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0:00

Intro

2:17

False Starts

3:39

Not Approaching the Violin Honestly

7:55

Adjusting While Playing

11:21

Badmouthing Your Playing

13:48

Not Practicing Scales

Area of dodecagon | Beautiful geometry | Visual mathematics

Area of dodecagon | Beautiful geometry | Visual mathematics

Channel: Think Twice

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tobiah murphy

murphy music academy

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these mistakes might be dumb but always

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remember that doesn't mean you are

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i'm dubai murphy and this

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is murphy music academy

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[Music]

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and of course if you want to be learning

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violin making fewer unnecessary mistakes

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then you should shoot an email to admin

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at

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murphymusicacademy.org and we will set

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you up with your free first trial lesson

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with one of our qualified private

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teachers offering lessons in violin

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viola and even cello now now today we're

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going to be doing something a little bit

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different because i'm not going to be

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talking at all really about any mistakes

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that you are making technically at least

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when i say technically i mean physically

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what i want to talk about today is

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mistakes that you're making up here that

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have profound impacts on your playing

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and your development

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there is unfortunately not a lot of talk

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in violent pedagogy concerning the

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psychological aspects of learning to

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play the violin or performing the violin

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now of course there is some but it

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hasn't really been explored or certainly

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codified as much as the technical and

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physical aspects of playing the violin

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but the more i teach the more i play the

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more i see the importance of focusing on

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and developing some kind of system for

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teaching the mental aspect of violent

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playing as a matter of fact i'm to the

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point now where i almost think that most

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of people's problems with violin are

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mental not that of course you shouldn't

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be focusing on the mechanics as you know

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most of the videos on this channel are

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about technique and about mechanics but

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beyond that what happens up here has

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such profound

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effect on even what you do mechanically

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that i almost think that we should as

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violin teachers be developing some kind

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of systematic codified approach to the

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mental aspect of playing i don't

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currently have a systematic approach to

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teaching the mental side of violin

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playing i'm hoping to develop that in

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the future but what i do have currently

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is a few common mistakes that i found

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that students make that if you can

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convince yourself to avoid them

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you'll put yourself in a much better

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position mentally for violin playing

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going forward so mistake number one

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false starts if you come to me for a

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lesson and you decide to do a little

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testing note before you start

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[Music]

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then i'm going to make you stop entirely

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reset yourself and start over again

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without doing that that is a horrible

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habit to get into and here's why

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as many of you know playing violin can

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be a very nerve-wracking experience and

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within violin playing one of the most

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nerve-wracking of nerve-wracking

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experiences is starting a piece of music

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so what you are doing by giving yourself

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the few extra little

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extra starts at the beginning of a piece

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even when you're playing

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for a lesson or when you're practicing

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because you obviously can't get away

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with that in a performance what you're

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doing is teaching yourself

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not to be secure

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in the start of a piece

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something that you're already will have

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a tendency to be insecure in you are

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actually accentuating the feeling of

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insecurity you see we always think about

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practicing our music practicing the

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notes getting things perfect physically

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and technically and all that stuff but

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we don't think as much about how to

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practice

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security how to practice how we feel in

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a performance and that's understandable

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because that's kind of a hard thing to

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mimic in the practice room but this is

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actually one of the rare chances where

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we get to practice being more secure and

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one of the ways you do that is whenever

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you start if you don't like if you're

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going to be playing something through

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right not just doing passage work but if

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you're going to be playing something

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through either for yourself for a friend

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or for a teacher

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then do not

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allow yourself to restart and if you

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don't like the way you sound when you

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start if it's not quite perfect

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then you need to learn how to accept

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that

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i know i'm the guy that says there's no

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pleasure in mediocrity right okay so

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when you're done performing or when

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you're done playing for your teacher or

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whatever you go home and you practice it

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you try to make it better but in that

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moment you have to learn to let it go

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right and if you do that enough

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oddly enough you're actually probably

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going to play more accurately

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when you perform because you're going to

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feel less stressed because you don't

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have this

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this binding perfectionism that you've

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been practicing every time you've been

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trying to play through a piece

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now in a similar vein let's talk about

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common mistake number two which i will

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explain what this means but the best way

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i can describe this is

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not approaching the violin

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honestly now what i mean by approaching

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the violin honestly or dishonestly well

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there's two major ways i find that

