Simon Fischer Vibrato Exercises

[Patrizia Leones]

Violinplaying is a basic matter of proportion and balance.

Hah!

With all the bowings, fingerings, pitch, tone, rhythm, phrasing and sheer agony that goes into it, just how does one boil violin playing down to that basic matter?

This is the brilliance of London-based violinist Simon Fischer's contribution to violinkind: In his books, magazine columns and teachings, he cuts a path straight to the issue at hand, whether it's wobbly vibrato or out-of-tune scales. Sometimes he even makes the solution seem so simple as to be self-evident -- such is the genius of good pedagogy.

I first met Simon at the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies in New York in 2007, when he was giving a lecture on tone production. By then he'd already written the two books that many consider essential to any violinist's library: Basics and Practice.

Most recently I spoke to him on the phone about his latest projects: books called The Scale Book and The Violin Lesson, and an epic DVD on tone production. He also has been working on a number of transcriptions, including the Purcell "Chaconne," and he recently released a recording of the Brahms Violin Sonatas that he made with his father, pianist Raymond Fischer.

Simon has taught at the Guildhall School since 1982, and at the Yehudi Menuhin School since 1997. He also writes a monthly column for The Strad magazine. In addition, he plays all over London, from the studios to the concert stage.

Laurie: How did you get started with the violin?

Simon: My late brother Mark, who was six years older than me, took up the violin when he was nine, so I was three at the time. We lived in Sidney, Australia, and I remember walking with him to his violin class. Pretty soon he gave up the violin, but I wanted to learn. However, my father wanted me to wait.

I think of myself as quite a discerning and thoughtful chap when it comes to string playing (could be delusional tho'...;) and I'm not given to hyperbole - but, I am starting to see Simon Fischer's contributions to violin pedagogy as being of historic significance. I mean that - I have Galamian, Flesch and Fischer on the same mental bookself.

March 6, 2010 at 02:06 PM Thanks so much Laurie for this most valuable interview. I don't know what we would do without you ! I will very much appreciate your letting us know when and where SF's DVD on Intonation as well as his new books will be available.

March 6, 2010 at 11:01 PM Mr. Fischer's work is a welcomed addition to my studio. His publications on violin playing should be required study for anyone who considers themself a serious violinist. His clear, concise no-nonsense approach will certainly help us all in this life-long quest for musical excellence.

"Then there are the tone exercises. I call these "million-dollar tone exercises," because they are worth a million dollars each. They will be in my Tone Production DVD, which is set to come out in about six weeks. Three or four of these were taught to me by Dorothy DeLay and Masau Kawasaki, the rest are my own combinations out of the basic exercises."

My question is: Which exercise number of "Basics" correspond to the tone exercises SF quotes above? I'm wondering if they are the exercises on soundpoints (numbers 64-70) or is he reffering to all the Tone Production section of the book (pages 35-58, exercises 54-82)

March 9, 2010 at 04:56 AM Laurie, thank you! Wonderful interview as always!The idea of proportion is quite profound and insightful. I've been thinking about this since I read the article a few days ago. Fischer is definitely a genius and we are so lucky to have him on this site.

Neither a scale book or etude book, this book contains exercises designed to help increase rapidity in fingers, widen their reach, improve left-finger accuracy, increase right-hand flexibility, straighten the bow, get a better sense of bowing soundpoints, improve coordination between the two hands, improve vibrato and improve double-stop intonation. Some exercises are for the right hand and others for the left; some involve playing and others do not. Unlike Fischer's other pedagogy books, Basics and Practice, which encourage leafing around and picking your exercise, this one leads the player through a routine -- one could simply read through the 23-page book, front-to-back, every day, and count on strengthening the hands and improving their abilities.

Simon was kind enough to take time from his busy schedule, teaching at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Guildhall School of Music; writing his regular column for The Strad magazine and giving recitals, to answer some questions from V.com editor Laurie Niles about "Warming Up."

Laurie: I've enjoyed playing all the way through your "Warming Up" book, and even only doing it once, I can see how it would help promote a springiness in the fingers. Tell me, why is it important to warm up, in general? What happens if you don't warm up?

Simon: I think most people find that they play better after at least a few minutes of re-sensitizing themselves to the instrument, and getting the muscles moving and the blood flowing and so on. A simple example is when you play something like Schradieck from cold, as opposed to five or ten minutes later, when your fingers then work much faster and with less effort.

Simon: Well, you can, but the point about the "Warming Up" book is that it touches on all the important areas all at once, in the shortest space of time. Any study is probably going to focus on a particular aspect. But the simple exercises in "Warming Up" sort of get into the innards of your contact with the instrument. Exact degrees of left finger pressure, flexibility exercises for the right fingers, and so on. This is a different order of things to actually playing anything properly.

I use all kinds of different materials, and would urge anyone else to do the same. For example, I love playing the first few pages of Schradieck (you can even make them sound like a good piece of music when you play them without stopping and with musical shaping), I love the Key Bowing Patterns in Basics, which cover every bowing pattern you can expect to meet, without needing to drown in the ocean of Sevcik. I love exercises by Dancla, little miniatures which one plays at different speeds with the metronome and try to play perfectly, and so on.

I realized that over the years, I had settled into a routine for thorough warming up where I had filtered out, from all the things I knew I could do, everything except just these particular things that I actually did do. So the "Warming Up" book needed only to be written down, since in effect I had already been using it for years but without having printed it out.

But I never used to do the soundpoint practice as it is presented in "Warming Up," and in the first draft of the book I simply wrote out the five chief tone exercises in their basic format (which was what I played myself). But then I was curious to see if there was a way of combining them so that you could get the same result but in less time.

Simon: Flesch and Dounis, and others, have written out tapping exercises, although the ones in "Warming Up" are slightly different, since they are an amalgamation of different exercises. Lots of the exercises are completely my own, even if based on age-old principles and practices so that it is not possible to really call them your own invention. And many really are completely new.

When it comes to Dounis, I have always recommended the trilly shifting exercises that are in The Artists Technique. I have said to an uncountable number of students over the years that it is worth paying for the whole book just to have that one section, and maybe some of the other shifting exercises in it.

Laurie: There was only one exercise I did not feel like I fully understood, and it was "Feeling the give of the hair and the wood." The concept makes sense, but I wasn't sure whether this was something I was to impose, or if I was to just feel the way the wood-hair balance is at those areas in the bow. Can you clarify that one thing for me?

There are many popular vibrato exercises. Different exercises resonate with different students, so try them all and keep using the ones that you find the most helpful. Check back here from time to time and you will see new exercises added.

1. Do you initially stop the string in tune and then move the hand back (and then forth) OR do you stop the string with the note flat and move the hand forward to the in tune position (rolling into the note)?

I've been practicing vibrato 2 hours every day for 3 months and its still a problem to get beyond the slow mechanical back and forth motion that isn't a real vibrato that can then be developed. There has been moments where it really felt like I had broken through only to be let down next day when it just completely disappeared. I'm 45 and wondering if age plays a factor and if practicing 8-10 hours a day (I put the scroll against the wall) will make a difference.

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