If i’m using Hoffmeister for college pre screenings, should I purchase the urtext edition? My teacher has always used the international but it has some weird cuts and rearrangements.
I currently use Obligatos on C,D,G with a Larsen A. This is what originally was set up on my viola, and I believe my viola has a warm/dark sound. Well it’s about time to change strings and i’m thinking about trying Evah Pirazzi greens (which I know are the complete opposite of warm lol), maybe even trying them with a Spirocore tungsten C and Larsen A, but i’m a bit afraid that i’ll end up wasting money because they don’t resonate well with my viola.
Does anyone know if it’s likely that this will happen, or is it more of a you don’t know until you try situation?
I was wondering if anyone knows the most common cause for this pain, I know it’s a bit hard to determine without a picture. Basically whenever I play on the A string, I can’t seem to not use my index finger for pressure. I know that I should be softening my hand and using natural arm weight when bowing, however something about the A string causes the bow to dig into the side of my index finger. I’ve been working a lot on finger flexibility and rebalancing the right hand on down vs up bows, but this index finger issue on the A string has been hard for me to identify the cause of.
Hi all, I know this isn’t a super small section but I was wondering if anyone would share their fingerings for these passages? Thank you!
Hi everyone, i’ll start by saying that my questioning of whether my knees are hyper mobile comes from a lesson i’ve had recently. I play an instrument that requires me to stand while performing and during a lesson, my teacher pointed out how I was standing with my legs locked when playing, prompting me to try and loosen them.
Immediately I realized that I had no idea how to not lock my knees, I described it as feeling like my knees are either locked or I have to physically try and hold them in a bent position for them to not be. Now this is how I have always felt and i’m aware that I always stand with my knees locked but I never really thought about why.
My teacher asked me to walk around and sort of describe how it feels, in which I noticed that whichever leg is on the ground while i’m walking is locked, sort of like: one locked leg, one leg in the air, placing that leg in the air on the ground and it immediately goes int a locked position. Now i’m not sure if any of this comes from a hyper mobile knee or just a bad habit of locking my knees but it’s confusing to me. I would also like to add on that standing with locked knees doesn’t feel abnormal to me at all, it feels much more comfortable than not locking them which feels like me having to physically hold a bent knee position.
I know it’s difficult to tell from a video but does it look like my knee may be hyper mobile?
This question doesn’t really serve any purpose, i’m just interested in what others have to say: What is the consensus around the difficulty of the big three concertos? (Walton,Hindemith,Bartok.) I’m at a summer festival where most violists (in my age range of high school, most college students are playing contemporary works) seem to be working on Walton/Hindemith, though i’ve heard much more Walton. My question sort of sprouted after having conversations with non violists who majority think that in terms of difficulty it goes Walton -> Hindemith which is what I also thought before approaching more difficult rep, however now I feel like Hindemith -> Walton -> Bartok is more appropriate of a ranking. I sort of feel like people listen to Hindemith and automatically assume it’s harder because of how it sounds, however i’m working on it now and yes it’s hard but it also fits quite comfortably in the hand, which is why reactions like “Wow Hindemith before Walton?!” seem funny to me. Anyways that’s all, just wanted to see how Violists feel about the topic!
Hi all, the third movement begins with fast piano eighth notes in the viola, would spicatto be the appropriate technique or would it be sautillé?
I’ve found myself repetitively practicing the opening section to the piece i’m learning and not moving on to even the second page. Don’t get me wrong, the opening is now much better than it was but still isn’t at a point where I can play it perfect every time, hence why I continue to practice it. And i’m sure that since i’m still growing as a musician, my practice methods and habits may be the reason progressing feels slow. So I guess my question is when you’re learning something new, breaking it into sections, how good does a section have to be before practicing a different section? I feel odd playing something imperfectly and then moving on.
Is the initial intro to the first movement meant to be played strictly measured or more cadenza like? I am just beginning to look at this piece and wonder which spots require strict metronome practice. Thank you!