Mapping Music

So I was visiting a violinist friend and we started talking about Michael Rabin.

I mentioned to him how much I admired his recording of the Brooks Scottish Fantasy and he agreed that it was quite spectacular.

At that point I started playing the opening form using my best Rabin imitation and when I finished my friend told me that yes it did sound like Rabin.

But then he told me that despite that I had just played it a half step too high.

I was startled but then just looked at my fingers and played it again a half step lower.

Well it took a while but I remember later thinking just how did I do that? Well first of all I'd never seen the music so it was all by ear so this could be a reason that I played it too high.

But it was then that I realized that by learning it by ear I had not memorized the notes but the intervallic patterns in the fingerings.

With that in mind why don't we take a look at the fantasy using my fingering board as What we're looking for are not notes but places.

Over the years I learned that plucking to find notes, though easy to do, isn't reliable.

I remember that I always plucked to check the starting note before I started to play.

This was great when I was practicing and rehearsing but in the concert I couldn't hear my pluck.

Consequently I missed every one of those notes. From that point on I stopped trusting plucking.

So what can you do instead? Well what about looking for a path like I talked about in the previous video? Let's see. Then starting from the lower Bb on the A string, using patterns, we can organize a path to the Bb.

What's interesting is that some of the notes needed later in the phrase are already under the fingers.

At that point fingers aren't busy guessing where to go anymore. They know where to go.

And even though several fingers are on the string, looseness is still possible.

Not because of effort but because weight can replace pressure. And when that happens vibrato isn't something you force. It's something that you've allowed to happen.

As the phrase continues the same idea repeats.

One finger becomes a guide, another replaces it. The hand shifts but the underlying patterns stay the same.

So whether you choose one fingering or another, it becomes secondary as recognizing the interval shape that's occurring takes precedent.

Once practicing these patterns using repetition we will have created motor reflexes.

At that point you are no longer dependent on reading the notes, thinking about how to play the notes or even playing the notes as the notes on the page have just been transformed.

Sometimes when I was explaining this to students I would play the opening in the real key and then play it again a half step higher.

I think my students thought that I'd lost it.

But again, where did I learn to do this? Well actually I think playing country music sessions had something to do with it.

You see before I studied at Juilliard I lived in Nashville, Tennessee and was lucky enough to get contracted to do recording sessions with a lot of different country artists.

But from time to time the arranger, at the request of the singer, would ask us to play what they had written a half step higher or lower.

You see they didn't have the time to rewrite the music so we had to do it ourselves.

I tried writing things in the music but that didn't work so I just did it in my head.

I decided to just play the same intervals that were written on the page a half step higher or lower.

I thought of it as a cute mind game.

Even though I didn't think it was important at the time it was this that probably allowed me to think of Bruch and other pieces with this kind of organizing.

I mean this probably played a big part into why I came to the conclusion that playing the notes seemed to be an obstacle in the way of playing the music.

So these are events that led me to visualizing tetrachords and patterns on my fingering board.

I mean it's certainly one way to organize your thought processes with regard to learning and memorizing, allowing memory to pick up the result of that work.

So in the end is my fingering board the only way to achieve these results? Well I certainly hope not. You see what I believe to be most important is understanding the process and allowing this understanding to lead you towards finding solutions that work for you.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---