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Hello and a warm welcome to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.
My name is Martin Stegner,
I have been playing here with the Berlin Philharmonic
for 14, 15 years now
and I was also principal violist for 3 years in the German Symphony Orchestra
and I would like to go through the orchestral position from Richard Strauss'
"Don Juan" with you.
♪(plays)
Okay, that is the beginning.
It is a very virtuosic piece.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult.
I believe the beginning is relatively clear.
I am continuing with bar 6.
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Here, you must find a
finger positioning that works well.
I am starting in the first position.
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Here, I am in the half position
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and am changing with the bow only from the eighth triplets on
because if I am changing at that time
the bow changing gets a little emphasis
which is not much in demand at that location.
Then it goes even further.
You should then pay attention
to try to notice a small difference between fourth and eighth notes with emphasis.
I will play again:
♪ (plays).
Ok. I hope this was clear.
The rest is a little easier then.
It goes further
♪ (plays).
Okay. We should try
to bring out again the difference between eighths and fourths.
I will start
♪ (plays)
slow
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The next passage:
Here you also have to think of a good fingering.
Here I will start in the first position
♪ (plays)
and end in the so-called half position.
♪ (plays)
It continues:
♪ (plays)
Ok. Here's a fingering tip:
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Third position.
♪ (plays)
First position.
♪ (plays)
Here, I am taking the G with my fourth finger on half position.
♪ (plays)
Here I am going again in the fifth position,
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and when I arrive at the fifth position,
I try to reach for a quint:
♪ (plays)
So that I can prepare well for the G on the G side
♪ (plays)
and end in the seventh position.
♪ (plays)
This is a little bit calmer
which is unfortunately not stated in the notes that YouTube sent but this
♪ (plays)
or later
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is actually tranquillo.
So, now we come to the most uncomfortable and difficult section
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Until here it is clear.
When I have achieved the piano I have to understand
that I have to position the bow very well,
so that I am at the right bow position
where I can then play the piano,
♪ (plays)
and not push through the bow,
♪ (plays)
because that does not work well. But
♪ (plays)
that I arrive here in the middle.
Here, you also need to find a fingering.
Generally, you can say about fingering
that you can search for your entire life,
but when you have to play,
you should take a couple of days to try one single fingering.
When this does not work, then try another one.
But at some point you need to settle on one song
and then simply practice as much as possible.
I recommend this position:
♪ (plays)
I am going now into the E scale, play in the F scale
in the fifth position.
♪ (plays)
Okay. Time is in tempo:
♪ (plays)
I would recommend at this point not necessarily to play spiccato
but with a very slow span, and play very tight in the middle.
It sounds like spiccato, but it is very precise.
♪ (plays)
Maybe yet another short fingering tip.
♪ (plays)
I will start in the first position and then change into the third position.
♪ (plays)
Here, I am going into the fourth position.
♪ (plays)
And here I set the third finger to join the A-string.
♪ (plays)
Then here I go into the third position.
♪ (plays)
After I was in second position, again the third position.
♪ (plays)
And then first position
♪ (plays)
and then the passage is over.
I hope I was able to help you a little with my tips,
I would recommend –
very importantly – to practice these pieces with a metronome
with a slow tempo,
in a medium tempo,
where you can still control everything, but where things are already uncomfortable.
Everything must work in this middle tempo. Then change to a fast tempo
but don't practice too fast.
I wish you all a lot of luck with your practice and with the reviews
and one more thing:
please don't cut after each tone.