Violin Video Lesson: Violin Mapping

Playing cleanly requires perfect timing between the bow and fingers.

What I noticed in my playing was that, sometimes, my fingers were reacting slowly.

So to help this I thought of ways that I could better place my fingers before the bow arrived.

Then it hit me: I could place multiple fingers on the string in advance. And this is what I call mapping.

Mapping means figuring out when to place two or three fingers on the string at the same time.

Doing this improves coordination between the left and right hands.

But first I need to understand where I need to map.

To do that, I play the passage in tempo, paying attention to problem spots, without trying to fix them right away.

Now it's time to slowly practice my mapping.

I start by playing the G the 2nd time and the 3rd finger D on the A string together.

Next to be sure the 1st finger B flat is in place when I play the 3rd finger D the 2nd time.

Then when playing the 1st finger B flat, to place the 3rd finger G on the D string.

Then when playing the open D the 2nd time, placing the 2nd finger B flat on the G string.

I continue this mapping strategy till the end of the passage. It's requires lot of thoughtful preparation.

But I do not believe that this will all happen like this in real time. But I do however believe that practicing it slowly, with this kind of intent, will speed things up considerably.

I do have to be careful though not to force any of this to happen.

So I'm constantly checking to be sure that I'm not excessively pushing into the strings, that I'm allowing my fingers to drop and letting the weight of the arm bring the string down to make sound.

Now I'm testing it to see what's going on after mapping it by playing it more in tempo.

With a clearer idea of what's happening, I return to slow mapping practice.

As it's about the coordination between the left and right sides, I notice that from the 4th finger B flat the passage needs work, so I decide to hold the first note of each sequence while thinking through the fingering and getting my hand relaxed.

This is much like I do when practicing scales with rhythms 'a la Galamian'.

So I came up with a variation and do that as well ... in my mode of thinking all ideas are positive ideas!

I notice that my left hand got better but my right is now having difficulty so I decide to play 2 note for each one with the hope that I can get it clean from the first note, but I do this understanding that realistically its not really possible, at least not yet!

What I decide then is that I need to focus on the string changes.

I go back to doing double stops but staying with 2 bows to a note, so as to try to combine the 2 ideas.

At this point I do another play-through closer to tempo.

After that I go back one last time to review my mapping of the passage.

This done, this I end the practice session with a final play-through.

But do keep in mind that every step you take, day by day, brings you closer to the successful performance you're striving to achieve!

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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