Therefore, I
need to calculate how many days I’m actually
home to do some kinds of practicing.
After determining your schedule, make
the most effective possible use of your time
by taking your plan to the next level.
After warming up, it’s up to you whether
to do repertoire or etudes first. There are no
right answers; it depends on your individual
personality and how your focus tends to flow.
It is very useful to keep a written practice log
that you can look at. At first, a lot of your plan
will be hypothetical as you get to know yourself
as a practicer. Having a plan frees you from
having to figure out what to do next as you
go along, though it’s not necessary to follow
it blindly. One part of your plan might take
more time, and another less, so don’t practice
something for 10 minutes just because you
wrote down 10 minutes. Write down in one
column what you intend to do, and in the
next column what you actually did, so that
you can adjust future sessions accordingly.
Each practice session should be organized
with specific goals and time increments to
be certain that you don’t run out of time or
skip important elements of your preparation.
For example, 10 minutes on Schradieck,
20 minutes on scales, etc. After determining
that you will spend 30 minutes on the first
page of your sonata, break it down even
further: 15 minutes on intonation followed
by 10 minutes concentrating on bow
distribution, weight, and cleanliness
followed by five minutes on vibrato.
Trying to listen for everything at once
guarantees that no element of your technique
will get your full attention, so be sure to limit
your goals to one thing at a time. For example,
if you’re focusing on bow distribution, you
shouldn’t worry about out of tune notes.
Maintaining that focus keeps your mind
from becoming overwhelmed and distracted,
giving you a heightened awareness of what
you are trying to correct. As the different
elements become more secure, you can start
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST 15

to put all the separate parts
together and let your focus
shift among many things
at the same time. Training
your technique in a
very conscious and
detailed way will make
your reflexes become
automatic. Relying
on technical habits
you can trust allows
you to give your
full attention to the
emotions of the
music during your
performances.
So much of practicing
is physical, whether
it’s making sure your
fingers are falling in
the exact right spots, or
trying to make the phrasing
effective by using bow speed
and contact point. We spend
much of our practice time
being athletes, so while
planning your tasks and the
time that you want to spend on
each, be careful to consider the
physical demands so you don’t
injure yourself. If you want to
accomplish 20 minutes of
fingered octaves, schedule two
separate ten minute sessions
with an hour of less intensive
left hand work in between.
As you get more experienced,
month after month, your
plans will become ever more
refined. What you plan to
do and what you actually
do will get closer and closer
together. After perhaps a
year of doing this, you’ll be
able to do it in your head.
Another vital component
of the process is to practice
performing, which is
almost the opposite of the
slow and careful practicing
discussed above.
Whereas in slow and
careful practicing you’re
supposed to stop every
16 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST

time you hear something less than ideal, performing practice is
about playing the piece from beginning to end without stopping.
Performance practice and slow practice have different purposes,
and you need to have a different attitude for each. Performing is about
being positive and engaging the audience, almost the opposite mentality
to the highly critical slow practice approach. You have to embrace
the way your playing sounds now, even if you know in the back of
your mind that you want to get better. Enjoy what you’re doing in
the moment so you can share it with the audience. Being an excellent
slow practicer can make for bad performances if you are transmitting
self-criticism through your playing. You need to be an expert in both
kinds of practicing: the perfectionistic, detailed kind, and joyful and
exciting performing.
On a basic level, when you practice performing, don’t let yourself stop
for anything. If you completely miss a shift, keep going. If you have
a memory slip, barrel on through! Get used to that feeling of playing
from beginning to end no matter what. Ignore the notes that have
already happened because they are in the past. You should only think
about what you’re doing at the moment and what’s coming up - the
present and future.
The practice performance has to be done with utmost emotion and
flair, making sure you’re putting on a good show and expressing the
music as much as you can. As you’re doing a play-through, don’t fill
your head with memos to yourself about what you want to correct
and improve. Instead, record yourself and listen back to catalogue
everything you want to work on. Don’t forget to also catalogue what
you did well, to boost your confidence, and so that you can figure out
how to repeat your successes.
Figure out what backstage routine works for you. Twenty minutes
before the actual concert is too late to decide whether you prefer slow
scales, doing the hard spots one last time, or jamming on a favorite
piece that’s not on today’s concert. You can use your home to help the
visualization. When I was younger, I used to start in my bedroom as
the “dressing room” and experiment with different warm-up routines.
