This is the best ever explanation and demonstration I have ever seen! I am playing the violin for almost 20 years and now learned I had some fundamental misunderstandings about bowing! THANKS!!!!!
The music at the beginning of the video is a Bach Concerto reconstructed for Viola, Strings and Continuo from BWV 169, 49 and 1053. The recording is from my CD “Bratsche” on Crystal Records.
I have spent 46 years playing jazz guitar. I started playing viola in 2000 and have never looked back. I am very thankful that you produced this video as many of my questions have been answered. Outstanding teacher. I'm off to practice and will return often in the future. Yes, I will be playing jazz on my viola.
I remember going to hear you once in 1974 as soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony when you were the principal violist. I think you played Der Schwanendreher. I was in high school attending the Congress of Strings. Later, you gave a coaching session at EKU in Richmond, KY. I wanted to study with you but didn't know how to approach you. I had studied with Virginia Schneider, Joe Ceo, Milton Katims, Marcia Ferrito, Joseph Pietropalo and briefly with Walter Trampler.
This is the best and most true to bow technique available. He is so correct and detailed. A must! This video is the best educational video out there. This should be mandatory.
Thank you very much for taking all the trouble to produce this highly informative film. I myself never had the opportunity to learn from Primrose and am very grateful to be able to watch this demonstration of Primrose's approach now. I will send this video immediately to all of my students.
This is the best educational playing video ever made. He is so correct and truly captures all of the techniques needed for bowing. THANK YOU!. This is a must for all string players!!!! Bravo!!!! We are very fortunate and thankful for this video.
I am learning how to play the violin as an adult (1 year), and I still have some trouble with my bow, because that's how I found your video. I am aware that this video is viola-specific, but I find your words useful in the violin context as well. It was a viola which first got me interested in playing a bowed stringed instrument, but I was lucky enough to have a decent (not fancy but still nice) violin in the family. All bowed strings are amazing instruments. Thank you very much!
The teacher I subbed for taught a specific foot placement to take care of the extra weight of the Viola. So like the foot under violin more forward and I think the other foot held straight under the body like it was the part of your spine (but that is curved as well so imagine a straight line) and there is where the support foot is the other for balance maybe.
"What is good for the violist is also good for the violinist, although the converse is not always true" William Primrose, from Conversation with William Primrose
Thank you so much for this video! I've only been playing violin for a few months, but I wanted to get past the "sawing" motion with my bow. This has helped me!
I totally loved this video. I'm new on the viola, so this gives me material to practice for weeks! (and maybe even years, i don't know how good or bad i am learning the viola). Thank you, good sir!
I thought this was marvellous and so comprehensive. The compelling beauty of tone as the viola weaves a tapestry of song utterly verifies the technique. Thank you Yizhak Schotten.
Hello Yizhak. Lovely to see you, and to hear you speak and play... Beautiful... and the speaking and playing too (!) ... just like my dear father said.
this video is a big help. i have really double jointed hands, so holding the bow properly and moving it properly is a huge struggle for me because my fingers just bend all over like my bones are made of jello. but i hope seeing these techniques and how to properly practice them helps me more
I love this Video. You are so technical. This is what is required for the Beginners. I started the Violin late and I also started the Viola. Time for practice is an essential sacrifice in the rush of the days ! Thank you for your precious advice. Blessings.
Thank you Yizhak, wonderful video full of great advice. You produce a strong, round sound with little effort. I was wondering, do you have a similar tutorial video for the left hand? Particularly ways to avoid tension in the fingers, especially during fast passages, tricks for keeping the hand relaxed etc? I also have an arm vibrato as you do...what's your take on arm versus wrist vibrato for the viola?
Thank you for sharing your knowlege, the video has been very helpful, I've got a lot of improvement on my sound the my technique since i started to apply these exercises :)
Only 4.8k likes in 5 years!! This is all one could ever want or need in one's violin/viola learning. A total compendium clearly and succinctly explained and demonstrated. I will be 'glued' to this video, section by section. An incredible blessing. Thank you Mr Schotten. Thank you RU-vid. G Ire adult student
I can see this working as a Violinist. I say this because I am one, but I also play viola and cello. Those are my main 3 instruments. I play 4 instruments (that's soon going to change).
‘Three main instruments’. Haha, that’s an oxymoron. You could start your own reality show, like ‘the bachelor’ but with different instruments. You play each one and every each week one is eliminated..until you declare your love for one instrument and one instrument only! (Only to change your mind after two more months).
