Warming up is an essential part of a day's practice for the US violin player, who describes how she rehearses Strauss's op.18 Sonata in the December issue
Slow, relaxed practising intimately acquaints one's body with
one's instrument, instead of pitting the two against each other
through mindless repetition. First, however, the body must be
suitably prepared to meet the rigorous demands of playing. Here I
make a quick diversion out of the practice room and into the yoga
studio, because I am of the firm belief that the practice of yoga
is one of the best gifts musicians can give themselves. Yoga warms
and lengthens the muscles, making the body more pliable and thus
more resilient. Musicians are a specific type of athlete, and we
often tend to brush aside the physical demands of our instruments,
discounting them as tertiary to ‘thoughts’ and ‘feelings’. The fact
is, without the proper tools to express everything we wish to
convey through our music, our thoughts and feelings remain trapped
inside of a potentially rigid, contorted shell of a body. Athletes
would never dream of performing their various acrobatics without
first properly conditioning their bodies – why should musicians,
who spend hours each day making intense, repetitive motions, treat
themselves any differently?
Even if yoga isn't exactly up your alley, proper blood flow, an
awareness of breath, and malleable muscles are vital to an
effective practice session or performance. Before even taking my
violin out of its case, I make sure to stretch every part of my
arms and back. I roll my neck slowly in all directions and I make
gentle, progressively widening circles in the air with my arms.
When I feel properly limber and like blood is coursing to the tips
of my fingers – only then do I reach for my instrument.
Multitasking has never been my forte, and my warm-up routine is no
exception. To ensure that my hands are in tip-top shape, I work
each one separately. For my left hand, I begin with the first
exercise in Šev?ík Part One (my right hand dangling happily at my
side, bowless), feeling the relaxed strength in the bounce of each
finger and enjoying the little ‘thump’ each one makes against the
fingerboard. I follow up with a few lines of Kreutzer’s Etude no.9,
making sure I involve my fourth finger in as many of the patterns
as possible. I often joke that my left little finger is purely
ornamental, but I am determined to utilise and strengthen it,
little by little! I continue trilling various combinations of
fingers until they feel warm, powerful and relaxed, and then I move
on to vibrato exercises. Placing my wrist right where the
fingerboard meets the body of the instrument, I use the wrist to
propel the first joint in each finger to wiggle – first once
forwards, then once backwards, then two times forwards, then two
times backwards, and so on. Eventually the first joint of each
finger is loose enough to wiggle in rapid succession, and two or
three repeated oscillations melt into a continuous, measured
vibrato.
I retrieve my bow and move on to the right hand, beginning with
slow open strings. I experiment with bow speed and weight, really
familiarising myself with how my hand feels on the bow and the bow
feels on the strings. I pretend that my hand is pawing at the
strings directly (unlike most other musicians, string players have
the disadvantage of having something intercepting their bodies and
their instruments). I make sure that I am invested, physically and
emotionally, in every inch of the sound. I practise smooth bow
changes, keeping my right hand as still as possible at the frog and
making sure it has enough leverage to maintain contact at the tip.
I don't subscribe to the notion that fancy finger or wrist motions
are necessary to change the bow smoothly – when the down bow is
over, switch directions; when the up-bow is over, switch
directions.
To tie the two hands together, I play two-fingered scales: with
continuous vibrato, I use only the first and second fingers of my
left hand to play simple scales in first and third positions,
feeling a warm current connecting the vibrato from each finger to
the next, my bow continuing to carve out different depths of sound
from the strings. I switch to my second and third fingers, then
third and fourth: finally, I feel properly warmed up, connected to
my instrument, and ready to melt into my repertoire for the
day.
And a little stretching after a practice session never hurts,
either.
Elena Urioste performs Strauss’s op.10 Violin Sonata at
London’s Wigmore Hall on 2 December. Read her Practice Diary on
rehearsing the sonata in the December issue, available
here
Photo: Alessandra Tinozzi
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