What did I practice?  Scales in double-stops—­they give color and variety to tone.  And I gave up a certain portion of my regular practice time to passages from concertos and sonatas.  There is wonderful work in double-stops in the Ernst concerto and in the Paganini Etudes, for instance.  With octaves and tenths I have never had any trouble:  I have a broad hand and a wide stretch, which accounts for it, I suppose.

“Then there are harmonics, flageolets—­I, have never been able to understand why they should be considered so difficult!  They should not be white, colorless; but call for just as much color as any other tones (and any one who has heard Mischa Elman play harmonics knows that this is no mere theory on his part).  I never think of harmonics as ‘harmonics,’ but try to give them just as much expressive quality as the notes of any other register.  The mental attitude should influence their production—­too many violinists think of them only as incidental to pyrotechnical display.

“And fingering?  Fingering in general seems to me to be an individual matter.  A concert artist may use a certain fingering for a certain passage which no pupil should use, and be entirely justified if he can thus secure a certain effect.

“I do not—­speaking out of my own experience—­believe much in methods:  and never to the extent that they be allowed to kill the student’s individuality.  A clear, clean tone should always be the ideal of his striving.  And to that end he must see that the up and down bows in a passage like the following from the Bach sonata in A minor (and Mr. Elman hastily jotted down the subjoined) are absolutely

[Illustration:  Musical Notation]

even, and of the same length, played with the same strength and length of bow, otherwise the notes are swallowed.  In light spiccato and staccato the detached notes should be played always with a single stroke of the bow.  Some players, strange to say, find staccato notes more difficult to play at a moderate tempo than fast.  I believe it to be altogether a matter of control—­if proper control be there the tempo makes no difference.  Wieniawski, I have read, could only play his staccati at a high rate of speed. Spiccato is generally held to be more difficult than staccato; yet I myself find it easier.

PROPORTION IN PRACTICE

“To influence a clear, singing tone with the left hand, to phrase it properly with the bow hand, is most important.  And it is a matter of proportion.  Good phrasing is spoiled by an ugly tone:  a beautiful singing tone loses meaning if improperly phrased.  When the student has reached a certain point of technical development, technic must be a secondary—­yet not neglected—­consideration, and he should devote himself to the production of a good tone.  Many violinists have missed their career by exaggerated attention to either bow or violin hand.  Both hands must be watched at the same time.  And the question of proportion should always be kept in mind in practicing studies and passages:  pressure of fingers and pressure of bow must be equalized, coordinated.  The teacher can only do a certain amount:  the pupil must do the rest.