technique | Elbow Music

Turn off, tune out

A plea to end the wispy-bulgy school of violin playing Is there a particular sound that makes you reach for the radio off button? For me,...

Interview with György Pauk

In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, violinist and pedagogue György Pauk explains some of the most...

Interview with Martin Outram

In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, viola professor and Maggini Quartet member Martin Outram offers...

Interview with Josephine Knight

In this interview, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, Josephine Knight, Alfredo Piatti Chair and Professor of Cello...

Interview with Dominic Seldis

In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, the double bass professor and Principal Bass of the Royal...

Life in Teaching: Diana Cummings

Diana Cummings comes from a musical dynasty, and her career spans solo, chamber and orchestral playing. Since 1982 has been a professor...

Life in Teaching: Stefan Popov

Stefan Popov has been professor of cello at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama for 40 years, and before that taught at Boston...

Life in Teaching: Thomas Martin

Double bassist Thomas Martin studied with Roger Scott in Philadelphia and can trace a teaching pedigree that goes back to Bottesini. In a...

Getting to know Szigeti

I had the very great pleasure of being on Radio 3’s Record Review this morning with Andrew McGregor (thankfully pre-recorded, as I hadn’t...

Never too old to learn

How much can an adult amateur expect to develop as a musician in a short space of time? Quite a lot, it turns out, given the right...

Why you should stop practising

Observing masterclasses can be a brilliant way to learn and find inspiration, and yet students rarely turn up to watch. They may be too...

Interview with Shmuel Ashkenasi

The former Vermeer Quartet leader and Curtis Institute professor discusses the negative sides of Ilona Fehér's 'tough love' school of...

Viktoria Mullova on inspiration, rules and coughing

The Russian violinist is forthright about Baroque rules, the narrow-mindedness of only listening to classical music, and allowing...

The Charlie Chaplin guide to violin playing

Charlie Chaplin was one of the most expressive and popular communicators ever. What can string players learn from his art? Light and...

Everything you need to know about violin playing (but were never taught)

Musical timing and closure, hearing and thinking for ourselves – just some of the things that teaching often fails to help us with,...

Leopold Auer weighs in on the vibrato debate

Responses to my post about Menuhin's vibrato drew a mixture of responses. I’d remarked on it being ‘perfectly shaped’ and ‘fluid’ and...