@@Machodave2020 haha, well if that’s your preferred way of working! I’d prefer the rose ceremony myself....maybe a rosin ceremony. ‘Cello, will you accept this rosin?’
Je ne sais pas si il y a une vertion en francais de cette démonstration que je trouve tres intéressante meme pour une personne comme moi qui ne connais pas grand chose de cette instrument. Je suis heureux de constater le travail de ces musitiens? Mes félicitation à tous ces vertuoses pationnés et qui savent nous ébaillir et nous faire vivre par leur art.
Maybe 2 years late, but I can recommend you to try chage your instrument osition as you go to less comfortable strings/positions. Also, in order to help your body, keep your wrist and knuckles as near to the board as possible (your left elbow should bepointing towards you in the C string and almost behind you in the A string). In order to do this and not create any sharp form in your wrist, you can help yourself with a tissue paper ball and try to play holding it in the inner part of your left hand, this will help release tension and that should helpyou to find a more comfortable position. Always go gradually increasing your practicing time from more comfortable playing positions to less comfortable ones, giving your body a rest and stretch whenever you feel you need it. Always approach from a relaxed state of mind.
As an amateur violinist, is there ever a point in your progression where just plateau? Like you dont get any better than you are? You're just at the peak? Or are you always learning? I'm 14 and have been playing for almost 4 years and my teachers and people like you have been playing for decades and I'm just curious.
He held it in his hand. He told me that once he was in the party with Nathan Milstein. It was a chamber music party and when they took a break,Milstein was leaning his back on the piano, cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, the violin on his chest and he was was playing Paganini caprices…..
Very informative. Thank you Mr Schlotten! Really,it all comes down to what Mr Primrose said about 'tirer et poussez'. He prescribed keeping the right arm a little lower than the bow. A very good idea. However,to judge by the videos of him playing,he seemed to keep the arm at about the the same level of the bow. Sometimes to illustrate one must exagerate a little...... Personally,I dislike the high arm,be it on fiddle or viola
Most of the videos of Mr. Primrose’s playing are from earlier in his career. My guess is that over the years he decided that it was a more efficient way to play with the low bow arm. If you watch his video performance of the Courante from the 1st Bach Suite, which dates from a late period of his life, his bow arm is quite low. It is hard to tell, since in this amazing performance he is completely in the upper part of the bow. In his teaching, I remember how he used to slap my elbow down hard when I was about to change my bow from up bow to down bow. Eventually, I used to notice him from the corner of my eye getting up from his chair and walking towards me as I was approaching the frog, and out of sheer panic I would drop my elbow.......
+Yizhak Schotten Thank you! Today I have watched/listened to Mr Primrose play the Bach Courante and Ave Maria. Yes,you are right. Later in life he made alterations. However,either way,he still played great! On the youtube there are some recordings of him playing the violin. IMO,he could've made a career as a violinist without much ado. However...... One other thing;did Mr Primrose ever play/record/teach any viola music by the great Alessandro Rolla? Thus far,I've found no evidence to suggest that he did. That be the case,a great pity. Rolla was also great. I love his music. Sadly,I never met Mr Primrose,but,I knew a couple of people who knew him and studied with him. One a viola player,Chris Rensell who studied with him in Banff;the other,the violinist Mike Spiller who studied chamber music with him in Australia. Both told me e few stories about Mr Primrose. I liked the one about the cup of coffee the best.....
I guess the Bach Courante video is not a good example of the height of the bow arm, since Primrose plays it all in the upper part of the bow. The only place to actually judge this is when playing in the lower part of the bow. Even then, the down bow « tirez » would definitely put the elbow lower in that part of the bow, however, for the « poussez » at the same part of the bow, the elbow is going to be high for most effective push. At the upper part of the bow the arm has to be higher for leverage. So the elbow is constantly moving up and down and the height of the bow arm is changing accordingly. I talk and demonstrate this in my video.
