I have recently created two series of video tutorials on violin playing. They are posted at www.YouTube.com. I hope that they are helpful to violinists from around the world. I've spent a lot of my life practicing, performing, teaching, and thinking about music and the violin. I have often wished that the present David (that's me) could have visited the Child David from time to time to dispense some advice - violinistic and otherwise!
I hereby offer the service of my advice - musical and violinistic - to those who feel they might benefit from it. I think a good jumping off point might be the videos which I have posted. They can be found (on YouTube) by entering PlayMyPiece into the search window. The two series are "Bowing Basics" and "Vibrato Basics". I intend to add more and would welcome topic proposals and will gladly entertain questions.
I am not a coy person, so I wish to state at the outset that I have invested a lot of time and effort in creating the website www.PlayMyPiece.com and that my videos and blogging are, in part, an effort to promote this business. I do love music and the violin deeply, and teaching gives me great pleasure and satisfaction. I believe that the tutorial videos and the blogging will become a natural extension of my private teaching and my teaching at the Eastman School of Music.
I hope that I am creating what I call a "child feeding the ducks" situation. Imagine a delighted child throwing bits of bread to hungry ducks. Who is feeding whom?
2 comments:
Hello!
I have been watching your videos in youtube and I would like to thank you for the time and effort you have put in them.
I am learning to play the violin on my own (I have been playing cello for six or seven years now) and I have found them very useful.
I would be grateful if you could post some videos explaining when it is necessary to use a shoulder rest and how to choose the most adequate one.
I hope there I haven't made too many mistakes, I don't speak English very well...
Thank you very much!!
Hi Maria,
Your English is excellent!
I'm glad that you've found the videos helpful. Rather than posting a video about shoulder pads, I'll offer a few remarks here.
There has been prejudice against the use of shoulder pads as long as I can remember. The great violinists of previous generations did not use them, though many placed some kind of pad under their jackets. I think that this prejudice has faded in recent years. I have always used a pad, but worried as a young man when I heard Isaac Stern (and others) recommend against them. I stopped worrying when I attended a concert by Gidon Kremer and saw that he was using a pad. I figured that if it was good enough for him, it was good enough for me!
The important thing about a shoulder pad is that it enable you to play without raising your left shoulder excessively. I use a "Wolf" pad, but many other pads work well for others. I would suggest buying a pad from a shop so you can try out many of them and see which work for you. Remember to try adjusting the each pad too. I lengthen the foot which is close to the center of my body (not the one nearer my left shoulder) in order to bring the violin closer to level. This works for me. Good luck with this. Let me know how it goes.
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