Violin Video Lesson: Advanced Approach to Violin Shifting - Part 3

Hi and welcome to VirtualSheetMusic.com's Meet the Expert. My name is William Fitzpatrick and I am the Temianka profession of violin at the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music which is located on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California. I am as well Director of MusiShare in Irvine, California.

All right. Let's have a look as an aspect of shifting that I've hinted at, but not really, really explained in great depth. That's shifting in fast passages. Now this requires the coordination of the elbow, with the rotational rolling of the hand towards the desired destination. A sort of point or marker in the sand. So to do this, one must know where one is going. What is that destination point? Well, let's try from a B flat on the A string to an A fourth finger on the same string. The A will be my destination.[plays]

Now what I want to do with my elbow leading is to roll towards that destination - roll [plays]. My elbow's movement propels my hand and fingers and thus did not require my fingers to expend energy so they could remain loose throughout the process. Let's look again. [plays] Here, let me show you the elbow. [plays] Everything is flowing towards that destination point, so that's how it works, either ascending or descending.

I tell you what? Why don't we look at some real life examples? Well, from Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, why don't we look at an arpeggio ascending, going up? [plays] The F sharp E was my destination. So I'm trying to get there from the beginning of that arpeggio. [plays] The second half of this passage is interesting. It goes down from where we started. [plays] Where was that destination point? Well, it actually was the one that started it, [plays] and we release it from there. [plays] Let's look at the whole passage. [plays] And that describes our destination points, both ascending and descending for Bruch's Scottish Fantasy.

Well, why don't we look at Wieniawski Second Concerto in D minor in the first movement [plays]? Here again, the elbow; it's all about that movement of the elbow. I'm starting here. [plays] The elbow moves around. Finally, let's look at one which is a more melodic kind of a fast shift. Let's look at Bartok's Concerto No. 2. Our destination point will be the last note of this phrase. Here we go. [plays] Everything I am doing is leading towards that last B flat. [plays] My elbow is required to move in a smooth gesture towards that destination point.

Well, these are but a few of the many types of fast shifts that one encounters in solo pieces or concerti, but remember that you really need to know where you are going before you try to find a path with your elbow to get there.

Well, that's it for this video. If you have a comment, question, or special request, please feel free to post it below. So practice well, and I look forward to sharing the next video with you.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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