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 E String sound by Professor Reed Smith
 Generally you want to use less pressure on the E string, or you'll be fighting it(or it will fight you!) Unfortunately that makes it harder to hold the bow on the sounding point, so you'll need to spend a lot of time in front of the mirror getting the bow moving fast and straight.
Check your sounding point constantly -- a little closer to the bridge when in the high positions, but not too close.
Learn to ignore the surface noise and listen instead to the quality of the "core" of the tone -- your audience won't hear that surface noise the way you do.
And, of course, don't neglect the vibrato!
another component of good tone is perfect intonation. It makes the instrument resonate better. And of course we tend not to have as good intonation in the upper register because we don't play there as much. So spend lots of time working on intonation up high, using light bow pressure (which will incidentally keep you also from squeezing your left hand, and should have a positive effect on your pitch!) Take plenty of breaks, however, so that your left wrist doesn't tire from playing up high. |
Improve dynamics with Sheila
Melodic material must dominate the dynamic level
Crescendo and decrescendos will very according to musical demand
Do not overextend fortes
Do not always make a crescendo on ascending passages and conversely, a decrescendo on decending pagssages
Do not play all notes with an attack followed by a diminuendo
Pianissimos create marvelous dramtic effects
All dynamics are relative
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Intonation by Professor Reed Smith
The very best thing you can do is lots of slow work with very little bow pressure listening for the "ring" of notes resulting from the sympathetic vibrations of open strings. (Of course, G's, D's, A's, and E's ring best, but you will also start to hear a "purity" of tone from anything that is not dissonant.) That's assuming that your intonation problems are not caused by some technical problem.
Most intonation problems have to do with the fact that we listen selectively -- hearing what we want to hear. You need to learn to listen objectively. Once you start hearing good intonation with that slow work, then take a group of notes out of rhythm and try to repeat them 10 times with good intonation. That way you are training your fingers as well as your ears. Finally put them into rhythm and do repetitions in rhythm as well.
One other help -- turn on a tuner that generates pitches to "tonic" -- the key note of a scale or passage -- and play slowly over that pitch. You will start to learn to relate your pitches to each other harmonically -- not just in terms of whole steps and half steps.
All of this takes lots of patience. There are no shortcuts to good intonation!
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Intonation and the Pythagorean scale
 All whole steps and half steps vary according to thier relationship in the scale
All perfect intervals, fouths, fifths, octaves remain perfect
Major thirds and sixths are made larger
Raise the major seventh, giving it a true leading tone, characteristic
As a result of the sequence of successive perfect fifths, sharps are played high than flats; thus C-sharp is higher than D-flat
Watch your arm under the violin - it swings back and forth as you cross the strings with your fingers
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Shifting thoughts from Geoff Fischer
What muscle in your arm makes the shift?
Shifting is mostly timing
Practice scales to get the timeing built-in
Shift on old finger - yes, there will be a time when you will shift on other fingers, but only for a musical effect
The shift is one motion
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~ website and graphics © Sheila K. Helser ~
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