How to Play "Unbelievably" Fast on the Violin: Paganini's Magical Secret / Lesson 7a
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- "Unbelievably Fast" is no hollow promise. This "magical" lesson of Paganini's was handed down through The Romantic School of Music and has been one of its most prized possessions. This 3 part series of lessons will allow you to break free from the normal limitations of speed, and at the same time, improve your quality of tone. It's what you need. :)
And yes, I was reminded that Paganini used an almost idential lesson for the guitar, and even though I'm teaching this on the violin, the concepts apply to both instruments.
JANUARY 28, 2024: MY MOTHER PASSED AWAY THIS MORNING, and I apologize that the next 2 installments of this lesson will be delayed a few weeks while I take care of my mother's funeral and financial obligations. BUT I WILL BE BACK AND FINISH THIS !!!
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Just imagine being able to go back and watch and listen to Paganini in real life they say he was the Jimi Hendrix of his time leaving his audience completely stunned
One of Paganini's harshest critics (from a New York newspaper, before he heard Paganini play) travelled to Europe, attended one concert, then wrote an apology in the newspaper and sold everything he owned so he could follow Paganini for the rest of his life and never miss a note. :)
I have the original articles somewhere. I'll have to dig them out when I get some extra time. Whatever "extra time" is. :) Thanks for watching, and watch out for the next video in a few days.
I'm so sorry to hear about your mother, condolences. I do hope you will eventually finish this series as the first video was excellent. Thank you 🙏
I find all these videos to be totally relaxing, thank you!
😮 I can see how this would be very helpful with my learning guitar as well!
Thank you so much you make great Videos❤
As you probably know, Paganini was also famous on the guitar, and yes this applies. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for sharing sir!
I apologize for the wait for the final videos in this series. The best is still yet to come! (I have been completely engulfed these past few weeks taking care of my mother's affairs.) Please keep watching!
Is this something a beginner should practice or is this more for the advanced player?
Thank you for sharing.
This can help at any time, yet really stands out for the more advanced players who have reached their limit otherwise. Thanks for watching! And don't forget to "ring the bell."
for live video recordings, Antal Zalai plays as fast and as clean as Hadelich. they're both great fiddlers. the fastest i've heard for audio recordings is Heifetz, Ricci, and Marina Yashvili. Marina may be *the* fastest, though none of them maintain the same tempo throughout the piece. i discount the Menuhin recording since the pitch is raised, so he may not have been actually playing that fast. too bad Kavakos didn't record it when he was 18, he may have blown everybody away. there's a video interview of him online where he discusses that Pag 5th video. he sent that to Gingold as an audition tape, and he claims he could have actually played even faster.
Let's face it, when it comes to judging speed and quality of tone at the same time, there's no denying that it's still a matter of taste when judging those at the top. Also, I can't deny that I fell in love with "The Leduc" Guarnerius that Hadelich plays (Katerina Guarneri actually finished this instrument the year after Joseph died), the first time I got to see it. :)
Can you give me a reference/title for the Kavakos interview? I can't seem to find it, and I would love to watch it. Thanks so much for your comments.
