"My experience has shown me that the fundamental fault of most pupils is
that they do not know how to hold either the bow or the violin. Here in
America the violin student as a rule begins serious technical study too
late, contrary to the European practice. It is a great handicap to begin
really serious work at seventeen or eighteen, when the flexible bones
of childhood have hardened, and have not the pliability needed for
violin gymnastics. It is a case of not bending the twig as you want the
tree to grow in time. And those who study professionally are often more
interested in making money as soon as possible than in bending all their
energies on reaching the higher levels of their art. Many a promising
talent never develops because its possessor at seventeen or eighteen is
eager to earn money as an orchestra or 'job' player, instead of
sacrificing a few years more and becoming a true artist. I've seen it
happen time and again: a young fellow really endowed who thinks he can
play for a living and find time to study and practice 'after hours.' And
he never does!
"But to return to the general fault of the violin student. There is a
certain angle at which the bow should cross the strings in order to
produce those vibrations which give the roundest, fullest, most perfect
tone [he took his own beautiful instrument out of its case to illustrate
the point], and the violin must be so held that the bow moves straight
across the strings in this manner. A deviation from the correct attack
produces a scratchy tone. And it is just in the one fundamental thing:
the holding of the violin in exactly the same position when it is taken
up by the player, never varying by so much as half-an-inch, and the
correct attack by the bow, in which the majority of pupils are
deficient. If the violin is not held at the proper angle, for instance,
it is just as though a piano were to stand on a sloping floor. Too many
students play 'with the violin' on the bow, instead of holding the
violin steady, and letting the bow play.
"And in beginning to study, this apparently simple, yet fundamentally
important, principle is often overlooked or neglected. Joachim, when he
studied as a ten-year-old boy under Hellmesberger in Vienna, once played
a part in a concerto by Maurer, for four violins and piano. His teacher
was displeased: 'You'll never be a fiddler!' he told him, 'you use your
bow too stiffly!' But the boy's father took him to Böhm, and he remained
with this teacher for three years, until his fundamental fault was
completely overcome. And if Joachim had not given his concentrated
attention to his bowing while there was still time, he would never have
been the great artist he later became.