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Kreutzer 8 is perfect for
practicing smooth string crossings and
it's also a great one to, to which to add
variations.
So the string crossings, that's pretty
self-evident.
As soon as you start playing this you're
gonna be crossing strings
on separate bows.
And that, that presents some challenges of
coordination.
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You can see that some crossings
are down-bows some are on up-bows and they
tend to alternate.
So if you ever hear extra strings.
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Then you know that your bow is either
early or late making that crossing.
It can be useful to imagine the bow
leading the proceeding sometimes,
for an etude like this though, I think
it's nice for
the left hand to really dictate and for
the bow to follow that way,
you get the hand, moving in rhythm, you
get the bow obeying the hand and
simply providing the right string level.
So when you hear those extra sounds, those
extra notes, be a detective.
Figure out if you're early or late, and
adjust accordingly.
Because what you want is for it to sound
as close as possible to slurred
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and I just heard a couple tiny
miscues there myself.
So, when I want to clean this up I'd
listen carefully to each one, one by one.
Just polish it, make sure the crossing is
right in line.
Now, for this one,
any variation that has an uneven aspect to
it is great, anything asymmetrical.
So in this edition of the part, I have a
few right here.
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Anything with a simple two slur.
How about this?
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That's wonderful or,
even the longer slur.
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There you want the tempo,
the pulse to remain absolutely steady.
Galamian was a big fan of variations,
anything that keeps the mind working
because you know ,let's face it,
these are pretty, they don't always take
you on musical journeys.
So it's good to challenge your mind and
have a little fun.
Give yourself constant, constant new
challenges.
Once you've mastered one, you go on to
something more difficult.
Heifetz was another big fan of this, and I
was talking to my old teacher,
Daniel Mason, who studied with Heifetz,
and Heifetz loved these Kreutzer etudes,
and this was a particular favorite of his.
Mr. Mason said that he Heifetz would stay
up at night and
think of diabolical variations to, to
trick his students and
he would make his students try them on the
spot.
And he was most proud of one.
He came in one day and said no one will be
able to do.
And it's one separate, four slurred.
So again, that's grouping the notes into
five, but this etude is written in six.
So if I really concentrate slowly.
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There was one student in the class who
could do it immediately, and that
infuriated Heifetz,
so that was, that was a bad scene, but
anything that, that gets your arm and
your brain doing something that it is not
used to is great with this etude.
Now there are a couple places in
Kreutzer 8 where you have
string crossings over more
than one string,
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So to be able to do those in tempo you
must lead with the arm.
You must anticipate with the arm so
that it's already travelling in that
direction before you make the crossing
with,
with finish the crossing with the hand,
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So polish those string crossings, get them
all even,
work within your frame for Kreutzer 8.
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