I always wanted to learn an instrument, but throughout my education was continually defrauded by careless music teachers.... Eventually I took up electric guitar just because an elder friend who was actually quite professional at it started giving lessons. They quit the job shortly thereafter, and then died at 47 before we reconnected. I felt like i missed my one good chance, and did my best from then on to try to learn music solo, since my trust in other t£a¢h€r$ was zilch by that point. That was 2019, and while I haven't been successful, I feel somewhat satisfied that at leat I've developed a unique perspective on music-that gives me the weirdest, strong feeling I'm actually on to something, because when I make a new leap, just to see how it pans out, the next major 'lily pad' in an apparent sequence happens to appear out of nowhere. I've given a small multitude of radically different instruments a try, just for fun and to see what i can learn from them; the latest is an Irish bodhran, which (just as you said about violin) can double its strokes by being played with both ends a special drum-stick. HMMMMM! 🤔
Not at all sure if I'm a profound failure at music, or ACTUALLY figuring out a level of conceptual foundations for myself that's just not made available to beginners, because so much of "education" is simple mimicry, and mimicry is best accomplished in a complete absence of cognition AND for the most part can carry lay musicians all the way to the heights of their modest ambitions. 🤔 I personally found myself in a bit of a 'music-desert' growing up, because I never clicked with what was on the radio, and therefore have found very little that inspires me to mimic. Lessons based on trendy music get me no closer to the sounds I want than practicing not at all does, kinda like learning Greek when you want to speak Japanese does. I'm sure I'm no fun to party with. But I like to imagine what could happen if I actually got gud at writing songs about less common subjects and relying less blindly on tired formula. I already identify myself as a novelist-just not a musical one yet; basically, I'm stuck in prose land, as rich as it may already be in my head. 😞 That bodhran hasn't even arrived in the mail yet-but I ordered the tipper (special stick) in advance in order to make up my mind about it, and instantly started having a blast with it, beating on a mousepad supported by a small plastic kitchen cutting-board..... Good prospects for my bumpy music journey from now on?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Let the Bodhrán fly! :) Thanks for watching!
Ok, great lesson, I do a similar approach on guitar, quick bursts between longer notes. One question, on violin, how does this movement translate to bowing, because it really seems like a different movement?
I do apologize for the long wait. My life has not been my own the past couple/few months. I will be covering that in depth in the next installment of this lesson. = hopefully very soon!
If something like that were too happen to me, I'd be trying to find the nearest exorcist. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for commenting, and having a good sense of humor.
@@kevinleeluthier - No problem, Sir. I always enjoy watching violin tutorial videos. I'm a 47 year old beginner when it comes violin playing and your videos are so very helpful and informative. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Am greatful for the lesson. I had a classmate who could play startlingly quick, but I never really enjoyed the piece he was playing. He simply.I felt used his speed to cover his tone and technique. I would rather play like Nicola Benedetti as she languidly nurses Meditation from her 1717 Strad. She is like floating on a delicious cloud. I respect Paganini but feel he rushed through his playing and maybe not enjoyed the journey getting there? I'm working on chitty chitty bang bang movie theme as I break in another bridge. If I'm active I play fast, if I'm sedentary I play slow. Thanks for this lesson. Maybe I'll try it who knows!😅
Based on your comments, the next two installments of this lesson are definitely for you! Paganini's quote, "Truly, nothing can help your pureness of tone and ultimate expression more than playing fast," are not hollow words. He has some STARTLING SURPRISES that I believe you will enjoy and appreciate. :)
I recently picked up a neat saying from a completley different dicipline-firearms-while shopping for a sticker to put over an annoying logo on a cheap cajon.....
"Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast." Woah. 🤓
I darn near bought it, but ended up returning the cajon because it sounded like a cereal box...with cereal dregs still in it.
Hello. I am already faster than shit on a guitar, I can also tremolo my bow to my greatest content, but third and fourth fingers of my left hand are not fast enough. With right similar situation, I can tremolo with any one finger except for the fourth, and third being quieter and sometimes slacky. I am a former pianist. Any way to improve third and fourth on both hands?
...This is very interesting, and I can't wait to see your future videos on this quest!! Btw, is there a video on your channel that explains where you found the (written) sources for this "Paganini pedagogy"?
I "found" (was taught) the lost secrets of Paganini at The Romantic School of Music. They have been the heart of the violin curriculum at the school since the 1830's. Paganini originally planned on publishing his secrets to the world independently as "LA SCUOLA DI PAGANINI" (The School of Paganini) yet he decided against it.
As far as a historical video or series covering all this: Not yet. We started it, and invested a lot of time and resources (pretty much Hollywood quality), then my "top-notch" videographer got "drafted" by SONY! Someday.....
😮 I know this is off topic, but I was surprised when I watched that Augustin Hadelich video, and see someone who had more burn scar than myself! I wonder what happened to him😢
He was burned when he was 15 on the family farm in Italy. Something about a tractor fuel fire.
