Baroque Violinists, Unite!

[bviolon8897]

Originally Posted by periodinstrumentfan

Sight Playing is a real advantage especially in Early Music where much is not recorded. And if there is a recording it's almost always hard to find. Also, i'm a visual person...really slow at auditory learning. ^_~V

I tend to abuse it. And since i'm not conservatory trained, and never had a recital i wasn't able to develop any memorization skills. o_O
i was always out of town during recitals until i decided to stop attending lessons.


ProfessorV on youtube advises to practice and memorize "by section" and bit by bit. I've tried that but it still takes a long time for me to memorize.

Dear PIF-
There's a wonderful explanation of the memorization process in Carl Flesch's tome on fiddle playing. If my memory serves me, he breaks it down into three interrelated modes of memorization: visual, auditory, and tactile. His habit was to engage all three so that if one failed him another would, hopefully, kick in. Like any skill, it's the doing that fosters competence. You've got to put in those 10,000 hours! (from Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers') Oh, for a short-cut.

[periodinstrumentfan]

i was just quoting Philidor's tweeter post

i find too much vibrato muddles ...

[bviolon8897]

Originally Posted by periodinstrumentfan

i was just quoting Philidor's tweeter post

i find too much vibrato muddles ...

Hi PIF: I've posted a couple things on YouTube and being new to all this technology I'll simply hope for the best. Let me try to tag this post....(no laughing, please!).

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kVjxugY2lFU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[bviolon8897]

Originally Posted by Philidor

LOVE seeing baroque fiddlers chew the fat. Carry on! (never stop) I've linked to this thread on Twitter.

Hi, Phil---thanks for not giving up on a forum neophyte. Could you please check out my posts on YouTube and save me from myself (however you would do such a thing).
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kVjxugY2lFU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[periodinstrumentfan]

Loading ... watch mowd ...

[periodinstrumentfan]

WOW !!! I love the Prelude you played !!! ^_^

I love the sound of your guts ... they sing !!! ....

i notice your fingerboard looks all ebony... is your b.violin a Stainer ? ... patterned after Stainer ?

[periodinstrumentfan]

i wish i could afford gut strings before this year ends... T-T

heck they say the world will end in 2012 !!! Oh Mayan god's at least let me try them gut strings on mi fiddle

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by bviolon8897

Wow, just WOW.

[bviolon8897]

Originally Posted by periodinstrumentfan

WOW !!! I love the Prelude you played !!! ^_^

I love the sound of your guts ... they sing !!! ....

i notice your fingerboard looks all ebony... is your b.violin a Stainer ? ... patterned after Stainer ?

The violin is an anonymous northern Italian violin, ca. 1770 that I had 'baroqued' a couple years ago. The luthier did base the style of fingerboard on an extant instrument by Stainer; it is veneered ebony over willow. The idea was to make it both light and durable.

I really believe that the space a baroque instrument is played in becomes a player, too. There's a bit of a conversation happening between the instrument's own resonance and the resonance of the space, and the performer can 'play' the room. I learned this when I performed in many authentic 18th-century spaces at Colonial Williamsburg (1985-95). My house is a Federal period (1807) house with a large passage upstairs that has a 9' barrel vaulted ceiling. It really is a special place to make music in. My eternal hope is that I could host an unaccompanied violin symposium someday using that space as a learning tool. Pass the word!

[periodinstrumentfan]

Wow !!! You have good acoustics there !!!! .... i love paying in the hall way of our school .... the sound is carried around like in the palace setting in Carpiccio Stravagante's youtube video of LeClair. Students would go looking where the music is coming from ... only a very few find me tucked away in a corner

I wish i could attend that early violin symposium !!! ... ^_^