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Opinion: The importance (and difficulty) of playing softly
As string players, we are often encouraged to make a big sound, but cellist Davina Shum believes that the art of playing quietly is an underrated one
Fellow string players: I wonder how many times you’ve heard (or thought) the words, ‘Play louder!’, ‘More projection!’, ‘Play to the back of the hall!’
Whether we’re teaching or doing our own practice, we string players place a lot of emphasis on the strength of our sound, and often this is interpreted as ‘big’. Forte, robust, strong and so on are all adjectives that suggest that this sound is unlocked using muscular force, which, when left unchecked, can lead to strain injuries. We then must learn to attain our concert hall-filling sound utilising gravity, with correct weight distribution using the muscles of our back, torso and arms…
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