Volz 1

Violin Day Report

1. What did I encounter?

There are many valuable tools that arise from participating in or observing a master class.
With a group of about 20 violinists, everybody played duets together. This was interesting to
hear because it almost sounded orchestral. Normally, duets are played with just two musicians
but this time a large violin ensemble played the duets together. Mrs. Horozaniecki asked various
students what skills these duets might reinforce. It was discussed that duets work on
collaboration, dynamics, group tempo, and also teaches violin technique such as pizzicato and
bowing styles. What was also interesting was the thought of playing duets in an orchestral
situation before beginning a piece. This would bring the group closer together and would
possibly improve the group synergy during orchestral rehearsals.
During the master class portion, Mrs. Horozaniecki discussed the importance of skill
sets and how you would teach a piece to a student who just started practicing the piece. A skill
set could be anything from posture to specific bow technique. One concept I really found
interesting was using the space above you to project sound into. When harder passages come up
violinists tend to close up and play into the ground. However, when harder passages come up a
violinists should open up more so they can project to the audience and opening up also keeps the
violinist looser.

2. Possible Applications
The performance of duos in a large group setting would be very beneficial for an
orchestra, especially if one was to compose or arrange parts for the violas, cellos, and basses.
Along with aiding group tempo and dynamics, it helps the musicians to realize when to bring out
a part or when to come back a little to bring out other parts. The duos are also short and fun to
play so they would not take up much class time and would make the orchestra more together
when rehearsing pieces for an upcoming concert and less time would be wasted on drilling
togetherness in a rehearsal.
To ensure that you do not close in during a difficult passage is a little difficult without
external aid because you do not tend to realize you are closing in when you are focusing on a
difficult passage. There a few solutions to monitor your playing posture during particularly tricky
spots. You could have a friend or teacher tell you if you close in when you are playing but this
would defeat the purpose of teaching yourself in a way. If you wanted to monitor your posture
without another person you could either use a mirror or record your practice sessions. A mirror
would produce more immediate results as you could watch yourself close in as it is happening.

Volz 2

Recording yourself is also a good idea because you could monitor so much more than your
posture such as your intonation, phrasing, and practice habits and fix it the next time around.

3. How have I used these ideas?

Unfortunately, I am unable to try out the ideas Mrs. Horozaniecki had suggested in terms
of duos, but I was certainly able to monitor myself during more difficult passages to ensure that I
do not close in. Recording myself has been a valuable tool for assessing aspects of my technique
that I would not ordinarily notice when I am practicing. It was also helpful to write a list of
things to improve and then bring them to my next practice session to improve those aspects. It is
a continuous cycle, but I can tell in the short time that I have used this technique that it can
produce much better and quicker results.