This teaching video is about musicians' injuries,
for violin and viola players,
how to prevent and eliminate them.
Have you ever suffered from serious nerves
that prevented you from playing for any sort
of audience, as
well as you can do when you play on your own?
Have you ever suffered from any aches
and pains
in your shoulder, neck, forearms, thumbs,
or even serious tendonitis or tendinitis, tenosynovitis,
fibrositis, bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc.? Have you ever heard
(I did) of
anyone who had to undergo surgery
because of physical injuries caused by playing an instrument? I
personally know more than one who then gave up playing altogether, despite surgery.
All these things are
interrelated. Maybe you've been told that there is
nothing you can do about it, that it's "part of the game", but this is not
true, it doesn't have to be so.
There is no point in having rests when practicing, massages, undergoing
surgery, taking painkillers to be able to keep playing despite
the pain (as some do, the worst thing to do). If you don't address the cause
(incorrect use of the body when playing) of the problem, you'll have
the same effect
(physical injury).
Who is Kato
Havas?
Kato Havas is a violin and viola teacher who, several years ago, was
the first one to talk
about how to prevent and
eliminate
physical injuries in violin and viola playing and has been
teaching this for about fifty years.
Kato Havas was a
child prodigy on the violin and received the traditional Hungarian
virtuoso training at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. Later she
developed the "New
Approach", a way to teach and play to
prevent and eliminate physical injuries. By teaching it, she
realised that it also eliminates nerves, stage fright,
related to string playing. This approach was illustrated in her book "A New approach to violin playing",
published in 1961. Then she also published other books and this
teaching video which is of great help to understand everything better.
Kato Havas received the “Isaac
Stern
International Award” from the American String Teachers’
Association for
“unparalleled results”, her books were praised by Yehudi Menuhin and she
was appointed OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music".
"Miss Havas is
original in her approach to the violin [& viola] playing
because she insists that technique
must be reducible to basic motions involving more than the
fingertips"
Sir Yehudi
Menuhin
“Dear
Kató Havas, I would like… to congratulate you on your book Stage
Fright... It is the most
realistic and practical approach imaginable… it should be worth its weight in gold to
every student and many a performer.”
Sir Yehudi
Menuhin
The
originality of Kato Havas
This issue of musicians' injuries is a lot talked about nowadays, not
so
when Kato
Havas books were published in the 1960s.
What is different
in Kato Havas's teaching, compared to other
books and studies published more and more often, in recent times, is
not only that she was the first one to become aware of this problem
about fifty years ago, but also that she teaches how to prevent and
eliminates physical injuries from
a musician's point of view. Every movement is done not
just because it's good for the body, but it has a musical reason, every
movement is in the service
of music.
This is illustrated in her
books "A new approach to violin playing", "The twelve
lesson course" and "Stage fright".
Despite
the title, the new approach applies to all string playing.
If
you've read her books, you'll find
this video great because you can actually see
what's written in the books and it will help you to understand
it better.
Contents of
the DVD
"We all have the same aspiration,
that of being able to release the
full force of our inherent energy impulses into a powerful
musical flow.
... The magic of music is in its transiency... Why is this aspiration,
so often, so elusive? What are the causes for all these aches and pains
and mental anxieties?"

From this DVD you'll learn about:
- The three
major causes of injuries
- The three
preventive and curative
answers
- A doctor's
view
- The flying
fiddle
- Remedies
for the hanging weight of the instrument
- Optical
illusions in violin and viola playing, that mislead us,
and remedies
for those
- How to use
your eyes properly
- The "no
violin/viola hold"
- The "no
bow hold"
- The bow's middle-by-balance
- The two "joints"
that control bowing technique
- How to use imagination
to train your left hand to be soft and springy
- The importance of singing and miming
- The swinging
fingers
- The natural
vibrato
- The
real length of eight positions
- The controlling part of the left hand
- The balance between the left thumb and little finger
- The high positions and the curve interval swings
- The "interval
shapes" in your hand and in double stops
- The "Japanese
fan" exercise
- Practical
exercises for all of the above mentioned
and once you've got all that, to finish
- The ultimate coordination:
what coordinates and activates all movements
This DVD is for
practical use, don't just sit there watching it, stop and
do what it says.
When
Kato Havas published
her books, she
was ahead of her 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.
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