Then I would walk out into my living room and have a couple of
stuffed animals on the couch as the audience. If you can grab a few
friends or family members to replace the stuffed animals, even better.
I would bow, shake the invisible hand of the pretend pianist or
conductor, tune, play my piece, smile, bow, and walk back off “stage.”
Practicing this whole sequence might seem odd, but it makes it feel
familiar and comfortable when you do it for real. (Unless you’re a
beginner, when was the last time you practiced bowing?) If you really
want to be hardcore, get dressed in your concert clothes so you can get
used to the shoes, sleeves, etc.
One trick to get your energy up without wearing yourself out right
before you perform is to do what athletes often do: listen to a favorite
song. I usually choose something loud by AC/DC!
A lot of preparation happens before you even pick up your instrument
to practice and rehearse. Looking only at your part would be like an
actor knowing only their own lines without seeing everyone else’s.
Be sure to study the score! Figure out the formal structure of the
composition, and make sure you know when you do or don’t have
the main voice.
An important aspect of interpretative choices is an understanding of
the history and context of the repertoire you are preparing. No piece
of music was written in a vacuum. Each composer has their own
musical language, influenced by many factors including the time
and place of composition and the intended performer.
Learning about a composer’s dedicatees continues to be a very big part
of my musical journey. Unless the composer was a violinist and was
writing music for personal use, he or she was writing for a violinist.
Learning about that performer’s musical personality, taste and way
of playing is very important to being able to understand what the
composer’s intentions might have been.
For example, Bruch was a German romantic composer, but his
dedicatee for the Scottish Fantasy was Pablo de Sarasate, the great
Spanish violinist. Sarasate spent a lot of time touring in Britain,
including Scotland, and was very familiar with Scottish fiddling. In
fact, he wrote his own medley of Scottish fiddle tunes with orchestral
accompaniment. Through this knowledge of Sarasate as well as Bruch,
I concluded that the Scottish Fantasy should stylistically lean more
Scottish and less German. This had a direct impact on my choices
of tone colors, timing, fingerings, etc.
Folk music roots of art music compositions are always interesting.
For the Scottish Fantasy, I sought out a traditional Scottish fiddler
to show me how to play the tunes in their original version, and
then I incorporated those inflections into the violin concerto.
Today, there are many ways in which technology makes preparing
and researching a piece so much easier than when I was a kid. The
availability of sites like YouTube is so incredible. You can find great
living performers in concert, and you can listen to recordings of all
the deceased performers - it’s an amazing resource. On the other hand,
a student studying a concerto might go to iTunes and buy only the
movement they’re working on. They may not even listen to the other
movements to hear what the rest of the concerto sounds like, to put
their movement in context. Buying music through iTunes also means
not getting program notes like you would with a CD booklet. These
essays give you information about the composer, and the history and
background of the piece. Luckily, there are lots of resources out there
on the internet, from Wikipedia to Grove. If you’re not buying CDs,
you need to take the initiative to find information about your repertoire.
I believe reading program notes about each track you purchase is
extremely important.
It’s also critical to know what sheet music you’re buying. Everyone
can go to IMSLP and get the free PDF of out-of-print material (which
is great), but you might be playing from an edition with 100-year-old
misprints. The risk of free sheet music is that you end up with something
terribly incorrect or inaccurate. The worst offender is the digitized
editions of music where appoggiaturas are written out into note values,
bowings are changed, and dynamics are added, but with no editor
credited. This takes away your ability to make your own decisions.
I find this offense to be absolutely criminal! When you know the
name of the editor, you still have to figure out how much is him or
her and how much is the composer, but at least you have a reasonable
starting point.
Invest in buying “urtext” editions which use careful scholarship to
ensure you have the right notes and other markings. It’s the only
sensible way to ensure you are able to deliver an accurate and thought-
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST 17

ful performance. It’s a good investment too, because nicely printed
and bound sheet music lasts a lifetime. Edited editions can be used
as a supplement to your urtext to give you ideas, just as you listen
to recordings to hear what bowings, fingerings, and dynamics other
violinists choose.
