Yesterday being the major procrastinator that I am, just decided just to play the viola for fun.
It went pretty well actually...
Sight read some new Campagnoli caprices and some things were easier than a year ago. I trained mostly as a violist and I have really small hands and a short fourth finger. Didn't even really learn how to do proper extensions until I started teaching a lot of violinists.
Guess it paid off in Caprice #20. not bad.
Also hacked through the Handel-Halvorsen duo imagining playing with Heifetz....
Reading the Ericsson book (got it last week). Heavy academic reading (shades of grad school).
Also reading Szigeti on the Violin....more on that later.
1 comment:
Hooray Campagnoli!
Who loves having small hands and playing the viola? Me! My hands are ridiculously small.
There is a website by Kathryn Plummer (from Vanderbilt) with helpful photos of 'proper' positions for violists with small hands. My biggest trick is to keep my thumb a little more near the center of my hand when it's time to extend - I acan get almost a minor third more reach out of it if I do.
There's also a blurb about the Campagnoli etudes in the latest (I think) Strad. They sem to suck less than many etudes!
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