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people approach the violin dishonestly

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the first way is let's say you're going

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to start a piece

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okay

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and you try to make sure you've got

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everything exactly right but you're

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still really worried about the sound and

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you think if you

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you build up all this tension

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and then you

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attack the violin right there you like

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try to get out in front of whatever

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you're doing and hopefully if you do it

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so quickly that you don't even have time

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to think about it maybe something will

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kick in and you won't make a mistake

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that is one dishonest approach to

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playing the violet the other dishonest

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approach is the opposite but it's still

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dishonest you set yourself up

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okay try to make sure everything's there

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try to put the ball on the string first

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maybe

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make sure everything's there try to

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check every single muscle and then

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still building up a lot of tension and

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then

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and then starting

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there one is the fast approach where you

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try to i say get out in front of the

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violin hope that if you do things before

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thinking you won't have time to make a

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mistake and the other one is where you

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sit and you think so much about

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everything and you're almost like trying

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to bargain with the violin like if i put

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my hand like this and if i hold it like

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this will you please make a good sound

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both of those are dishonest approaches

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the honest approach

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is to and i'm going to use the violin as

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you know kind of a person in this

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metaphor is to walk up to the violin

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greet the violin as an equal say to the

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violin i would like to have this sound

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tell the violin which you want

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and expect that the violin will either

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oblige or it won't and either way and

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this is going to be common theme you'll

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find in this video you're going to be

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fine with that so

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uh honest approach would be ok violin

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i'm going to put my finger here

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i'm going to take my bow i'm going to

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put it here

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and then

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whenever i'm ready

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i'm going to start you're not trying to

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make any tricks

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you're not trying to

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do some magic formula that's going to

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magically make everything come out okay

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you're not trying to beat yourself or

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the violin to the punch you're

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approaching the violin honestly and if

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you approach the violin honestly and you

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don't get the sound you want well then

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once again you have your little

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conversation with the violin you can

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think of practicing as a conversation

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that you're having with the violin

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and you say to the violin okay

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well clearly that didn't work right

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whatever i wanted to have you do didn't

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work that way so what if i tried it this

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way instead and you kind of mess around

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and try different things until you find

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the approach the violin is going to

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agree to and then through this type once

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again we're practicing what happens in

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here and also you know what we feel

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inside while we're playing now you have

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an approach to the violin that is both

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consistent and also isn't based on you

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really worrying about how things are

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going to sound when you first start you

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kind of again let go a little bit of

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that binding perfectionism which will

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actually in the long run probably make

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you play better

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now mistake number three and this one

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has some caveats to it but for most of

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you this is going to be just exactly as

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i lay this out

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adjusting

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while practicing some students and i

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used to be this way get into the bad

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habit of trying to adjust and fix their

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intonation on the fly

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for example

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if you're playing a scale

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[Music]

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maybe you could tell maybe you couldn't

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but i was doing tiny little adjustments

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for my fingers to try to adjust the

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intonation to get it exactly where i

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wanted while i was playing and you might

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think to yourself what is the problem

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with that

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well

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if you're especially if you're student

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and you don't have as much experience

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this can pose some serious problems for

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your development first off when you

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practice you want to practice having the

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finger try and hit the bull's eye of the

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note the moment it touches the string

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now obviously that's not going to happen

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all the time when you're performing but

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that's the way you want to practice and

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this is largely because if you try to

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focus on you know doing little

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adjustments while you play

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what you're doing inevitably is

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encouraging a lot more squeezing and

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tension in your hand because when you

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adjust you're going to have to adjust

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against the thumb against the pressure

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of the thumb

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so what you're doing when you practice

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you're practicing in tension with your

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playing and keeping on with the theme of

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the mental aspects of playing what else

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are you doing when you make as just your

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modus operandi constantly

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adjusting your fingers while you play

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well you are practicing in you are

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telling yourself while playing that you

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assume that you're going to be wrong you

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are baking into the cake of your playing

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the assumption that you are going to

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make mistakes and that your fingers are

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not going to hit the right place and

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that you're always going to have to

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constantly fix what you're doing while

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you're playing so not only are you

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practicing in that physical tension in

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the left hand but you are also

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practicing in that psychological tension

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the inner tension which i think might

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actually have more detrimental effects

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on your playing

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than the physical tension now i know

