hi there
i was wondering whether anybody could help with one of the romanian dances by bartok - the last one with lots of double/triple stops?
i have spent hours and hours practising this but when i play the whole thing nothing sounds good (it sounds disgusting, in other words). any suggestions? please
benson

Maybe experiment with the way you angle your fingers for the multiple-stopped chords?

Also, might be worth checking that your bridge isn't too high as a high bridge means you have to press down further on the strings and the whole thing takes more effort than it should...

Just an idea...

I played that on clarinet (along with no.4) as part of the 'own choice' for my Dip and there wasn't a double-stop in sight . My children played the Dances on violin, but it was an awfully long time ago now, so I can't remember any particular problems or how they solved them - sorry!

The whole set of pieces is excellent - I really enjoy playing them!

they are really fun to play
this weekend is looking like one nice long practice session

In order to get the fingers sorted out, angled correctly and in the right place for the double stops, have you tried fingering the double-stops but not playing them? - just play the melody line, but stop all the notes as the music requires. This will help you work out what stops really do feel awkward, whether those awkward stops are affecting the sound quality and continuity of the melody and the overall effect this is likely to have when you play it through as a whole.

Truth is, nothing with a significant amount of double/triple stops can be learned and played well in a short space of time. Too much eagerness leads to non-constructive practice, just an urge to get through it. The fingers need to become accustomed to the shapes and the independent working. You will need to practice things very slowly and just gradually build up the speed. Playing it right is more important. Repeatedly blasting your way through it fast may appear to be a good idea and make you believe it will get better, but if you playing contains a huge amount of errors and bad intonation, repeated play throughs are only reinforcing the things that are wrong.

Take a few steps back before going forward again. It sounds like you've ingrained lots of errors that need to be removed before progress can be made.