How to Get Firm Staccato Up and Down

Hello my dear colleagues who play the violin,

I would like to offer you the shortest way to learn playing firm staccato up and down in 3 lessons.

The best way to teach it is personally but now I can teach it on skype as well. Just want to mention that on skype it can take more than 3 lessons, it depends on student.

The biggest problem is that when the violinist plays firm staccato the muscles of the right hand become convulsed and uncontrollable especially on the down-bow. So I found the special method how to relax right hand to make its muscles work in cooperation so that one group of muscles smoothly turns to another one.

When I started playing the violin, my first teacher told me: "Firm staccato is one of the most difficult strokes and you need to have a special talent which I see you don't have. In my opinion there is no chance for you to play it well."

I was really sad. And I stopped practicing it. But when I studied in well-known Novosibirsk State Conservatoire, I understood that firm staccato was very important for every violinist, and I couldn't play virtuoso compositions of composers like Paganini, Wieniawski, Vieuxtemps, etc. without this stroke. That is why I decided to learn it in spite of the theory that I needed a special talent.

I used a traditional method of learning a firm staccato like heavy firm staccato of Spohr and firm staccato of Wieniawski which require maximum muscle tension of the right hand. I practiced a lot, but it did not work. My firm staccato was not rhythmic; I could not control staccato's speed and quality. But I wanted to learn it so much, so I decided to look for some method different from the traditional one. It was very difficult but I found it. I developed my own method of learning to play firm staccato. It helped me to master the stroke and so I decided to teach it to all my students.

I gave consultations for students of the famous Juilliard School, NY and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN, USA. Also I gave master-classes in School of Music in Milwaukee, WI, USA and in conservatoires of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Košice (Slovac Republic) and in Novosibirsk Music College (Russia).

If you are interested in my method, please don't hesitate to contact me at [email protected].

Lessons can be held in three languages: English, Czech, and Russian. Currently, I teach in Prague, Czech Republic.

I can give you a guarantee that this method can help you if you follow all my recommendations. You can achieve very good results, developing in a necessary direction. After finishing my course, it might take up to one month to completely master the whole method, but some of my students managed to learn it in one week.

You can find more information about me on my website www.shonert.com. There is also a video with the firm staccato performed by me.

I am looking forward to helping you all improve your performance.

Yours sincerely,

Violin virtuoso & teacher

Alexander Shonert