ATTN: VIOLIN PLAYERS - Technique Topic

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nhammer
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Post by nhammer »

Is there any interest by those who play the violin to discuss what (VM songs or not) they are working on or how they have observed Vanessa-Mae's techniques and incorporated them in their own playing?

If there is interest, I will start a thread and maybe we can help each other.
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Atreides
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Post by Atreides »

hehehe ... its gonna be hard to describe technical stuff .. might be fun too :o)

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alyssa
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Post by alyssa »

itz a great idea! bt i also agree with atriedes that discussion on technical stuff can be quite difficult... bt we can give it a try and see how it goes...

im now working on my diploma violin exam that is comming soon... really tough piece, my toning is nt really good... i dun blame it on my violin coz i didnt practise enough... as practise makes perfect.... really hope i can get a merit on my exams... :)

alyssa...
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Post by Street_Rat »

good luck with ur exam
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Atreides
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Post by Atreides »

Heh ... tell me about getting the tone right ... I ve been practicing Tartini's D-T's sonata so mutch in the past weeks that my tone is pretty good in the upper positions but go dead wrong when i shift back to the first position to play something else. Its kindda pathetic ...

Ohhh... well back to practicing the basic scales for me i guess....

Good luck on that exam ... altought luck has nothing to do with it ... practicing has everything to do with it :o)

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Kevin
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Post by Kevin »

ahhh Tartini, well for your shifts, its the same way it is with any shifting, you need to just practice your main notes, Lets say you're shifting from an F natural (1) on E, to a C Sharp in 5th on E. just keep practicing only those notes in the passage, feel the spacing, and MAKE your fingers memorize what they are doing.

Also, you can do what my teacher calls Duck-tailing.

For example say you had the following notes:

ABFGAD

Play A, then play B, Then A, B, Then F, Then B, Then F, B,A, etc....

Thats what helped me with that piece, I love it!!!
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Atreides
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Post by Atreides »

Humm ... i havent tried that "Duck-tailing" technique yet ... Might work well ...

I ve also recently added little pieces of tape on the violin for my tumb as position markers. Altought i m starting to wonder if that was a good idea as i m starting to rely more and more on them.

It not that I cant shift ... its just that this sonata require constant shifting. Well, i dunno about the other editions but i sure know that the Kreisler edition make extensive use of them. I heard that Kreisler didnt like to play with his 4th finger beceause he could not vibrate very well with it, so he kept shifting position to avoid using it .

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alyssa
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Post by alyssa »

i dont think itz a good idea of using the tape markers... i remember i requested my teacher can i use this idea of putting marker... he scolded me that itz a bad idea as it doesnt train to listen to the correct tone... so i advise u to listen to each and every tone u playing, this will train ur ears to listen to the correct pitch.

kreisler is clever in the sense that itz very difficult to vibrate with our fourth finger... so shifting position is neccessary...

kreisler music is best for practising, as i have learn all my techniques from his pieces.... work harder, u can do it :)
practise makes perfect!
nhammer
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Post by nhammer »

Those are great pointers for shifting...I appreciate you posting them. When I quit playing the Violin in 1984 I was just moving in to 3rd and 5th positions. Now after picking it up 20 years later I am now starting to learn the positions all over again.
:oth26:

I am going to start a new Topic under the "Chit Chat" forum for us to continue discussing anything to help us improve as violin players. Hope to see you guys there.
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whygodwhy86
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Post by whygodwhy86 »

Hello all!

It's been a while but I'm back!

Ok, I'm obviously not as good as you lot when it comes to playing the violin, I started when I was 9 years old, in 1995 (haha made you feel old :p ). Now I'm 17, I did Grade 5 in 2000 and started working on Grade 6 but I can't do Grade 6 until I do Grade 5 theory. Hmmm... I can't do theory. I've been stuck on Grade 5 theory for almost 4 years :pblush2: and I still can't get my head around it.

I'm quite good at position changing, I've got quite a knack of jumping my first finger to any note you like, not too bad when it comes to accuracy too :pblush: but my teacher hates that, and quite rightly too tsk tsk at my bad habits hehehe!

As for Vanessa-Mae music, I printed a copy of storm from vanessamae.com (Thanks Glenn :bow: ) and it's not even at half speed yet. :btear:

Ok, that's about all I have to say about it for now. If anyone knows of an easy way to pass Grade 5 theory that'd be really great!

Have a very Merry Christmas and good luck in the New Year, I know I'm gonna need it! lol
Love ya lots and lots like jelly tots and vodka shots! :D
nhammer
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Post by nhammer »

Thanks for your post! I am relearning my positions...still pretty much stuck in 1st position. I do not have a violin teacher currently, I am instead buying lessons for my daughter. So I have been battling learning the positions again all by myself. Have you found certain exercises more helpful than others? Or do I just bite the bullet and hang in there?
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Rocky
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Post by Rocky »

How do you learn a position on a violin?
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Benji
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Post by Benji »

I'm trying to learn Red Hot; to say that it's a very difficult piece would be an understatement.

The basic melody I can play fine, but the runs she does during the "bridge" is very hard. It's wonderful though because when I first listened to it, I thought she was just ad-libbing and just 'showing off' basically. But then after hearing her re-record it at least twice after the original version on TVP, she knows exactly what she is playing.

The one thing I find with Vanessa is that she really has no 'favorite' position. In this particular package she uses just about all the positions at least once (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7th)

She also has a knack of changing the key alot, going from natural to sharp to flat back to natural and so on. If I had to guess what key Red Hot is in, I would guess A minor/C major

I just wish I had the sheet music for Red Hot, even though Maysan has done a great job of transcribing it by ear. Just some of the parts are inaccurate, but of course, it's better than nothing.
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foreverred
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Post by foreverred »

She has shown me how to incorporate flowing, beautiful, melodic lines into fast paced songs - when done right, it's beautiful, especially building up to a more aggressive melody or solo.
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