The Violinist's Dynamo
Next to listening to the product of the average amateur violinist, there is nothing worse than to watch him at the task. The noise he draws forth, and his physical bungliness are painful to those who love tone-beauty, gracefulness and poetry of motion. Such a one has failed to observe that the artist works with ease and complete relaxation and commands us with his thought-power and the absence of physical effort. The mental pygmy labors rigidly attempting a work which is too big for him and struggles as if he were killing snakes. He demonstrates the saying that the one who tries hardest always makes the best second man.
First of all, the trouble is a mental one; that is why it is so hard for teachers to be of assistance. Students are too often of the opinion that if they take lessons the teacher can administer something that will make artists of laggards, and this in lieu of all thinking or study on their part. Teachers agree that the basic trouble is faulty thinking; incorrect hearing; lack of observation. Just so long as pupils neglect ear training we will have players who clutch, bungle with their shifting and scratch with the bow. To train the ears, instructors are compelled to keep pupils so long in one position (usually the first) that when a change is necessary there is worry and inconvenience. I think it is Goby Eberhardt who states that shifting should begin at once in order to impress the student with the fact that the entire fingerboard is used. Mr. Eberhardt is right, providing the student has an acute sense of pitch and an inborn appreciation of violin tone; but when there has been no preliminary ear training and no special talent for the violin in particular, the only course is much practice with a perfectly quiet left hand until the ear is aroused.
A violin student with faulty hearing is like a person shooting at a mark with closed eyes; the aim lacks positive direction and control. The person equipped with an accurate ear does not force himself; but, relaxing with a feeling of pleasure, he directs his fingers to places that will produce the sounds he hears in his inner ear. Naturally, the talented player may, at first, miss the correct spots on the strings a few times because the fingers are not likely to respond at once to the dictates of his will; but with the thing he wants standing out clearly in his mind, it is not long before the correct results are forthcoming. With the ear constantly alert, a musical student does not dread to let go of any fixed position, for he knows that he has the power to find it all again easily. He has a skill akin to that of the cat which lands on her feet regardless of how she is thrown in the air. If one ever acquires dexterity in violin playing he must accustom himself to throwing a position away and finding it again; in fact, left-hand technic is just that very thing —the ability to perform in tune unusual combinations with ease, to change accurately from one position to another at a rapid tempo and without fatigue.
Clutching, therefore, is the result of using too much physical force in place of mental power, for if it is not in the mind it can never come out. If one fails to put things into a box how can things be taken out? If one end of a hose is coupled to a tree how can we expect water to gush from the nozzle?
What is the all-impressive thing about the playing of a great artist? Is it not the mental poise and power of the man? He knows what he wants, he is greater than the task he is performing; like a beam in a building he is stronger than necessary, to assure safety. The student who is anxious to win must keep at the thought-forces; he must know his work better and the doing of it will be a physical pleasure. To improve the mind and make it more musical, whistle—sing —play slowly, and let the tones sink in. Doubt and test yourself in every possible manner to be convinced that you "know, and know that you know," and physical ease will be yours because you have developed the mental prerequisites and started the dynamo that operates the whole process.