COPIED

6 mins

May the 5ths be with you

Professor of violin at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, Belgium

GABRIEL HOLLANDER PHOTOGRAPHY

BORN

Brussels, Belgium

STUDIED WITH

Dejan Mijajev, Yuzuko Horigome, Rodney Friend

TEACHES

ages 15–30

The influence of my teachers Dejan Mijajev and Yuzuko Horigome in Brussels and Rodney Friend in London shaped me into the violinist I am today. It was their work that inspired me to become a teacher myself, even from a young age.

While I was his student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Rodney Friend was further developing his teaching by exploring the multiple benefits to the violinist of practising in intervals of a perfect 5th. His passion for his ongoing work was such that he would often enthuse about having found something new, and his students of the time were given all sorts of new exercises to try and feed back on. It was fascinating to be in on the journey as a guinea pig and I felt especially close to his work because I also proofread his book The Violin in 5ths, which was eventually published by Beares Publishing.

This method has been hugely helpful in honing and working on technique in a number of areas and I have turned to it again and again. As a teacher who had a good experience as a student myself, I inevitably start with what I know worked (and still works) for me, and it has been very good to see the way that my students benefit from this way of thinking. Too often they come with problems that relate directly back to the position of the left arm, and this method is a very useful tool to address this issue and others such as tuning and sound production.

IN A NUTSHELL

Playing in double-stopped 5ths in your practice is a useful short cut to improving many aspects of your technique.

LEFT HAND

This method uses the parallel finger pad on two adjacent strings as a starting point towards the correct positioning of the arm and elbow

• Since it is literally impossible to play 5ths in tune with a poor left-hand elbow position, this requirement causes good positioning of the left-hand arm

• In turn, playing with a good left-hand elbow position makes it easier to play in tune, so intonation becomes less of an issue

• Because to play in 5ths you need to touch two adjacent strings with one of your left-hand fingers, it is necessary to play with your finger pad rather than the fingertip. This means that your vibrato is less likely to oscillate off the note, as it may do on the narrow finger tip.

• This way of working means that the fourth finger gains strength. Because it lies flatter on the string, the movement originates from the base knuckle, which is a strong joint.

RIGHT HAND

Playing across two strings simplifies muscle memory. If you are practising a passage that is written on two adjacent strings, there will be one position of the bow angle in practice. When you come to play the passage as written, string-crossings will be neater with more economy of movement.

GET THE FEEL

• Hold your violin as a guitar (as many violinists do to try something out). Notice that this gives you a very relaxed hand position and that your fingers will naturally fall on to the fingerboard on the flesh of the finger.

• Pick up your violin as if you're going to tune it with harmonics. Again, notice it is natural to do this with the flesh of the finger.

• Now imagine that your violin fingerboard is equipped with guitar frets, so that you start to think in parallels. So, just as you would tune your violin strings in 5ths, think of tuning your fingers (1,1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4) as you are playing. While you are experimenting with this, make sure you pay attention to the position of your left-hand arm.

FIRST EXERCISES

Start by practising open-string 5ths to orientate your right arm. Then try slow chromatic scales as shown in exercise 1:

• Shift on the flesh of your fingers to each new 5th, making each one expressive by using a soft vibrato

• Support each shift with a bit more bow speed, leaning into the change of pitch

• Listen as you go and aim for the best possible sound, but accept a small diminuendo near the tip of the bow

• Aim for a feeling of intention and direction within the slur each time

• As you play, take your mind to the left-hand arm/hand, then to the right

REPERTOIRE

Practise this passage from the Gigue in Bach's Partita no.2 in D minor (example 1), and similar ones, in 5ths, as shown below (example 2). Playing like this takes out the string-crossings and sets the muscle memory. It ‘simplifies’ the passage and secures the hand position. Practise note by note, slurred, with vibrato on the A and E strings.

EXERCISE 1 Also try arpeggios in the same way

EXAMPLE 2 Version of the first part of bar 4 of example 1, simplified for effective practice

EXAMPLE 1 Excerpt from the Gigue in Bach's Partita no.2 in D minor BWV1004

Next, practise the following phrase from the Adagio in Brahms's Third Violin Sonata (example 3). Use vibrato and make a beautiful sound; the version of the first two bars in

5ths (example 4) will orientate your left hand and elbow to help with your tuning so that you can focus on the music when the time comes.

EXAMPLE 3 Excerpt from the Adagio in Brahms's Third Violin Sonata in D minor

EXAMPLE 4 Version of the first two bars of example 3, simplified for effective practice

• ‘Tune’ each hand with a 15-minute warm-up. Start with the left-hand exercises mentioned in exercise 1 with a soft vibrato, then check in with your bowing in front of a mirror

• As you practise other music invent your own exercises in 5ths, especially when the music is in lower positions or on two strings When practising octaves, play your bottom octaves in 5ths

IN YOUR PRACTICE

• with the first finger and add the top octave with the fourth finger

• Once you have practised in this way and returned to the music as it is written, 'think-sing' with your left hand and 'think-dance' with your right

• If you find that your concentration is waning, take a break and return to it later

• Include your students as you analyse and deliberate. Consider the ‘why’ of everything. Why was that better? Why was that not so good? Students can then take this way of thinking with them into their practice rooms.

• Be open-minded and experimental; while this approach has

TIPS FOR TE ACHERS

• real value, it should always be used in a way that will help the individual student

• Look at photos of great players to notice the way that many of them play on the flesh of the finger rather than on the tip

INTERVIEW BY NAOMI YANDELL

FURTHER MATERIALS