My daughter(10) has been given a Dvorak piece for homework over the holidays. It is I think a sonata Op.100 Larghetto.
There are some dougble stops(I think that is the correct term) in bars 56,57 and 58 that are causing her problems. I have tried to help but her bow or something is squeaking in bar 57 especially on the dotted crotchets. I am not musical so I am only guessing.
I am sure it is too much pressure on the bow, although she assures me it is not, are there any other likely causes? It never comes out PP though more Mf.
All suggestions very welcome, we will try anything. I am at my wits end with it. The rest of the piece is played very well with excellent tone etc, just these bars letting it down.
Many thanks
Mum

Hmmm...just had a look and it is pretty tricky as it needs to be played in third position and using 4th finger. The first 3 dbl stops are easy in 1st position and using an open E but then the last one is impossible as you can't play the B and D simultaneously on the A string, you have to be in 3rd for this, so best to be in position at the beginning of the passage.

So given that it is in a higher psoition it might be that she needs to play nearer the bridge (as the strings are effectively shorter). ... And use lots of fast bow.

She might like to practice them with separate bows for a start instead of slurring the quavers into one bow while she gets fingering and bow position sorted.

I would like to say thankyou to Janexxx who was the first person to answer our call.
I have tried her method and it works very well I just need to work on it now.
I will accept any other bits and bobs of advice.

From Daisy (10)

Thanks Daisy. AmandaL is our resident expert on anything technical, so keep checking for more replies as I'm sure she'll have some even better ideas than mine!

I don't have the piece to hand (it's in another country atm) but I'll see if I can help at all.

A small tip for practicing double stops: see if you can pick out the main tune, so you're only playing one note of each double stop at a time. It's most important to get those notes to sound, and get them in tune, so practice just playing that line. Then work out each double stop by itself, and if something sounds out of tune, check it against an open string, for example, if you're playing a G on the D string, and another note on the A string, and it sounds out of tune, keep your fingers where they are and play the G and the open G string at the same time, so you can hear whether it's that note which is out of tune or the other one. Also, try to work out whether the out of tune note is sharp or flat, instead of just having another go, then when you're performing the piece you can adjust any inaccuracies more quickly. It sounds from what Jane said like you have to slur between double stops. I find that sometimes this produces an unpleasant sound between each double stop, which can be avoided by letting the bow pressure go between each double stop. It's hard to get it just right, but if you can, it also gives you more time to sort your fingers out. As well as trying the passage without slurred, try it with hooked bowing, ie, you play the 1st note in a whole bow, the next bow you play the 1st note slurred to the 2nd note, the next bow you play the 2nd note slurred to the 3rd note etc. This way you are practicing the slurs but also have time to think about what you're doing.

As you're playing the piece, don't play the double stop wrong, even if you stop and find it for however long. Prepare yourself for it, then find it, and when you can hit it every time then try to close the gaps between.

Also, natural instinct seems to be to press really hard on the string, which can produce an awful sound, so try to just bow normally.

To ease the route to playing double-stops (and even triple or quadruple stops), it is sometimes good to finger the double-stop, but only play one of the notes. Then play the phrase again, finger both notes, but play the other note. This way you learn to "feel" where the fingers should be and how big the stretch is between them. At the same time you are reinforcing intonation while fingers are placed in a double-stop position - which does restrict the left hand somewhat, especially if you have small hands. Next play the phrase leading into it with the double-stop played as it should be. STOP and listen to that interval. Are both notes completely in tune? - keep the fingers down and check each note individually, adjust if necessary, then play them again as a double-stop. Go back back to the start of the phrase and do the same again. Repeat ad nauseum until you can get it right every time, and you no longer have to stop to check the interval.

Gradually your ear tunes in to what a particular interval sounds like. Only then does double-stopping become easier.

Have you tried playing the double stops like they do for the Grade 6 double stopped scales?

Its a very good way to prepare them.

(if you don't know -

play the lowest note of the double stop and slur it to the top note then play them together on a separate bow stoke.

you can even do this upside down and ply the highest to the lowest and then toghether.)


Hope this helps

Thankyou to you all. I have just come back from the lake District Summer Music - Young String Venture. I gave all your ideas a go today, using mixture of them all, I can do it. It sounds great i just need to play it a bit quieter.
Daisy