Finally, when it comes to modern scholarship and research, remember
that although most of the great novels and literature have been digitized
for iBooks and Kindle, a great deal of musicological resources are
only available in libraries (or for purchase as physical books). Just as
we still use physical sheet music, we need to still read physical books
about music. The good news is that most theses and dissertations can
be found online. When I was learning the Szymanowski concerto, I
searched the internet and found that there was a doctoral paper with
the exact information I wanted. I searched for the author on Facebook,
messaged her, and within hours I had a PDF of her document on my
computer. Don’t sell yourself short and give up on your research if you
can’t find what you need on Google - it could be waiting for you in a
University library or major public library, and easily within reach.
Symphonic works are some of the greatest achievements of the
classical music literature. A true musician appreciates and understands
this repertoire and relates it to whatever else he or she is playing.
Studying orchestral music gives you the chance to better understand a
composer’s style and apply that information to your solo and chamber
music repertoire. Historically, violinists from past generations weren’t
living in a bubble and playing nothing but concertos. Joseph Joachim,
Brahms’s collaborator, conducted one day and played string quartets
the next, performed concertos the following day, and would sit in as
concertmaster from time to time. That’s not the way our profession
works anymore, but the reason he was one of the greatest soloists of
his day is because he was such a well-rounded musician.
Since the age of five, my primary aspiration was to be a soloist,
but I am so glad that as I teenager, I also followed my interest in
playing in an orchestra. From age 12 to 17, I belonged to the Civic
Orchestra of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony’s training orchestra for
undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students who are aiming
for an orchestral career.
Intensive training in the orchestral repertoire directly impacted my
understanding of the languages of national styles, time periods, and
specific composers. Studying and rehearsing Brahms’s symphonies
improved my interpretation of his Violin Concerto far more than
had I spent those same hours just working on my solo part. Learning
how the instruments of the orchestra interact with each other, and
gaining a section player’s perspective on a soloist’s interpretation,
was absolutely invaluable.
And there are others reasons why this experience was so important
for my solo and chamber music playing. In Civic, we had the amazing
opportunity to play with many great conductors who were coming
to the Chicago Symphony, such as Solti, Barenboim, Boulez, Mehta,
and Slatkin. Sometimes they would just lead us in one rehearsal, but
more often, they would rehearse with us for a couple weeks and then
perform with us. They would work with us on every measure of the
piece, breaking it down and putting it back together.
Today, when conductors tell me they find me easy to follow, I credit
how much I learned about working with a conductor as an orchestra
player. I’ve sat in the orchestra when soloists have done rubatos that
were impossible to play with. Playing inside the orchestra teaches you
what works and what doesn’t.
Training orchestras like the Civic or New World Symphony,
college and conservatory orchestras, and youth orchestras provide
a tremendous opportunity for those who take it seriously.
Even pick-up orchestras can be beneficial if you have the right attitude.
Like many young musicians, I did a variety of freelance gigs during my
student years. Even on occasions where the quality of my colleagues
and/or the conductor was less inspiring, I made the most of my time
by focusing on the construction of the composition, or paying attention
to technical fundamentals like my bow-arm mechanics.
Thus far, I have discussed some of the ways to prepare the material
you’re learning or are scheduled to perform. However, I have also
found that it is important to use my practice time to maintain a variety
of core styles within my playing, like high Baroque, Classical period,
and late Romantic, both lyrical and pyrotechnical.
Sometimes I find that I’m spending a month playing big romantic
concertos, and during that period I’m not doing any Mozart. The very
careful cleanliness and refinement and sparkle that you need for a
good Classical period sound requires a slightly different physical use
of your left and right hands.
Or maybe it’s the opposite. Perhaps I’m playing a few dates of Mozart
concertos, a Shostakovich or some Bach and I’m not really doing
anything Romantic. I don’t want to lose my control over the timing of
expressive slides or let my fingered octaves get weak when I’m playing
music that don’t require any.
Therefore, I try to always remember the different kinds of playing that
I want to maintain, and to play some of each kind of music, even if it’s
on my concert schedule. You can use repertoire you’ve already learned
as a supplemental sort of etude. For instance, if I’m not performing
any Bach for a while then I’ll add some Bach to the diet. If you want
to make sure you’re keeping your expressive slides varied and controlled,
you might select something from Kreisler or the Meditation
from Thais. Many violinists are more likely to maintain their left hand
pizzicato or up-bow staccato, forgetting about also maintaining their
Classical sound or their Impressionistic sound. As one of my favorite
Scottish fiddlers Alasdair Fraser says, we need to be “multilingual”
instrumentalists. Playing in different styles is like speaking in different
dialects, making sure that all of those languages are in equally good
condition.
