#still don't have the attention span to finish learning anything to completion tho :(

[firelord-frowny]

there are like 0 world class violin soloists who don't make an audible tapping noise against the fingerboard in MAAAANY instances, particularly when playing larger intervals and/or coming from an open string, and/or playing really fast, slurred passages where the notes only have a split second to be heard before the next note needs to start,

and yet there are stilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll all these fucking pedagogues out there wanting to die on the cross of You Don't Need To Press The String All The Way To The Fingerboard And It's Actually Bad To Make A Tapping Noise.

??????????????????????????????????????????????

ok which one of you is gonna go tell hilary hahn that she's doing it wrong? hmm? who's gonna tell rachel podger to withdraw her latest release of the bach toccatta arrangement for solo violin which has VERY AUDIBLE TAPPING NOISES all throughout??? HMMM??? Somebody better snatch all those prizes out of Soo Been Lee's hands! let's call James Ehnes and Ray Chen and Midori and Gil Shaham so they can sit in a masterclass where some adjunct professor at some unremarkable university can lecture them about how they're all using Too Much Tension.

!!!!!!!!!! I legit Do Not Get It.

Same vibe as when my old evil violin teacher showed me this famous clip of heifetz pulling off a near-impossible bow stroke, and then criticized him for having a "bad bowhold."

It occurs to me that a possible caveat may be that when it comes to orchestral playing, maybe the extreme clarity and crispness that's achieved with a firmer touch isn't necessary because the lil imperfections in the tone quality are more easily swallowed up by the resonance of all the other unison pitches. Which I mean, I don't know that to be true, but it seems like a safe hypothesis, in which case, then sure, you could lessen the chances of muscle/tendon strain if you use lighter pressure.

HOWEVER!!! If you're doing solo repertoire, there's basically a 100% chance that it's waaaaaaaaaay more physically demanding than even the longest, most difficult full orchestra pieces. So if a soloist can bust out Brahms and Tchaikovsky and Paganini and solo Bach several times a week for years on end while using a firmer touch all the while without suffering any adverse consequences, then an orchestral player should DEFINITELY be able to do the same, and have even less of a chance for adverse consequences since their music isn't as physically complicated and demanding.

and i just???? Do Not Understand why there's so much eagerness to reject the things that the worlds greatest players do that are the REASON why they sound great, in favor of sticking to whatever insufficient philosophies that have gotten them to a medium level of professional playing and no further.

don't you wanna sound better???? don't you wanna BE the player that other professionals are gobsmacked by? Don't you want people to hear you play, and have no idea how you pulled off what you just pulled off? How did you land that enormous fingered octave shift so flawlessly? How did you nail every single note of that hella fast four octave phyrgian scale?? How did you get those double stops to ring with such fullness?

If you fuckinnnn PAY ATTENTION to the actual motions of legendary players, you realize that the reason they sound as amazing as they do is because they straight up just do things differently than the rest of us. Their bowholds are unique and idiosyncratic and can change several times in a single phrase. they initiate shifts with a different part of their hand. they contort their wrists into seemingly awkward positions to nail awkward chords. Their bows are often visibly NOT ~parallel to the string~. they do NOT always start every note ~from the string.~

And yet you expect to be able to ever accomplish any of that same shit without making similar adjustments along the way? Without setting aside those ~basic rules~ that are really just meant to help beginners get off to a good start without straining theirselves before their bodies are ready for more demanding techniques??

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#yall i am sounding SO GOOD these days #still don't have the attention span to finish learning anything to completion tho :(