Hilary Hahn on technique, practise mentality, and performance

Violinist Hilary Hahn on practice and technique:

I’ve always worked hard at my technique … But I’ve worked hard at my musicality as well. When I was doing my etudes my teachers always made sure I didn’t go onto the next until I had the first really good. But it wasn’t good unless it was musical. It didn’t come easy. Still doesn’t …

I don’t do etudes every day, no. But whenever I feel that something is starting to slide, I focus hard on that … There’s always something to slide … It’s like having a house. You have to keep an eye on everything all the time. If you notice a drip, you get it fixed straight away before it gets worse. It’s the same with technique. I can hear instantly what needs maintenance, and address it before it becomes a big problem…

… I love what I do … But the real truth is that I don’t want to go on stage unprepared. I don’t like that panicked feeling of just hoping it goes OK. It’s not fun. In fact it’s nerve racking. So I’ve learnt over time to be methodical about some things and not to panic about a lot of things.

Richard Morrison, “Peak Practice”, BBC Music Magazine, October 2010, p.29.

Posted

in

,

by

Greg

Tags:

, , ,

Featured Content

It is best to do it well
“It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
Lord, You Are Good and Forgiving (Setting II) – Psalm 85 (86)
Title: Lord, you are good and forgiving (Setting II) Text: Psalm 85 (86): 5-6, 9-10, 15-16 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Bernstein on composing
“There is something very satisfying about composing…you are letting yourself go, you write in a kind of trance, feeling you are doing very well. The next day you are quite capable of seeing that it wasn’t all that good, but that doesn’t matter so much.” Leonard Bernstein, 1971 Cited at: Leonard Bernstein (@LennyBernstein) “There’s something […]
Proportion
“The traditional sense of proportion is a hang-up. The usual Mozartean concept of how long an idea lasts becomes too predictable. Some of the composers who talk the most about avoiding predictability are the ones most victimized by this predictable traditional sense of proportion.” – Morton Feldman, American composer. Cited in: Tom Johnson, Remembrance, September […]
Lord, Let Your Mercy Be On Us – Psalm 32 (33)
Title: Lord, let your mercy be on us Text: Psalm 32 (33): 4-5, 18-19, 20-22. R. v.22 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
That’s a wrap
Electronic music composer Jeff Bryant never imagined that learning to knit would be part of his graduate coursework at California Institute of the Arts. But when his interface design instructor challenged him to build a non-boring MIDI controller device last fall, Bryant found an unlikely musical ally: red yarn. By weaving conductive thread into the […]
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, from The Wizard of Oz, is now a classic, inspiring song, but its had to believe the beginnings were not so smooth: …it was decided that standard melodies of a popular accessible kind , without gimmicks, would best suit the story, and its star [Judy Garland].  Harold Arlen and E. Y. […]
Schumann on Chopin’s style
Chopin can hardly write anything now but that we feel like calling out in the seventh or eighth measure, “It is by him!” – Robert Schumann, 1838 P. Kildea, Chopin’s Piano, London, Allen Lane, 2018, p. 43.
Abstraction IX
Title: Abstraction IX Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Brass quintet (2 trumpets in B-flat, Horn in F, trombone, bass trombone) Product medium: PDF score and parts SAMPLE:
Air II
Title: Air II Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Duet Level: Piano I – level 1 (five finger positions, left and right hands) Product medium: PDF score & MP3 accompaniment track (Audio sample of accompaniment track only)