Books › The violinist, 1903 › scan 45
Scan 45
The violinist, 1903
18 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1"THE VIOLINIST"
3"USE all the bow or I cut off half of it! This is the remark made to a Cleveland pupil a few weeks ago, in my hearing, by an exasperated teacher who was suffering from 'righteous indignation'—and a dull scholar. Out came my notebook. 'That's a good one,' said I, 'just a moment, sir, while I put you on record. Do you get many pupils like that?' He laughed. 'Yes, I should say so; not a single one comes to me what knows to use all the bow. I get troubled, but when I tell them that way they learn quick.' Well, who wouldn't? And what is worse than a little stroke in the middle of the bow, like an old dance fiddler sufferin' with rhumatiz?"
5A Retrospect and Prospect
7WITH the ever increasing number of violin students comes a corresponding increase in the number and proficiency of teachers, yet, while the demand for good instruction in preference to inferior instruction is greatly on the increase the progress still seem slow when we reflect that even today three-fourths of the violin students, even in the large cities, are inaccurately taught, and in the rural districts are many thousands more who work in the dark, absolutely without instruction of any kind—and of the two classes (those with inferior instruction and those with none at all) one is at a loss to know which to pity the most.
9America today has violin teachers equal to any in Europe and it is a matter of only a few years when "the reputation of having studied abroad" will count for nothing. But only a few of fortune's favorites are in a position to engage instruction from such artists. It is the elevation of the general standard of violin playing that makes for progress.
11Keeping pace with the rapidly growing legions of violin students has come a great flood of new music for the instrument, so that today there are thousands of violin solos where twenty-five years ago the violinist's repertoire was comparatively limited. The possession of a good library of solos is of paramount importance to every violin player; it will decide his success or failure, whether he be an amateur or professional, and make his playing either a pleasure or a bore. Every student, especially if he is without a teacher of experience and merit, should give this matter a great deal of careful consideration.
13One Lesson a Week Habit
15IT is no exaggeration to say that most of the failures in musical education are traceable to two causes; incompetent instructors and the pernicious American habit of one lesson a week. As a rule the pupil taking one lesson a week makes about the same advancement in a year as the one taking two lessons will make in a term and in the course of four years it is discouraging to find that one has accomplished only what might have been done in one. When lesson days come but once a week, say on Thursday, pupils are too apt to neglect practicing until the following Tuesday, but when there are two lessons to get there is no time to play hockey. And the pupil enjoys the two lessons, after getting used to it, because there is more frequent change and the interest is kept up. Imagine what slow progress a school boy or girl would make in arithmetic or reading who attended school but once a week! There is every reason, as a matter of economy of both time and money (and, I might add, of energy and patience on the part of both teacher and pupil), to banish from this soil the baneful, deadly, one lesson a week, and thus, in a large measure, give American pupils an equal opportunity with those in Europe. "The advantages of European study" consist chiefly in this frequency of inspiration, as exhibited and radiated to the pupil by the genius of the teacher.
17A VIOLINIST'S artistic training and ability can always be accurately computed by the interest he takes in the journal devoted to his profession. THE VIOLINIST is appreciated most by the best artists; pretty good proof of its merits.
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