Make Your Default Sound an Amazing One
Recently, a video from Tonebase featuring the great violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman called "The Scales Galamian Taught Me" kept popping up in my YouTube feed. After a few weeks I finally clicked on it.
Like a typical YouTube consumer, I don't give a video much time before I move on. And, to be honest, nothing Zukerman SAID in the first minute of the video was particularly groundbreaking: practice scales every day, scales are important etc...I nearly clicked away from the video, and then, 54 seconds in, he started playing:
Wow, that sound! Hands down, most beautiful beginning of an A-Major scale I've ever heard! Fast forward to 4:35 to enjoy the whole scale routine.
As one of the commenters noted, "His scales sound as beautiful as any concerto."
Yes! That comment gets right to the heart of what I think this video ACTUALLY teaches. If your default sound, the sound you use for something as simple as a scale, is amazing, then the rest of your playing will improve dramatically.
This video reminded me being backstage at a La Jolla Music Society concert, listening to Cynthia Phelps, principal violist of the NY Phil, warming up. She was playing Kreutzer 10, and just like with Zukerman's scale, it was THE MOST GORGEOUS Kreutzer 10 I'd ever heard.
For most of my life, I approached scales and etudes with the same attitude I had for vegetables. They were something to stomach because my teachers said they were good for me, no one could possibly enjoy them! But what if I had been practicing scales as if I were playing them as a solo with orchestra on the stage of Carnegie Hall? How might have that changed my playing (or my attitude towards them)?
Since so much of our music consists of scales and arpeggios, if you practice them with an amazing sound, it stands to reason that when you play them in a piece there will be great carryover. With a little bit of knowledge it's not THAT hard to make a fantastic sound. But IT IS HARD to hold yourself to that standard every time you pick up the instrument! You have to remember the sound, how you got it, AND have the discipline to maintain it for each note you play.
And you don't need to play with THE SAME great sound on every scale. Experimenting with different colors, for example, is a great way to add variety to your scale practice:
So, next time you go to warm up on that scale or Kreutzer etude, see if you can channel an amazing sound from the first note. Pretend you are your favorite violist, and imagine how they might play it! At the very least, scales are much more fun to practice when you love your sound!