This is an excellent video for getting the most out of the modern Tourte bow. If you are interested in learning how playing differs when using a baroque bow, this would be a good place to start: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pj76yJPBEj4.html As Schotten mentions, you do need to allow for the larger size of the viola's strings and adjust for that, and additional adjustments must be made owing to the fact that baroque strings are made of gut with no metal winding. I have been trying to find something about intermediate bows such as the ones which were much in favour in the late classical and early romantic periods and were competing with the Tourte bow for favour at that time but have not yet found one. If I am unsuccessful, I'll make one myself. Those bows are a bit in between the baroque and modern bows, but are still pretty beefy in the middle. The shaping of the note, which is very clear in baroque playing and comes almost naturally to the baroque bow, is gone by the time you start seeing bows which are intermediate between between the baroque and Tourte bow, yet they produce a "lightness" of sound which is a little less natural to do with a Tourte bow. The Tourte bow came into being from the hands of François Xavier Tourte in the late 18th century or early 20th century. He is responsible for introducing the tensioning screw at the frog of the bow which modern string players use to tighten and loosen the horse hair on the bow. Prior to that, bows were clipped into the stick, and no further adjustments were possible Tourte basically standardized all aspects of the modern bow in length and shape. Prior to his time, there was no standard length for a violin bow. He is also credited with inventing the spreader block, which is the tool used to keep the strands of horse hair parallel to one and other during the process of hairing or rehairing a bow. Prior to François Xavier Tourte, there seems to have been little attention paid to whether the hair was flat or not. Tourte preferred pernambuco for the stick of the bow, and used it exclusively. Baroque bows were typically made of snakewood, which is a stiffer, harder wood and as such, less wood is needed to make a bow from it. That results in baroque and earlier bows being significantly lighter, yet more dense than modern bows. Tourte was also a bit of a perfectionist it would seem. Both in his own account, and in that of others who knew him, he would destroy any bow which he felt was not perfect rather than let a bow with some slight flaw leave his shop. The perceived imperfection did not necessarily need be a matter of playability (though they very definitely would be destroyed for that) but also included very minor visible imperfections. It is said that for every bow he offered up for sale, he destroyed dozens more. It was not out of some lack of competence that he did that. It was simply that he was that much of a perfectionist. While most of what Tourte did has become standard, there is one thing that he did which differs from how modern bows are made. He never varnished a single bow. He instead used an unspecified oil (perhaps whale oil) and powdered pumice stone to finish his bows. Only two of his bows are extant, and other than being unvarnished, they appear in every other way to be modern. He never wrote about why he chose oil and pumice over varnish and it doesn't add or subtract noticeably to the weight, so it is unclear why he chose to do it that way. Unfortunately, both of the bows we have of his, came down to us warped and unplayable, but at least we have an example of what he did.
watched the first 5 minutes and heard all the old pedantic crap teachers used to say that did nothing but confuse people--especially the way-over-emphasized finger motion that takes the hand/arm completely out of balance-- if you follow this you will spend years trying to figure out why you can't play even though you are sincerely following your teacher's orders.. sad..
The nerve you have to insult someone who is teaching us for free very useful information and that by the way is very relevant. That a nobody like you have the audacity to name his teaching of "old pedantic crap" shows how a lowlife wannabe ( probably never been) you are..sad...
Dear Orlando S, The exercises in the first five minutes of the video are designated to develop finger wrist flexibility. The motion is very exaggerated and in actual playing the action is a lot more subtle. Sadly, I can't take credit for this "old pedantic crap" since these exercises were taught to me by William Primrose.
Yizhak Schotten I believe (correct me if I am wrong) Primrose learned it from Ysaye who learned it from Vieuxtemps who learned it from de Beriot who learned it from Rode. It is “old pedantic crap” because it seems to work and you spend years on it because bow techniques can always be improved. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
I had the honour to study with Prof Schotten before and during my time at the University of Michigan. May your memory be for a blessing, Prof Schotten.
Hello Mr. Schotten. A big "Thank you" for this great lesson. One Question, which Bars are the first Paganinis excersise ? Its Caprice 5 as you said, but I cant find that Bars.
I am relearning violin after not playing for 44 years. I find I return to this video over and over again to find exercises to improve my bowing. I am improving fast and feel I am on my way to having a beautiful bow arm. Thank you for this wonderful video!
Absolute gold...... we can't thank you enough. Extremely thoughtful and well produced. This will be my go to resource for many years to come. How does the physical size of the player affect the bow technique? Does a smaller player need more of a raised elbow on the up bows for instance?
Thank you for the comment. I don't think the individual size of the player matters in this case. With smaller players the problem is keeping the bow parallel to the bridge when going to the tip.The solution is to bring the scroll closer to the front of the body when getting to the upper part of the bow.
