Kato
Havas is a violin and viola teacher who developed a way to teach and
play to prevent and eliminate physical injuries (tendonitis,
tenosynovitis, bursitis etc.) and nerves, stage fright, related to
string
playing.
This was first illustrated in the book "A New
Approach to violin playing", published in 1961. Despite
the title, the new approach applies to all string playing.
Following
the success of the first book, she also wrote "The twelve
lesson course" (1964) and "Stage fright
- Its causes and cures"
(1973) and in 1991 she published a teaching video which is great because you can actually see
what's written in the books and understand it better. This DVD was very difficult to find, now it's here). Back then, those books
were ahead of their time, nobody spoke about
physical injuries caused by playing an instrument. Nowadays everybody
is well aware of this issue, there are even clinics for musicians'
injuries.
Kato
Havas: short biography
Kato
Havas was born in Hungary and was a child prodigy on the violin. She
received the virtuoso training at the Budapest Academy of
Music, gave concerts since the age of seven and at 17 made her
debut at the Carnegie Hall. Soon later she got married and started a
family, retiring from the concert world. During this time she was able
to think about playing and its problems, remembering the Hungarian
gypsy players she had met as a kid.
Kato
Havas, having
been a child
prodigy on the violin,
professional player, successful soloist, knows all the aspects
of performing, she herself
suffered
from stage fright. Being Hungarian, she had seen and heard Hungarian
gypsy violin players, with their ease of playing, so she developed this
new approach to playing that eliminates physical tension. By teaching
it, she realised that it also eliminates stage fright.
In
the following two videos you can see Kato Havas talking about her
experience as a child
prodigy in Hungary and with gypsy violin players, how she learned to
play.
In the first video she
tells of when she
started as a little girl having fun; her training at
the
Budapest academy at the time when Bartok, Kodaly, Donhany, Hubay were
there; her career, her debut in Carnegie Hall, her problems, how she
remembered the gypsies she had met, the influence they had on her.
If you have any problems watching these videos check this YouTube page
This
second video
is about the time Kato Havas stopped playing and how
she developed the new approach, movement by movement, by remembering
the gypsies, their left hand, their love of playing and giving the
music, that they had no fear. What's the secret of music making.
The
cause of bad sound and
a lot of other problems too
The
horrible sound, or rather noise, that "everybody knows" beginners have
to suffer, is caused by tensions in the body, by the right hand
gripping
the bow and pressing on the strings, by the left hand clamping the
instrument between shoulder and head for fear of dropping it and
pressing the fingers down on the
fingerboard.
All this not only causes
physical tension that produces horrible noises
(and not only at
the beginning), bad
intonation, inability to play fast and to play double stops and
chords, it
also causes more or less pain
in the back, neck, arms, thumbs and causes nerves,
stage fright, the fear of playing in front of an audience. Pain is
nothing else than a message your body is sending
you, it's telling you that you are doing something wrong, you are
mistreating it.
In more serious cases it causes
physical injuries
(tendonitis) following which some players have to completely give up
playing, after maybe undergoing surgical operations.
It
is possible to have a beautiful tone from the beginning
And
advanced players can also have a better quality tone. A
beautiful tone is a rich and warm tone, not squeaky, and this depends
both on intonation and the way the tone is produced by the bow friction
(not pressure) on the strings and by the softness of your left hand,
that remains supple and able to play fast, play chords, so
that
the player can focus on expressing himself or herself rather than on
the technical problems.
What is really
important to improve one's playing and
achieve results
quickly is the ability to control
every single movement of our body and to do this it's
necessary to focus our
mind on one thing at a time, one movement at a time and
then, once we can control individual movements, put them together.
So, what is the New Approach?
The
new approach developed by Kato
Havas is all about playing with
ease, without worries,
so
that we are free to give the music to our listeners, communicating
music instead of trying to prove how good we are (or being worried
thinking we are not good enough), playing doing the spontaneous, natural movements, of the body.