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that some of you are probably thinking

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yeah but didn't heifetz say that he when

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he played his fingers wouldn't hit the

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right spot and he'd adjust it so quickly

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that nobody in the audience could tell

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that he actually started the note out of

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tune and

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to that i'd say um

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i've never seen a primary source for

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that quote as far as i know

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it's purely an anecdote and quite

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frankly i don't think he actually said

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that that being the case this is the one

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caveat that i will give to this that i

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mentioned at the beginning

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sometimes there is utility to doing a

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little bit of adjusting in a performance

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especially if you're playing with a

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small ensemble where making sure that

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everyone matches up with each other is

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you know paramount okay so you might

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have to listen to your colleagues and

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make little adjustments on the fly

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however

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when you're practicing you do not want

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to approach things this way you want to

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approach it and again this is you know

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the theme of today

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if my fingers out of tune i learn to be

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okay with that i go back and try to

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teach the finger how to fall in the

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right place but i'm not going to build

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up i'm not going to practice building up

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this tension either in my hand or in my

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heart speaking of tension of the heart

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let's talk about mistake number four

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which is

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bad mouthing your own playing now my

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experience with this mostly comes from

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being a teacher

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where a student will come in and before

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they've even played a single note do

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they want to let me know just about how

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bad they're going to sound today and how

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things didn't really go very well for

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them this week and they apologize

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profusely for what i'm about to hear and

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if you tend to do this whether you do it

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in a lesson or you do it at home or you

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do it anytime you play i'm going to tell

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you what i tell my students

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stop it

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bad mouthing yourself doesn't

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help

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the situation right let's say you didn't

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practice very well this week whether it

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was you know by your own choice or just

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life circumstances

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whether it was you know you had a good

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reason for it or not telling me that

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you're going to sound bad isn't going to

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make you sound any better right it's not

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going to make and we've talked about

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this all this this video it's not going

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to make you feel any better it's not

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going to make you any less nervous it's

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not going to help a single thing and

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it's probably going to make you worse

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right you keep talking about how bad

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you're going to play well guess what

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that's probably going to be a

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self-fulfilling prophecy okay

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our subconscious listens to what we say

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i firmly believe that and if we

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constantly bad mouth

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how we're going to play because we think

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that maybe softens the blow of you know

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the bad playing that we're already

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planning on doing this is another

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problem planning on playing poorly i

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think that just puts your entire psyche

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and your entire person in the mode of

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being okay with playing poorly right

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there's a lot of things we talked about

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that you should be okay with right i

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make a little mistake here i'm going to

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be okay with that because i'm going to

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go and fix it right i'm not going to

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make it a big deal right

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what i don't want you and this is the

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theme of the channel to be okay with

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is mediocrity and think that just

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because you recognize that you're

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playing mediocre

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that that suddenly makes everything okay

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so if you haven't prepared as well as

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you'd like for your teacher

00:13:25

then you can acknowledge that

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but don't don't talk about how bad

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you're gonna play just play

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and your teacher is there to help you

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get better and if it's your fault for

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not practicing enough well once again

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except you made a mistake and practice

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more the next week now when you do

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practice more the next week make sure

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that you don't make this fifth and final

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mistake

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which is not

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practicing scales

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i don't know exactly what this is maybe

00:13:54

it's you know just general maturity

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but

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i practice skills way more now that i'm

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a professional and older than i ever did

