胡乃元這位在1985年拿到伊莉莎白大賽的台灣小提琴家一直是我很尊敬的一位前輩，前陣子整理電腦發現了多年前胡老師給我的一封信，印象這封EMAIL應該是1999年左右的學生時代了。胡老師在看完了我與樂團的一個表演後給了我很多重點的建議。現在回頭看著封信以並以老師的角度去檢視，這些我曾經拉琴的問題確實也有許多學生有相同的問題，相信甚至為人師表者也未必做到完美。無論是台上的禮儀，以及演奏技巧上在「手」上面要注意的重點文中都有點出，甚至應該試著找尋那些自己的問題? 這些都是是否可以讓自己拉小提琴進步的重要條件及觀點，短短的一封英文信提到了不少重點，所以決定將這樣內容的封信件分享給所有對小提琴演奏有熱誠的朋友。共勉之….
Chieh Wei,
I’ve watched your video tape. Very nice! I think you like performing in
public.
Things to beware of:
-don’t bow to the orchestra first when you come on to the stage. Audience is
your no. 1 priority. Bow to the audience first, then if you need to, a
smaller bow to the orchestra.
-Some things we have already talked about but I do want to re-empahsize. You
need to improve on shifting (left hand going from one position to another).
Making sure once you get to the new position that left hand is in a
comfortable position to vibrate right away. In the very opening of the first
movement this problem already appeared.
-practice while watching where your bow is (between the bridge and
fingerboard).
-In general, you need to practice more slowly and CAREFULLY. One of the most
difficult things to do is to listen to yourself when you are playing.
Learning how to do this requires slow and careful practice. If you can hear
yourself in detail then you can make much progress on your own even without a
teacher. If I were you, I would listen to your tape and make notes where you
don’t like how you sounded (including intonation problems). Analyze if these
problems were one-time accidents or recurring problems, then see if you can
solve them.
-we all have our own idea of how Sibelius Concerto should sound like. How
close did this performance come to your own expectation? Which part was
successful and which was not? For the parts you don’t like, find the reason
why they didn’t sound as good as you wanted.
The above suggestions require that you (and everyone else too) use your head
and heart. Always dream about the most beautiful sound on violin and in
music and then try to make that dream come true.
One last thing: tell you family and friends that instead of giving you so
many flowers that you can’t use at all (unless you have many girlfriends to
give the flowers to), they should give you “hong-bao” for scholarship purpose.
If you have any question please let me know. Otherwise, I see you in
December.
Nai-Yuan Hu
