2/6/23, 1:47 Ask the Teacher - Grigory Kalinovsky | Premium ❘ Article | The Strad

Ask the Teacher - Grigory

Kalinovsky
20 FEBRUARY 2020

The New York-based violin pedagogue explains why he advocates Galamian scales and a few sprints for students
warming up

What is the most common technical problem you help

students to overcome?
Many students develop tension in the right shoulder when they try to make a big
sound. This is almost always due to a weakness in one of the deltoid muscles
(deltoids are responsible for lifting the arm away from the body) that should
control the weight of the bow arm during playing. To test the muscle, I give new
students a simple exercise: hold out your bow arm horizontally in front of you,
bent to a 90° angle at the elbow, keeping the shoulder down and the wrist relaxed
and hanging below the elbow, so that the forearm is pointing about 45°
downwards. Then lift the elbow as high as you can and lower it again, keeping the
shoulder down and forearm pointing down all the time. I get a lot of ‘ouches’ from
students when they first do this; their arms often shake and shoulders creak, all of
which are signs of weakness. Then I ask students to practise a variation, putting the arm into the same position as
before, but this time, moving the elbow from side to side. The ultimate goal is to be able to swing the arm freely in
the horizontal axis while maintaining any elbow level for any string, because that free swing is what gives you a big
powerful sound without tension, and the whole concept of bow division is built on controlling the free momentum
of that swing – the more bow you want to use, the more momentum you give to the arm motion, and vice versa. The
feeling should be as if the only thing slowing down the bow is the friction of the hair with the string – otherwise, the
arm would simply ‘fall through’. In other words, to slow down the bow, you don’t slow down the arm – you increase
the friction with the string through weight and sounding point.

What is the best way for students to warm up?

I teach the Galamian scale system as a warm-up because scales bring everything together for the player. Setting a
metronome at 50–60, I ask the student to play a scale two beats to a bow, using quavers, crotchets, triplets and so
on, always maintaining the same bow speed and always making a beautiful and expressive sound. The metronome is
there not just to establish rhythm, but also to train the brain to think in time. If students are warming up before a
performance, I encourage them to be physically active. Pinchas Zukerman taught the same approach: a little
workout helps overcome performance nerves. One of my students would shake uncontrollably at the beginning of a
performance, so I suggested he ran some laps a couple of hours before performing – this releases adrenaline the
same way stage nerves do, so the hormone’s effect on the body is reduced when you actually go on stage.

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How do you teach shifting?

To shift smoothly, you need to learn how to slide the finger along the string completely without friction, but
maintaining a full sound. To prepare for this, start by sliding one finger on one string, using a free, full bow.
Following no specific notes, just slide up and down with the arm relaxed, but in a steady shape – with no wiggling in
the wrist or finger, the motion coming from the left shoulder and elbow, until you feel as if there is a little wheel on
the end of the shifting finger – and you can go anywhere on the string without changing the character of the slide
sound. Then start practising specific shifts with one finger, such as from first to fourth position. Set the metronome
to 60, and play one shift per bow (one beat to a note), using the same even, light slide. The bow should keep even
and never ‘accommodate’ the shift – shifts should be controlled from the bow arm, not the other way around. The
next stage is to differentiate between the smooth motion of the sliding finger and the articulation of the arrival
finger. The lift and attack of the ‘new’ finger should not disturb the smooth sliding motion of the arm. The feeling of
the shift in the arm should begin way before the actual shift, ensuring complete smoothness of motion.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

I always aim to pass on my musical and human values to my students and hope that this will change their lives for
the better. Giving them the tools to be as expressive as possible in their playing is the most gratifying feeling for me.

INTERVIEW BY SARAH MNATZAGANIAN

Read: 8 ways to vary your vibrato

Read: 7 tips for playing fast passages

Read: 5 tips from Isabelle van Keulen on achieving a relaxed bow hold

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