{"id":2663,"date":"2009-06-08T11:16:49","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T18:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2663"},"modified":"2009-07-05T12:52:21","modified_gmt":"2009-07-05T19:52:21","slug":"consistency-why-not-so-consistent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/08\/consistency-why-not-so-consistent\/","title":{"rendered":"consistency – why not so consistent?"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAUTION: MUSICAL GEEKERY AHEAD!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hmmm...\"
\nPhoto: sdominick<\/a>|istockphoto.com<\/p>\n

I was giving a pre-audition coaching on excerpts to a local violist last night, when she asked “how do I get more consistent?”\u00c2\u00a0 Good question, indeed!\u00c2\u00a0 The simple (and eminently frustrating) answer is: practice being more consistent.<\/p>\n

Violinist Bayla Keyes<\/a> has written an excellent primer on intonation (it may be floating around on the internet somewhere), and her primary admonition to string players is to, yes, adjust your pitch when it is off, but then immediately go back and try to place the offending digit directly in the center of the pitch without the need for adjustment.\u00c2\u00a0 It can be a slow and painstaking process, requiring much diligence and patience, but it will pay off.\u00c2\u00a0 Intonation improves, becomes more reliable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c consistent.<\/p>\n

My primary admonition, which is along the lines of what Burton Kaplan<\/a> teaches, is to make practicing a “no-fail zone”.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, break every problem down in to its lowest common denominator, working each part of the chain, gradually adding on until you’ve got the whole sequence mastered.\u00c2\u00a0 This also involves working at a very, very slow tempo.\u00c2\u00a0 The object is to achieve success on as close to the first try as possible, which teaches the many muscles involved in performing a musical action the right<\/em> way to perform the action instead of just the easy <\/em>way.\u00c2\u00a0 This again takes time, but much less time than learning something haphazardly and then having to go back and unlearn previous mistakes.<\/p>\n

Another word of advice, taken from former teacher Roberto D\u00c3\u00acaz<\/a>, is to treat technical problems as musical problems \u00e2\u20ac\u201c often the musical necessity can dictate the mechanical solution, instead of the other way around, which is just bass ackwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAUTION: MUSICAL GEEKERY AHEAD! Photo: sdominick|istockphoto.com I was giving a pre-audition coaching on excerpts to a local violist last night, when she asked “how do I get more consistent?”\u00c2\u00a0 Good question, indeed!\u00c2\u00a0 The simple (and eminently frustrating) answer is: practice being more consistent. Violinist Bayla Keyes has written an excellent primer on intonation (it may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-GX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3594,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/11\/violinist-the-role-deconstructed\/","url_meta":{"origin":2663,"position":0},"title":"violinist: the role deconstructed","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, I was forwarded a document from a professional symphony orchestra which describes the demands and duties of the symphonic violinist.\u00a0 At first, the description seemed ludicrous to me, but as I reflect on it, it in fact turns out to be a pretty accurate dissection (or deconstruction, if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7123,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/08\/holiday-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":2663,"position":1},"title":"holiday madness!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"We're just stepping out of the wading pool that was the beginning of December and going fully into the deep end of the holiday concert season. I can't promise that I'll be any more consistent with my postings (if anything, they'll be even more sporadic), but there will be at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "recordings"","block_context":{"text":"recordings","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/recordings-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14359,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/28\/the-illuminati-and-440hz-wtf\/","url_meta":{"origin":2663,"position":2},"title":"the illuminati and 440hz? wtf?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In a recent blog post about performing on gut strings at A430hz, I made mention of some conspiracy theories about the standardization of A440 (for most North American orchestras, though many are now at A441). Here is an article detailing some of them, pretty good stuff. The \"432 Hz vs.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joseph Goebbels, who did not mandate A440 Hz as the pitch standard. Image: Wikipedia -https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joseph_Goebbels","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1989-0821-502_Joseph_Goebbels-300x435.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14311,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/10\/musical-gut-check\/","url_meta":{"origin":2663,"position":3},"title":"musical gut check","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The post title says musical gut check - and by that I mean gut strings! Sunday evening, I made my debut on a period instrument! I kind of cheated a little. I used a chin rest and my own modern bow. But the strings were gut, the 'A' was pitched\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_8151.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_8151.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_8151.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_8151.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_8151.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_8151.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13091,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/02\/note-time-continuum\/","url_meta":{"origin":2663,"position":4},"title":"the note\/time continuum","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Just as there is a space\/time continuum in the physical world which we inhabit, there is also the note\/time continuum. In this spectrum of time, there are passages which may only be a few bars long, but which require hours and hours of repetitive practice to achieve consistent results. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"prok-ex","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/prok-ex-500x231.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13253,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/09\/hilary-hahn-and-the-myth-of-perfection\/","url_meta":{"origin":2663,"position":5},"title":"hilary hahn and the myth of perfection","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend, we in the Oregon Symphony have the great privilege of sharing our stage with Hilary Hahn, one of the leading violinists of our time. The orchestra has been abuzz since her first rehearsal with us - with utterances such as \"perfection\", \"sublime\", \"gorgeous\", and \"stunning\" flying about in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"hahn-a6bfa122ba4040cdd5685c83bbe553628e2fcc6c","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/hahn-a6bfa122ba4040cdd5685c83bbe553628e2fcc6c-500x375.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}