All Improve your playing articles – Page 8
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Focus5 rules for collaborating with a pianist
The term ‘accompanist’ automatically puts a pianist in a subservient position – which isn’t a recipe for good music making
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Blogs
9 ways for musicians to think like top athletes
Carole Talbot-Honeck earned her Masters degree from The University of Ottawa studying the psychological prerequisites for optimal musical performance. Here, she outlines a number of sporting attitudes, which are of equal value to musicians
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Focus
Technique: Two-octave scales and arpeggios
An essential way to improve tone and intonation by Michael Frischenschlager, professor emeritus of violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
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Focus
Masterclass: Christian Tetzlaff on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto – first movement
How to bring out the mystery and joy of one of classical music’s longest opening movements
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Focus
Masterclass: Arabella Steinbacher on Ravel’s Tzigane
The German violinist gives advice on how to inject character and charisma into the daunting solo introduction of this much-loved work
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Focus
Minimalism for strings: An overview with performance advice from the Kronos Quartet and others
Following the emergence of minimalist music in 1960s America, some of the style’s most enduring works have been written for strings, among them Steve Reich’s Different Trains . Pwyll ap Siôn finds out how performers overcome the technical and psychological challenges of playing this music
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Focus
Double bass technique: Back muscles, weight, and flexibility in the right hand
How to get the most out of your body when playing the double bass, by Dan Styffe , principal bassist for the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music
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Blogs
Learning how to lose control is Paganini's gift to violin music
With his new album of music by and inspired by Paganini out today, Michael Barenboim writes that the great violinist’s legacy as a composer is the invention of a specific kind of headlong virtuosity
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Focus
Jan Vogler on performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations
For the German cellist, imagining how Tchaikovsky might have viewed the rococo period was key to reinterpreting his Rococo Variations
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Focus
Technique: Viola vibrato, and how flexible joints and a keen ear can enhance your expressive range
Roger Tapping, violist of the Juilliard Quartet, on the faculty of the Juilliard School, and formerly New England Conservatory, gives a lesson on improving vibrato, particularly for violists
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Focus
Masterclass: Barnabás Kelemen on the first movement of the 'Razumovsky' quartet, op.59 no.1
The leader of the Kelemen Quartet discusses spontaneity and scales in the first movement of this ‘Rasumovsky’ Quartet. From the January 2018 issue
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Focus
Klezmer violin technique masterclass with Sophie Solomon
The violin is a vital ingredient of the klezmer sound. In this Masterclass from January 2007, Sophie Solomon, founding member of klezmer fusion band Oi Va Voi and artistic director of London’s Jewish Music Institute, explains that embodying a vocal quality in the instrument is the key to performing this ...
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Focus
Conquering performance nerves: starting well and keeping tempo on track
Brian Hodges answers student questions on coping with stage fright
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Focus
Masterclass: Maxim Vengerov on the Caprice D’après L’étude En Forme De Valse
Being a good musician is like being a great cook, according to Maxim Vengerov. In this Masterclass first published in the November 2005 issue of The Strad, he gives his recipe for playing a fiendish Saint-Saëns waltz arrangement by Ysaÿe
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Focus
Masterclass: Leonidas Kavakos on the Sibelius Violin Concerto
The Finnish composer put all his knowledge as symphonic writer and frustrated violinist into this great, elemental work. First published in The Strad’s January 2008 issue, Leonidas Kavakos’s masterclass explains how to do it justice
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Focus
Professional string players reveal their favourite accessory
We asked six string musicians to name the one most treasured addition to their kit – though for some it was doing without something which made the difference
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Focus
Double stopping on the cello: How to play passages of 3rds and 6ths with more fluidity
Technique advice, exercises and repertoire examples from Lionel Handy, cello professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Birmingham Conservatoire and Winchester College, UK
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Blogs
Conquering performance nerves: sweaty hands, losing bow grip
Brian Hodges answers student questions on coping with stage fright
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Focus
Natural playing on violin and viola, inspired by the Alexander Technique
Exercises to release tension and improve ease of movement when playing the violin by Tomas Cotik, violin professor at Portland State University
