Scan 26
The violin : solo playing, soloists and solos, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1There are violinists old and young, orchestral players and local professors, even playing solos in their own immediate district, who have never seriously thought about systematic practice an hour in the whole course of their lives. The great object of being a really efficient player, instead of being mere "scrapers," concerns them not in any manner. They seem quite content to go on in their slovenly, never-improving fashion.
3A philosopher once said of the intellectual faculties, "I call them not mine but me. It is these which make the man, and which are the man." Men are valuable, not in proportion to what they know, but to what they can do. Everybody can do something if they would only entertain it seriously. It is the function of tuition to reach that, and afford it the influence of practical exercise. Then everything is perfectly simple and easy.
5It cannot be unadvisable to ascertain the causes of the absence of seriousness of application and study, which effectually obstructs the improvement of sound and accurate intonation. Now there is a numerous class of violinists, who only play for pleasure, who never go beyond a certain point, who are never reliable in the matter of intonation, and who play without system. It is the characteristic of serious application to hold out to all considerations of a violinist, benefits and improvements which we cannot perceive at first glance. That is the reward one gets for being serious in practising. Therefore, if all players about to enter on a professional career will confine all their energies to merely playing through pieces, allowing mistakes to go by without correction, it is utterly impossible for any of them to have a sound principle of playing. Their playing would be varnished instead of polished; perilously exaggerated, and most pitifully uncultivated. Everything must proceed from the mind. Carelessness can lead to nothing but imperfection. It is the downfall of all ambition. The majority of careless students end up by being orchestral players at a low weekly salary.
7Serious application has stupendous power, and is a
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