This starts
with eliminating all physical tensions we have when playing,
which cause pain, physical
injuries, harsh sound and insecurity and nerves,
a serious problem for most players. It's not enough to say
"practice
more", "play
more in public" (but how, if you cannot do it?), etc. A lot of teachers
are good at teaching the "interpretation" of a piece, what about the
emotional side of playing? In our drug-oriented society
there is the tendency to solve every problem with a specific drug, and
this more and more often applies to musicians and their stage fright.
In
her three
books on the new approach, Kato Havas explains it very well.
In Stage fright you can read that we need to address
the physical, mental and social
aspects
(causes) of stage fright, in that order. However, after you've already
studied for many many
years, it doesn't happen in a week, but it's worth spending some time
on it.
Here is a summary of it:
- physical tension
(gripping the bow, pressing the chin on the chin rest, the bow
on the strings, the fingers on the fingerboard) makes all
technical aspects (double stops, fast passages, high positions)
very difficult, often almost impossible to play, causes pain
and even serious physical injuries
- this generates insecurity
as to one's ability to overcome those passages, mental
tension (fear of not making it)
- to
complete the picture, what we think the society
(family, teachers, schoolmates, etc.) expects of us (being good,
perfect, no mistakes..,) makes us forget about the
meaning,
the purpose of making music and we only worry, fear
and we get stage fright.
Why new
approach?
Because
it is about playing from the the point of view of using coordinated balances,
from inside outwards, from the whole of your body instead of using
pressure,
instead of playing with the fingers.
With regard to
playing, there
are a lot of optical illusions that mislead us. We learn to
play from the fingers and with the bow, because we
see the
left fingers and right hand moving so we tend to focus on them, but
they are only the effect, not the real cause of their
movement.
The new approach is
about TOTAL COORDINATION and CONTROL of what we do.
The
basics concepts of the new approach are
- Rhythmic pulse to
acquire an elastic stance and body and the flow of music,
clapping and singing, to play from inside-outwards
- Horizontal movements and images
to prevent vertical pressure
- Imagination, use of
the inner ear
to imagine, anticipate the music. With your inner ear you imagine the
note and sing it before you play, you also imagine the sound quality.
The
following are the main physical aspects of the new approach,
to prevent and
eliminate physical tension:
- the
"giving hand", with
the left wrist gently, naturally bent toward you;
- the
left thumb mobile, forward
- the left finger movement
from the base joints
- the right arm movement from
the shoulder and elbow joints
Videos
with Kato Havas on the basics of the new approach
On
this subject, the new approach,
to prevent tension and physical injuries and stage fright,
both
for beginners
and
for advanced players, I recommend you to
watch the following videos where
Kato Havas
explains the basics of playing. The concepts exposed here
are fundamentals,
which means they are the foundation for any player,
not for beginners. So if you've already played for many years but have pain here and there,
get nervous
when you have to play for any sort of audience or find many things very
difficult, the advice in these videos may apply to you too.
So,
no matter what you are, a beginner, an advanced student or a
professional or a teacher, if you want to save time (I mean,
even years)
and save yourself a lot of frustrations
and wish to learn to play
violin or viola, or improve your playing or teaching, in a way that
leads you to your target in an easier and
more effective way, start right from the beginning, watch these videos
and read Kato Havas's books on the new
approach.
Each
video deals with a specific aspect of playing. I recommend you to watch
them in sequence and then focus on specific ones you are more
interested in. All of them will last
just over an hour, but you don't have to watch them all at the same
time. They are for practical use,
don't just sit there and watch them, see yourself at the workshop, grab
your violin, viola or other instrument and do the exercises, following
one video
at a time, one exercise at a time so that you feel physically comfortable.
A New Approach workshop with
Kato Havas
Now
I hope you don't think I'm a fanatic! I'm writing this page because I
myself have experienced the success of
the new approach, I got to a point where I was really
terribly nervous playing solo for an
audience, not happy at all. Then I studied with Kato Havas and I
completely got rid of
all those fears, playing "difficult" things is much easier and I
really enjoy playing for an audience (and, incidentally, my listeners
say they like my playing).
I really could see
that being able to really think only about playing to
entertain your
listeners through music (instead of thinking "what will they
think
of me?") at the end makes you play better.
I've
studied with Kato Havas for some years, translated
her three books and I've seen
a
complete difference
between the way I used to play and what I've learned from her.
