Happy new year! Updates and a message.

Happy New Year!

It has been a while to write a post. My new year started with a tour in Japan for my music and I have been absent from teaching for a few weeks. The tour was successful and I am ready to start the new year back in Brooklyn, working on music and teaching.


The end of last year, we had a student concert in a beautiful church in Sunset Park. I was very proud of everyone who attended! Congratulations, again to all of them!

Here is an inspiring message from Anne Sophie-Mutter, a legendary violinist that I admire.



"You better become a real human being before you want to become a musician."


Happy playing in 2019!

The magic of playing the music you love.

Today, one of my student played the piece she wanted to play for long time. In the past, we practiced the scale she needed to know beforehand to play the piece, but it had been long time passed since she mentioned about the piece. Today, I gave her the transcription that I made for her and we finally started to learn the piece. With a big smile, she said, "I can't believe I'm playing this song now. I'd listened to it so much for long time, but never played.". I love watching my students having the sparkles in their eyes and they just can't wait to learn more. Yes, that's passion.


It is challenging to pickup the violin to practice when you are busy in general. How much time do you really have? If you're kids, you have school to attend, homework to do and playing with friends are also important. If you're adult, you have bills to pay, laundry to do, endless things to take care of. On top of that, on your free time, you have so many other pleasurable things available with one click. Especially, nowadays, YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook or any other social media, online shopping, HBO Go, etc... And they would easily take away all of your free time that you were originally planning to practice the violin.


I think the key to successfully keep playing the violin is a lot to do with one's mental discipline.
But when we say "mental discipline", somehow it feels torturous. It doesn't sound fun. But it doesn't have to be.

The first step is to keep the positive attitude towards violin. Yes, you have to have passion.

As a teacher, I cannot give students passion. I can be passionate myself and that can be inspiring to students, but students have to have their own passion.

To own this passion is actually an important part of practice. You have to have a positive feeling and have almost like a burning desire when you think about violin playing. And if you don't have the feeling right now, you can still have it, but have to make an effort and "practice" for it.

How?

We all have the music we love.
It doesn't have to be the music played on the violin. Anything you like.

Think about the music you love.

Feel the music.

Sing it with passion. (If you don't want to sing, you can do it in your head.)

Imagine yourself playing that on the violin.

And now, play it on the violin.

If you don't know how to play it yet, decide that you will someday and,

Stick with the desire.

If you can, find the easier version of it for now.
Nowadays, it's very easy to find sheet music for anything.

And while you work on the easy version, you work on the technique that you need to own to play the music.

But don't forget about the music you love during the process.

Generate the good feeling and keep the feeling.


Here is my story...
As a kid, I had a bad attitude towards violin, hated practicing. My mother was yelling at me (she was my teacher), I was not playing well and I was thinking myself as a failure of being disciplined and not talented enough and it was emotionally painful. And I was playing the music I was given and didn't really love at that time. I had a passive attitude. And I didn't even try to play the music I loved that moment. It didn't occur to my mind to do it because I was dealing with stressful feeling and also, I didn't know if it was an option. Simply, unmotivated and uninspired. I was not playing as much and almost quit.

And one day, I decided to play jazz on it. I discovered jazz a few years before and fell in love. And all of sudden, I had so much excitement and inspiration and playing the violin more than ever. It took no efforts to pick up the violin. And the inspiration never went away. I am happier than ever. I found the music I truly love.


If you haven't, you have to find the music you really love.

It can be a song, a simple melody or a fragment of a riff that you heard from a  movie that's stuck in your mind.

You can play any music on violin. And it is you who can decide to do it and make a move. Be active. Be passionate. Make practicing the violin as pleasurable as possible. You don't have to play the music you don't really like. Play the music you love.


To me, that is the key to success.

Recommended: "Basics" by Simon Fischer

I have to confess.... I'm in love with this book "Basics" by Simon Fischer.

A few months ago last year, my dear jazz violinist friend recommended me to check out this book and I am glad I did. I have been religiously reading it through and work on these great exercises along and am still keeping at it. I feel I am still discovering so many mind blowing facts about the violin playing. Last year, I posted about the great Dounis. But this book shows you how to actually practice the Dounis exercises with details. 

With all the clear scientific explanation, very simple and short exercises in specific topics, it makes my practice focused and logical with the feeling of calmness and ease.

Whenever I face technical problems, I go back to the book and find the specific topic and re-discover the facts and understand how to solve the problem. And every time I do that, these facts are ingrained deeper into my mind.

Yes, some of the exercises in the book need repetition with certain time period to get ingrained into the playing, just like any other exercises you do. But some of the facts you find here can immediately change your playing with the clear picture of the right concept in mind. 

To me, no one has ever explained to me about the violin playing as precise and clear as Simon Fischer before. All the facts here make so much sense to me. I had so many Ah-ha moments.

I found sometimes that even great classical players with great technique cannot really explain how to actually do some of the techniques while they are great at doing it naturally. And I thought that was something I had to do a lot and find out on my own somehow someday and it's not really explainable. And that is devastating. Because I never knew if "somehow someday" would ever happen to me.

When you cannot find the answer to some of the technical problem you're facing, it is extremely dissatisfying and makes you start wondering there is something wrong with you or blame that you're just not talented. But it is NOT TRUE!


