I wanted to share another resource in case anyone else may find it helpful. These videos are classics and you've all probably seen them before, but at least for me, I found it enlightening to review them:
I went back to these videos mainly as a refresher on playing techniques, as it's been quite some time since I actually touched a string instrument. But in watching them again, I was struck by a few things that might be helpful when learning all the controls on the SM strings, particularly the tone-shaping controls.
Granat demonstrates different kinds of bowings and how they affect tone production, in a somewhat dry context (not dry as in reverb, but in the sense that when he plays, he's not trying to be expressive, and the examples aren't melodic - just isolated notes and scales).
For me at least, when referencing a recorded performance it's too easy to get seduced by the music, and end up focusing quite a bit on that even when trying to focus elsewhere. For anyone who suffers the same affliction, the examples in these videos will be valuable precisely because they are in isolation, sans expressivity. (Note: I doubt it would be useful to try to match this recording precisely -- at least on my system, it sounds a bit too mid-rangy and seems to suffer from some close-mic "presence effect." Other recordings will be better for precise side-by-side matching. But hearing the tonal differences he produces in relation to each other, outside of the context of a musical line, I think could be very valuable when learning to shape the timbral controls, at least for people like me who aren't wizz-kids at it.)
When he demonstrates sul tasto, it occurs to me that with enough experimentation, this must already be effective and attainable using the built-in timbral controls. (Ponticello is probably a different story; that sound is so chaotic and ever-changing, we probably need Samplemodeling to work some magic for us in a future update.)
Another thing I realized from these videos that I'm surprised I didn't notice before: the sympathetic resonance of the open strings ringing out whenever the bow or the left hand doesn't attempt to damp them. Is there a way to do that with SM strings?
And of course, there's far more value in these vids than what I've mentioned here. If anyone reading this hasn't already seen them, you're missing out!
(p.s. The two vids listed above are the instrument-specific ones. Part 1 in the series doesn't discuss the instrument, but has some delightful little anecdotes from Granat's career.)
(p.p.s. Has anyone out there purchased the Itzhak Perlman masterclass? It's on my wish list, but for the foreseeable future, "spare money" = )
I went back to these videos mainly as a refresher on playing techniques, as it's been quite some time since I actually touched a string instrument. But in watching them again, I was struck by a few things that might be helpful when learning all the controls on the SM strings, particularly the tone-shaping controls.
Granat demonstrates different kinds of bowings and how they affect tone production, in a somewhat dry context (not dry as in reverb, but in the sense that when he plays, he's not trying to be expressive, and the examples aren't melodic - just isolated notes and scales).
For me at least, when referencing a recorded performance it's too easy to get seduced by the music, and end up focusing quite a bit on that even when trying to focus elsewhere. For anyone who suffers the same affliction, the examples in these videos will be valuable precisely because they are in isolation, sans expressivity. (Note: I doubt it would be useful to try to match this recording precisely -- at least on my system, it sounds a bit too mid-rangy and seems to suffer from some close-mic "presence effect." Other recordings will be better for precise side-by-side matching. But hearing the tonal differences he produces in relation to each other, outside of the context of a musical line, I think could be very valuable when learning to shape the timbral controls, at least for people like me who aren't wizz-kids at it.)
When he demonstrates sul tasto, it occurs to me that with enough experimentation, this must already be effective and attainable using the built-in timbral controls. (Ponticello is probably a different story; that sound is so chaotic and ever-changing, we probably need Samplemodeling to work some magic for us in a future update.)
Another thing I realized from these videos that I'm surprised I didn't notice before: the sympathetic resonance of the open strings ringing out whenever the bow or the left hand doesn't attempt to damp them. Is there a way to do that with SM strings?
And of course, there's far more value in these vids than what I've mentioned here. If anyone reading this hasn't already seen them, you're missing out!
(p.s. The two vids listed above are the instrument-specific ones. Part 1 in the series doesn't discuss the instrument, but has some delightful little anecdotes from Granat's career.)
(p.p.s. Has anyone out there purchased the Itzhak Perlman masterclass? It's on my wish list, but for the foreseeable future, "spare money" = )