Therefore, I was happy to take part in these videos to help Kato to
explain some aspects of her new approach teaching.
You'll
see
that Kato
Havas's teaching is quite different from what most people know about
how to
play
violin or viola, that's why she's special. I'm not a "believer", I've
verified that it works. I myself have learned that
when somebody has a really serious physical or emotional problem
related
to playing, with her they find the solution.
The audio is a bit low,
make sure the subtitles
are on, click on the bottom right hand corner, the tiny red
rectangle, to activate them. They can even be translated in many
languages (they're not mine, I don't guarantee the results).
1.
The rhythmic pulse
How
to prevent and eliminate physical problems and stage fright, the
importance of the rhythmic pulse in any music, the
importance of
imagination, how to
learn to play from the very core of your being, not from the fingers.
The first, simple exercise to achieve this.
2.
Suspended arms
The
importance of having light arms, suspended arms, with horizontal
movement, how to achieve it.
With exercises: the winging, flip flop, the "no violin-hold".
3. The
right arm movement, 1: the
lower half
The
right arm movement, in the lower half of the bow, Allegro quavers.
Where the arm movement originates, the two "hinges" in the right arm,
the
"no bow-hold". The connection between the touch, the eyes and the
voice. What stiff wrists cause, how to prevent this.
4. The
right arm movement, 2: the
upper half
The
right arm movement, in the upper half of the bow, Andante quavers.
Where the arm movement originates, the two "hinges" in the right arm.
Teach your body what to do, focus. What is the cause of problems with
the elbow,
the connection between wrist and elbow.
5. The
left hand action
The
simplicity of the New approach, the left hand movement, the interval
shapes, there are only three intervals in your hand. The importance of
a soft hand, you play with whole, not with the fingers.
6. The
bridal, a folk tune
A
lovely English jig: sing and clap, to get the feeling, then play. This
applies to all playing, at any level. Here is a violin player
who eliminated stage
fright with the new approach and now enjoys playing for an audience.
7. The
trembling bow
The
reason for the trembling bow, a very common and feared problem, how to
prevent it, eliminate it; the
importance of the thumbs, what stiff thumbs cause.
8. The
thumbs - Telemann
The
importance of the thumbs in string playing, what stiff thumbs cause.
Use imagination to create. A real example applied to Telemann's viola
concerto.
9.
Sing the note names
The
importance of singing the note names, the left hand power,
the drama of the intervals. A real example applied to Telemann's viola
concerto.
This aspect of the new approach often
tends to go a bit
undervalued, people tend to feel "silly" about singing, think is not
related to playing, Yet, as I myself could
experience, this is THE most important
aspect, because through singing, before
and while playing, we coordinate all separate
parts (left
hand and right arm movement, rhythmic pulse, melody) in a whole, so the
mind is totally focused on one thing: music. It's impossible to think
two things at the same time and, while you sing, your mind is
totally busy with
something and cannot possibly think any scary thoughts, it cannot worry
about being good or not and what they will think of you. Your mind is
full of music which comes out from the whole of you through
singing.
10.
"What I learned from the Hungarian gypsies"
Here
is what Kato Havas says she learned from the Hungarian gypsies
about music and violin playing. I
think this final video is very appropriate as a conclusion, it really
explains the
purpose of music and playing, the new approach is not just about doing
the right movements and playing all the right notes. I wish you to
enjoy your playing much more and that also your listeners
enjoy your music much more.
Buy Kato Havas teaching DVD (not the above videos) on the prevention and release of physical injuries in violin and viola playing.
For lessons, contact me, I'm based in Oxford (UK).
What's Your greatest New Approach success? Share your story!
Did you eliminate pain or tendonitis that prevented you from playing? Did you overcome stage fright? Do you find playing easier, more enjoyable? If you are a teacher, what's the best improvement you had with your students who learn to play with the new approach? I'd like to hear it, tell everybody!
Read other visitors' New Approach stories
Click on the links below to see how others learned to play and benefited from the New Approach. All stories by other visitors to this page...
I love it!
I love Monica's viola playing. The instrument has a beautiful and mellow tone which works so well when played solo.
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