To me, this book is a saver. It makes your fogs and doubts all clear.

I highly recommend this book for any violinist in any stage!

Simple fact: Optical illusion on the bow angle

Today, I want to share a simple fact about the bow angle. Have you had the experience trying to put the bow perfectly straight to the bridge, yet, the bow still seems to be crooked and sliding.

Here is a simple fact. 

From your point of view, when the bow makes perfect 90 degrees to the string, the bow will be slightly crooked to the bridge (too far out).

When the bow is perfectly parallel to the bridge, the angle of the bow and the string from your point of view is less than 90 degrees.

This illusion is so slight that some players don't notice and still plays fine.

Also, the degree varies depending on how you position your violin. Some people position the violin more to the left towards the left shoulder. More left the violin, sharper the degree gets (more illusion effect).



Here are two examples:

Above photo is when he sees 90 degrees bow angle to the string. Notice how the bow is crooked, too far out.

And the 2nd photo is when the bow angle is corrected and parallel to the bridge. But he is seeing the bow angle less than 90 degrees to the string.

So, if you are struggling with putting the bow parallel to the bridge, you can consider this simple fact.

You can put the bow less than 90 degrees to the string and watch the mirror and make sure the bow is parallel to the bridge. And remember the angle, so that you can do it without the mirror, too.

It might change your bowing dramatically!



Happy playing,



NOTE:
There are some occasion that you want to have varieties in bow angle. For example, when you want to change the sounding point, you can make the bow angled in or out so that you can go either closer or further from the bridge as you move the bow.

"How to practice effectively" TED-Ed

Here's another TED-Ed video about practice.
Well explained!

Shoulder rest? Or no shoulder rest, that is the question.

Shoulder rest is always a popular topic in violin playing.

I, personally, have been experimenting with it for quite a while. I was suffering with chronic neck pain and shoulder stiffness, sometimes even headache, plus I always felt the need of stretching the body all the time after I played violin for some time. It was a big problem. Because I needed to play for long time, practicing and performing, as a professional, but it was coming to the point that I couldn't pick up the violin, feeling inspired to do the musical work with joy and excitement. I needed to do something about it.

So, I did a lot of research. I tried many different kind of shoulder rests and chin rests with all sorts of combination. I even made a custom made chin rests for myself, working with the specialist.

Those research was good, but it never really solved the problem completely.

Then, I decided to try "No shoulder rest".
I read the book called: "Play the Violin without a Shoulder Rest (and save your neck)."
And it showed me how to transition from with to without.

I did the transition gradually. It took for a while. First, I used the shoulder rest called "Play On Air", inflatable shoulder rest acts like a pillow. It was very comfortable. But, it muted the sound a little.
Then, I changed to a small red circular sponge, which I still sometimes use with a non-slip woodworking mat.

And now, I mostly play only with the non-slip mat attached under the violin.

And I never get that fatigue anymore. No neck pain, no shoulder pain, no stiff body, no headache. I can play for quite long time. The violin feels very light. It's closer to my body and it feels very natural. The violin is very movable, so I feel physically more flexible. Plus, I don't have to install the shoulder rest each time to the violin and no more worries for the slip-off and no need to store the clumsy shoulder rest in the case.

It did make me work on it for a while. It needs a little different approach from when you have a shoulder rest. Also, your body needs to adjust to the new way of playing and it takes time and focus.

I was also trying to find the best chin rest for this setup. I ended up not using the custom made chin rest. The one I picked finally was Guarneri chin rest which the specialist pointed me out at one point that no one's facial shape fits with the style.
The reason Guarneri chin rest works for me is that I can hook my chin onto the middle part (which is the right thinner side of the chin rest) and support the violin by my head weight more easily. If the surface of the chin rest is flat, I cannot really catch the violin the same way. By hooking the chin, the violin body can go higher or lower and side to side without doing it with your neck. It's very flexible while you can maintain your spine straight. And this is very different concept from "filling the gap". Many people say you have to fill the gap in between your chin and collarbone, so select the height of the chin rest and the shoulder rest accordingly. But you don't need to fill the gap entirely. By filling the gap, it actually disable you to have more freedom in the movement, you get locked up in one position and it is exhausting to play in one locked position for hours. Our body is not naturally designed to do that.

I recently found this great web page that explains very well about the benefit of no shoulder rest playing with great excercises and it has some videos, too. So, check out via the following link!

"Rest No More? (The shoulder rest, that is)" by Jonathan Swartz


Also, there are many great violinists who doesn't use shoulder rests and checking their performance videos would be helpful.

Itzhak Perlman
Aaron Rosand
Anne Sophie Mutter
Leila Josefowicz
Julian Rachlin
to name a few...

Also, great violinists in the past,

Heifetz
David Oistrakh
Mischa Elman
Joseph Gingold
Nathan Milstein
and many more..


If you're having a chronic pain, it's worth considering this. And I hope this helps you to have more enjoyable playing experiences and healthier body and mind.


Happy playing!

"How to read music" TED-Ed

Here is a great video explaining how to read music from TED-Ed (by Tim Hansen). Very easy to comprehend. If you're beginner music reader or someone who wants to get reminded of it with a clear explanation of music notation, take a look.