00:14:02

as a student when i was a student i was

00:14:04

a very bad boy i did not practice skills

00:14:06

hardly ever unless i had to play them

00:14:08

for like a jury or something like that

00:14:10

huge mistake i should have been doing

00:14:12

this for the past 10 years i was a

00:14:14

student for almost in university and

00:14:17

conservatory for almost 10 years barely

00:14:19

practice skills now that i'm out and

00:14:21

about on my own i practice skills for at

00:14:23

least 45 minutes

00:14:25

every single day think about scales and

00:14:29

you know people will say well why should

00:14:31

you practice scales wells because

00:14:32

there's scales and arpeggios in every

00:14:34

piece

00:14:35

and that is a reason to practice scales

00:14:37

but that's not the real

00:14:40

primary most important reason why you

00:14:42

should practice scales what skills do is

00:14:45

provide a familiar context assuming that

00:14:48

you've learned all your skills

00:14:50

for practicing any aspect of technique

00:14:53

that you want

00:14:54

so let's say you want to practice you

00:14:56

know certain aspects of your bowing or

00:14:57

your tone well you don't have to worry

00:14:59

about learning the notes of the scale

00:15:00

assuming you've learned all the scales

00:15:02

and you do have to go through the

00:15:03

process of learning them but once you've

00:15:04

learned them

00:15:05

you don't have to worry about fingering

00:15:07

you don't have to worry about bowing you

00:15:08

don't have to worry about you know

00:15:10

exactly what string you're going to play

00:15:11

on all of that is just baked into the

00:15:13

process and you can focus on

00:15:15

any aspect of technique you want any

00:15:18

aspect of playing you want today i want

00:15:20

to play this scale and i want to focus

00:15:21

on tone so i'm going to focus i'm going

00:15:23

to do big long tones on every single one

00:15:25

of these notes and my focus is to have a

00:15:28

beautiful tone starting here in first

00:15:30

position and having the same beautiful

00:15:32

tone across all four strings and up to

00:15:34

the higher positions let's say i want to

00:15:36

focus on playing spacato so you know i'm

00:15:38

gonna

00:15:40

practice each note like that maybe i'll

00:15:42

start doubling in

00:15:45

to get used to the arm and then i want

00:15:47

to coordinate them

00:15:51

i can practice focusing on those things

00:15:53

i can practice doing it all in one bow

00:15:55

and i can also practice and this is very

00:15:57

important in how to listen because some

00:15:59

keys are easier to play in tune on the

00:16:01

violin than others d major is way easier

00:16:04

to play in tune on the violin because we

00:16:05

have an open d string and an a string

00:16:07

all sorts of things that you know match

00:16:09

with the notes in d major than it is to

00:16:11

play an e flat even though they're just

00:16:13

a half step away from each other e flat

00:16:16

i have to if i'm going to practice e

00:16:17

flat i have to learn how to listen a lot

00:16:19

closer than i would when i'm playing d

00:16:21

major so there's all of these

00:16:23

opportunities for you to practice these

00:16:24

things you can practice your

00:16:25

articulation as i talked about earlier

00:16:28

right if i'm not adjusting my fingers

00:16:30

can i make sure that when my fingers hit

00:16:32

the string and hopefully hit that bull's

00:16:33

eye of the note that each each note is

00:16:36

as clear as a bell the moment hits the

00:16:38

string something i've been doing lately

00:16:40

i've been

00:16:41

so i just take two notes at a time

00:16:46

[Music]

00:16:54

so i'm not adjusting i'm not doing

00:16:56

anything i'm trying to keep my hand very

00:16:57

still and i'm just practicing the

00:16:59

transition from note to no and then of

00:17:01

course you can get into double stop

00:17:03

scales scales and thirds skills and

00:17:06

octaves scales and fingered octaves you

00:17:08

can do skills all on a single string

00:17:10

the possibilities for your practice are

00:17:12

endless and if you're not doing it

00:17:14

you're leaving so much development on

00:17:17

the table anyway a little bit different

00:17:19

sort of video that i'm usually used to

00:17:21

making i will get back to making videos

00:17:23

about actual you know how to do physical

00:17:26

technique and things like that but um i

00:17:28

hope you found this to be useful the

00:17:31

mental and psychological aspect of

00:17:32

playing is

00:17:33

something that i found to be severely

00:17:36

lacking in terms of kind of the system

00:17:38

of violin teaching i have many books

00:17:40

over there that talk all about physical

00:17:42

and technical aspects of violent playing

00:17:44

but not as much talk is going into or at

00:17:47

least systematize talk going into what

00:17:49

happens in the mind while you're playing

00:17:52

so i hope to be exploring that more in

00:17:54

the future and i hope that you will get

00:17:56

something out of it anyway

00:17:59

i have been to biomurphy for murphy

00:18:00

music academy always here to remind you

00:18:03

that there is no pleasure in mediocrity

00:18:05

happy practicing and i'll see you next

00:18:07

time

Description:

For those interested in Skype (or your favored video chat platform) lessons, email [email protected]. 0:00 - Intro 2:17 - False Starts 3:39 - Not Approaching the Violin Honestly 7:55 - Adjusting While Playing 11:21 - Badmouthing Your Playing 13:48 - Not Practicing Scales

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