I find scales to be really useful in this regard. Often when we play a
scale, we end up playing everything sort of medium. Medium dynamic,
medium tempo, medium vibrato. Of course, there are plenty of other
things to think about: intonation, fluid string crossings, invisible bow
changes, equal bow distribution, clean shifts, good left hand articulation.
Why not add tone color to that equation? It will make your scale more
interesting, and it will get you in the right mood to play your repertoire.
Which scale are you going to do today? It might be a scale that relates
to one of the important colors in the palate of the piece you’re working
on. You’re actually warming yourself up for the proper Mozart sound
18 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST

SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL VIOLINIST 19

y doing a very narrow vibrato with a ringing
tone. Alternatively, you might decide to
work on a Debussy scale because you haven’t
played any impressionistic music in a while,
so you go for a veiled color, flautando and sul
tasto. Brahms or Schumann need a very thick
sound, with your bow really sinking into the
string and a warm and concentrated vibrato,
and I warm up for Sibelius with a fortissimo
scale with a really wide juicy vibrato. Choose
what you’re going to do with your scales
based on filling in the gaps or enhancing what
it is that you’re working on.
Your bow can create so many different colors.
A condensed, slow and heavy bow as opposed
to a fast sweeping bow can both end up being
the same number of decibels, but they’re
going to be different flavors of fortes. You
have the freedom to manipulate contact
point, bow weight, and bow speed with every
note! Just think of the variety you can achieve
with vibrato alone. What width of vibrato?
What speed of vibrato? If you think of all
those different variables and combine them in
all kinds of different ways, you have infinite
colors to paint with.
During our student years, we often spend the
majority of our time learning and preparing
music that we don’t yet know well, spending
whole days playing nothing but pieces we
aren’t familiar with. This isn’t healthy! Find
a favorite piece, something you can already
play well, and maintain it. With limited time
available for practice, you can’t spend very
much time on old things, but be sure to play
something polished every day. Even if it’s just
a page of last year’s easier concerto, play it so
that you can experience something on your
violin that sounds and feels good. If you’re
still struggling with the Tchaikovsky, play a
page of the Mendelssohn. Playing nothing but
scales, etudes, and not-quite-ready repertoire
all day can be demotivating and doesn’t give
you a chance to let loose.
I also find that you can be so much more
creative and interesting as an artist if you free
your imagination. When I was three years old,
my mom motivated me to practice carefully
by saying that 30 minutes of good practicing
earned me five minutes of “yuckies.” Yuckies
meant I could do anything I wanted on the
violin. I could hold it wrong, I could scratch
the bow, I could bow behind the bridge, or
I could play fast and sloppy. At first it was a
chance to be sort of rebellious. Of course, that
experimentation got old pretty quickly and
the “yuckies” evolved into improvisation time.
I started to write my own melodies or play
variations on a piece I was learning.
Whether or not you ever choose to improvise
publicly or perform your own compositions,
spending time writing music helps you
become a more effective interpreter. Your
imagination finds the creative space beyond
the markings on the page, and you can figure
out how to be faithful to the composer while
adding in your own individuality.
I think it’s extremely important for young
people, even those who intend to be
strictly classical players, to have comfort
and familiarity with a variety of genres. If
you can find 10 minutes a day, play along to
your favorite song on the radio, learn a fiddle
tune, or write your own piece (even if you’re
too embarrassed to ever play it for anyone).
Ignore your intonation, forget about whether
or not your bow is perfectly straight, and play
any notes you want. In other words, jam!
Jamming is just as important to your daily
practice session as all that Sevcik and trying
to master the Tchaikovsky. These days, our
profession is much more accepting of serious
classical players who also love to fiddle or
have a band on the side. Far from potentially
harming your classical playing, learning other
styles can definitely be beneficial. The best
classical performances combine the best of
both worlds: the deep understanding and
athletic precision of a great artist, and the
passion and fearlessness of a rock star! ■
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