Violin Alive – AUSTA/AMEB Workshop
“The workshop held to highlight the long awaited release of volume 4 of Violin Alive was well attended with many familiar faces present. Fintan demonstrated and explained in detail some of the aspects of technique that were featured on the CDROM at the same time as we were able to view them on screen. This enabled us to have a really good understanding of what is being shown on the CDROM and a chance to raise any questions. There was a lot of interesting discussion around topics such as sautillé and spiccato and of course vibrato. Other topics were covered as well and of course the afternoon was not long enough to answer all of the queries. Fintan brought his usual expertise and relaxed manner of presentation to the afternoon and shared his immense knowledge and experience of violin pedagogy. We all have strengths and weaknesses in our teaching and these forums for discussion are immensely valuable. Frances, with a click of the mouse, navigated her way around the discussion with clips of all of the relevant material and added her own expert opinion when needed. I now own all four volumes of Violin Alive and find them to be very good tools for both the teacher and the student to use as a guideline for what is required at different levels of technical achievement. I am a “visual learner” as are many of my students, and we love to have the opportunity to follow up on something that is black and white on the paper, and both see it and hear it come alive. There is a reminder by Fintan in volume four of Violin Alive about balancing technique with being creative in our musical approach, and I feel that this CDROM is about presenting a more creative and at the same time thorough approach to many of the difficulties experienced by violinists. There was a very useful handout given at the workshop which linked aspects of, say for example, the development of vibrato, to volume two, three and four of Violin Alive and provides a quick reference for the different topics covered, and where to find them. This series of Violin Alive is a particularly valuable tool for any student who is learning from the AMEB syllabus as the technical requirements are demonstrated very clearly. I am impressed with the detail and thought that has gone into this latest CD and I love the many practice points that are demonstrated, making it easier to troubleshoot and overcome some of the common difficulties we all face. There is a detailed section on string crossing in volume 4 which shows different ways of approaching the same problem. The technical work is such an important part of our practice and can be a chore for many students, so an imaginative approach can make it easier. I love all of the volumes so far and my students who use the CD come back with a much better understanding of how things should sound and it makes my job so much easier. The CDROM also backs up what I say in the lesson and it is good to have them hear it from someone else. Some of my favorite teaching aids are the shifting exercise in volume 1, the harmonics exercise in volume 2, the sautillé and collé bowing plus the vibrato exercises in volume 3, and the demonstration of the scales and sequences in volume 4. Congratulations to the team and producers of Violin Alive. What I want to know is this..will there be more, or is this it??”
– Margaret Anderson, violinist and teacher in Victoria. AUSTAVIC News, Journal of the Australian Strings Association Vic, August 2005