Viola technical exercises and postural recommendations
Antoine Tamestit, guest professor
Guillermo Gil García, student
The masterclass begins with the professor asking the student what he would like to improve in his playing: sound, vibrato… he also comments on his stiffness in the shoulders-arms, advising him to loosen them.
To this end, Tamestit asks him to perform arm movement exercises and how he should feel the initial contact of the bow with the viola when in the correct posture. In this way the pressure and weight will be adequate.
In reference to these gestures and movements with the arm, he tells an anecdote about Tabea Zimmermann (Tamestit’s teacher) regarding Schnittke’s
Afterwards, he continues with more explanations about the posture when holding the viola and the back muscles involved in vibrating. The professor shows him by playing the first bars of Schumann’s Adagio op. 70 and then asks the student to play it thinking about everything explained.
Language: English
