All Focus articles – Page 30
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Focus9 perspectives on spiccato
Like riding a bicycle, mastering spiccato is all about striking the perfect balance between control and release, as these excerpts from 100 years of The Strad demonstrate
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FocusShould all string players learn how to improvise?
Dutch violinists Martin Norgaard and Tim Kliphuis believe teaching children improvisation and alternative styles of music should be a requirement of string lessons in the 21st century, writes Pauline Harding
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Focus'Playing the viola is greatly beneficial to all violinists,' says Pinchas Zukerman
The veteran violinist, violist, conductor and pedagogue is interviewed in The Strad's September 2016 issue
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FocusIs it healthy to arch your back and raise your violin when playing up high, as top soloists often do?
Top teachers Boris Kuschnir and Mimi Zweig answer a reader's question for The Strad's Teacher Talk section
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Focus'Extremes of constant vibrato or none at all do not solve musical problems,' says violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter
The violinist speaks about vibrato as an expressive device
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FocusViolinist Isaac Stern in China
Captured in the 1979 Academy Award-winning documentary 'From Mao to Mozart', Isaac Stern had a transformative effect on China's classical music scene, writes Nancy Pellegrini
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FocusAsk the Experts: obtaining a five-string cello
Strad readers submit their problems and queries about string playing, teaching or making to our experts
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FocusThere is a tiger inside this instrument’: Sol Gabetta talks about her newly acquired cello
The Strad’s August 2016 cover star speaks about adjusting to playing a c.1725 Gofriller, after twelve years with her beloved Guadagnini
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FocusThe teaching wisdom of violinist Joseph Szigeti
The great violinist's former student Arnold Steinhardt recalls lessons from the master
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FocusHow to use random practice to help long-term learning
Practising shouldn't be boring. With techniques drawn from sport psychology you can retain more of what you learn, says musician and performance psychology expert Christine Carter
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Focus'Classical musicians must be innovative and personal, without violating tradition,' says Tim Frederiksen
The Royal Danish Academy of Music chamber tutor has a knack of putting together string ensembles that go on to achieve great things, finds Andrew Mellor
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Focus'Tone virile and fine. Personality less striking' - Carl Flesch on David Oistrakh's playing
Many of the greatest string players from the past 126 years received their first exposure in The Strad as a result of their success at international string competitions
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Focus'Teachers should never sit on juries if their students have entered those competitions,' says Aaron Rosand
String playing competitions are more popular than ever, but do they represent the best platform for launching careers? Charlotte Smith asks jurors, winners and organisers for their views
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FocusAsk the Experts: how to teach a group of violin students
Strad readers submit their problems and queries about string playing, teaching or making to our experts
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FocusElectric instruments can be helpful tools for group string teaching
Julie Lyonn Lieberman describes ways that electric instruments can inject energy into group learning sessions
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FocusA history and anatomy of Beethoven's 'Kreutzer' Sonata
The dedicatee of Beethoven's 'Kreutzer' Sonata considered it so impenetrable that he never even played it. Rok Klopčič untangles some of the difficulties of this much-loved work
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FocusHow the harmonic series can unleash your tonal energy
Work on the harmonic series and you'll release a wealth of colour from your instrument without effort. Pedro de Alcantara explains how it's done
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FocusProkofiev's First Violin Concerto is rarely performed - but the work is unique
Recordings of the work - from Joseph Szigeti's in 1935 to James Ehnes's in 2013 - are compared in The Strad's June 2016 issue
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FocusThe importance of lateral movement in the left hand for string players
Surprisingly little has been said in the literature about the sideways left-hand movement, although any passage over more than one string uses it. Rok Klopčič researches
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FocusWas Maud Powell's famous Guadagnini violin actually a modern instrument?
Joseph Curtin examines the evidence – and the violin itself – to discover whether the American luthier George Gemünder was its actual maker