Farms can be wonderful, and also dangerous at times.
The other reason this lesson has been so long in coming is I crushed half of the bones in my right hand and wrist on my mothers farm a couple years ago, and I'm just now recovered enough to begin playing seriously again. I am so glad that Augustine kept playing and performing afterwards. It helps show just how much character he really has.
I want an A string that is not dull in 3rd pos. I have a great west minister E and Visions on the rest. I have tried many. I love these but not A in 3rd. Should I try a heavier gauge A string?
When a "string" is dull, especially in a particular position, it usually has more to do with the instrument itself, and/or its adjustment. It's almost impossible without the instrument in hand to give any great advice, yet the first approach to "lift" the upper strings (since you have a Westminister E) is usually to take it to a shop and have them move the soundpost out about a millimeter and go from there.
The trouble with giving blind advice over the internet is that there are so many other variables (like removing an A fine tuner if you have one, adjusting the distance between the bridge and the tailpiece, and/or the weight of the tailpiece, a twisted bridge, etc., etc., etc.,).
I hope this helped more than hurt. I guess I'll have to add a series of videos about all the ways to adjust the tone and balancing violins. :) Thanks for watching!
@@kevinleeluthier I think I should play other violins to see if I find the same effect on different instrument. I have been wondering if it is my instrument or if it's just my ear wanting something that doesn't happen on any violin perhaps. I love the vision G/D and the Westminster E. I even like this A in first position just anything higher seems to dull out to my ear anyways.
Yes your comment did help and I do enjoy your videos thank you thank you
Guitarists call it shredding (I think!)
Yes, and for those who don't realize it (though some professional guitarists do), Paganini was arguably the greatest "shredder" on the guitar during his lifetime. :) = This lesson of Paganini's and the next couple to follow apply to almost any instrument, even though the focus at The Romantic School of Music has always been to emphasize the violin. Thanks for your comment!
I don't play very fast or very slow. I play sort of half-fast.
:) The next installment gets "serious," so it's best to keep a sense of humor. :) Thanks for commenting!(and your sense of humor).
Weren't violins designed to be used with strings that had much much less tension? You say you prefer medium gauge but back in the day gut couldn't achieve anywhere close to the tension that strings exert on the instrument today.
Yes, the instruments of Stradivarius and Guarnerius were originally designed for lighter gut strings, yet their violins almost all had longer necks and bass bars installed during the life of Paganini, so now they "can" boom in the largest concert halls, which is the modern standard. Paganini's "Cannon" was definitely modified, yet he was still using the lighter gut strings of the day with his "modern" setup. Yet, I believe that if Paganini were alive today, he would also want to "boom in the largest concert hall." And I do like a challenge. :)
@@kevinleeluthier Whilst I think that's amazing that some want to "boom the halls" I suspect the majority play for their own enjoyment in their homes or studios. I've told my teacher this as well. She wasn't super-stoked I decided to use gut-core strings. Many of us don't want to play in orchestras or as soloists booming the halls.
From what I've heard even instruments produced in contemporary times actually sound better with gut-core strings. We violins originally conceived as an instrument to play loudly? Honestly, I don't think they were. I'm not trying to be historically accurate either. I just think the instrument is one of nuance and expression that doesn't have to "yell." ;)
@@kevinleeluthier I also want to thank you for all of the AMAZING content you have uploaded for all of us to consume and enjoy. Seriously, thank you so much!
Gut strings have always offered the ultimate in warmth and response, and I love playing on them.
Historically, there has always been a place for both types of instruments (and strings): while Stradivarius leaned toward the sweet and sophisticated, Guarnerius loved to satisfy those who needed a "bit more" when playing for large, or just plain noisy audiences. And while there is nothing more wonderful than soothing your own soul (at times), it is all for naught if you are a performer and cannot satisfy the audience in the back row! :) and I, like so many before me, have always loved doing it) = That's also why I make both kinds of violins. :) @@visualtrigger2469
Maybe a training trap set besides violin helps improve your rhythmic skills with both.