Books › A Practical Guide to Violin-Playing, 1913 › scan 28
Scan 28
A Practical Guide to Violin-Playing, 1913
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1in the various minor modes and two examples of chromatic scales. After thirty-six studies only, the pupil is made to play in the second position and Study 49 is chiefly written for tenths and abounds with difficulties. Evidently the great Spohr showed a great dislike to every kind of leggiero bowing — neither in his studies nor pieces does a single example exist for spiccato. Nevertheless the exercises are of eminently musical and violinistic value and ought certainly to be gone through at some time or another, more particularly in conjunction with other studies. Schroeder has collected them in one book in the Peters Edition.
3Any of the other before-mentioned French or German Schools should prove infinitely more practical and useful than most modern manuals, which consist mostly of finger exercises of no musical interest whatever, and contain nothing that has not already been said, whilst pretending to be miraculous inventions, or systems which will master all technical difficulties in the shortest possible time. From these may the serious student be spared! Two modern, very earnest and thoroughly up-to-date guides are Joachim-Moser's Violin-School and Sevcik's "Schule der Violin-technik."
5Before recommending a graduated list of studies in continuation of the first principles acquired by a Violin-School, the Author ventures to touch upon a few subjects.
7No matter how young and inexperienced the teacher may be he should endeavour to discover the individuality of his pupil and to map out the particular course of study and training required, for as soon as the pupil has learned to respect his master the former will, nearly always, willingly work to please the latter. The more firmly and more solidly those thousand and one links (which will ultimately give his pupil a clean finger and bow technique combined with musical taste) are connected, the greater will be the result in the long run.
9It is a most deplorable practice to rush the student from one study to another before the difficulties of each one have been overcome. From the very outset the faults of the pupil must be made absolutely clear, and in order to prove that the lesson has been fully understood, all the various points should be carefully reconsidered at the next meeting. Not until some definite progress has been made ought the master to proceed with another exercise.
11Wisdom has to be learned like everything else. Only by constant repetition of a difficult phrase — whatever it may be — can the pupil be shown the right way to improve. In other words, it is during a lesson that the student is taught how to practise by himself and he who knows how to overcome difficulties in a practical way will fare best.
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