Back in 1988, I was a young violinist and teacher with a fresh
music education degree, looking to figure out just how to teach strings in a
way that was authoritative and efficient following my first year and a half of
teaching and a great deal of trial and error.
I learned about a summer string pedagogy class at Central Connecticut
University that would feature instructors Dorothy Straub, Jim Kjelland, and
Marvin Rabin. I had heard of Dr. Rabin
before and had actually attended a seminar on strolling strings at the
University of Wisconsin in 1986, where he was one of the featured
instructors. I decided to head up to
Connecticut for the summer session, pick up a few graduate credits and see what
I could pick up for future use.
Boy, did I get an education that summer! I developed friendships with all of the
attendees and instructors that would last for many years to come. I picked up repertoire and concepts that
would become foundational to my now 27 year teaching career. I experienced affirmation from the
instructors that set me up with confidence as I moved forward in this field. And, I learned about pedagogues that came
before us, setting a standard and developing techniques that I and many other
string teachers would build upon as we seek to provide the best possible
instruction for our students.
One such concept was the idea of finger patterns and cyclic
exercises that Dr. Rabin introduced in his classes. He explained that this was the pedagogy of
George Bornoff. He taught us the
foundational principles of the pedagogy and “Finger Pattern Exercises” that
could be used in this cyclic manner.
These Finger Pattern Exercises made all the sense in the world to me and
they opened up many ideas for me as to how they might be used in a teaching environment.
(I should say that my private instructor
had introduced this concept to me as a middle school student, but I didn't
really grasp what she was trying to teach me.
I feel like I didn't understand the nomenclature that she used and I
will get to that concept later in this post.)
I went home that summer with many new pedagogical ideas and
plans. One concept that really stuck
with me was the Finger Pattern Exercises.
I decided that they would become an integral part of my teaching
routine. I began to use them in class
and found them to be particularly useful for teaching my 2nd and 3rd
year students to play in upper positions.
I took all of the ideas that Dr. Rabin had given me and began to tailor
them to my own teaching. They were SO
effective. I came to understand that
throwing everything about upper positions at students at once was a bad
call. Using this method, I could get
them into 3rd position without introducing shifting, note-reading,
or even note names if I didn't want to. Using
this method, students could actively listen and adjust. They could feel the patterns, hear the
patterns, and tune the notes as they listened to their teacher and the other
students around them. And, it was all
done in a group environment where a mistake here or there wasn't the focus of
anyone’s attention. It was ideal.
Over the years, I wanted to know more about George Bornoff
and these ideas. I had never heard him
mentioned anywhere else. I had heard
about Shinichi Suzuki, Samuel Applebaum, Merle Isaac, Ivan Galamian, Paul
Rolland, and many others. But the name George Bornoff just wasn’t out there for
me. As the internet came into prominence
thorough the 1990’s, I would search Bornoff’s name every so often and only
found a very few mentions. I never
really found anything that I could use.
I really didn’t want these Finger Pattern Exercises to
disappear, so over the years, I gave an occasional talk on this method and
sequence when speaking to ASTA chapters or a state conferences. I event made a few videos for my students
that eventually landed on Youtube when my school put lots of its video content
up online in 2009 or so.
Then, in 2012, when the ASTA National conference was in
Providence, I happened to share a cab ride with Debbie Lyle. As we started talking, we quickly realized
that we both had an interest in George Bornoff. But, hers was much more
personal. Debbie had been a student of
George Bornoff and she was working to kick-start an organization that would be
dedicated to the work and legacy of Bornoff. (
http://www.fase.org)
In the ensuing years, she, and their organization, have worked tirelessly to
bring his concepts and legacy back to the forefront in string education. If these Finger Pattern Exercises make sense
to you, I strongly recommend that you seek out more of the pedagogy of Dr.
Bornoff through the work of FASE. I
would call the system that I am discussing somewhat of an entry into his
systems and approach. For me, they are
functional in every way and a great way to introduce and reinforce many
concepts of playing, including intonation, bow technique, tone quality, and
musicianship.
The Finger Pattern Exercises that I use and teach are, at
their core, the pedagogy of Dr. Bornoff.
The system and cyclic nature of the FPE’s are straight from his pedagogy
as are the implementations of the concepts.
I find it interesting that I was so drawn to the idea and concepts and
sort of found the philosophy by using the sequences. I wish I would have had the opportunity to
meet him and learn from him. Here is
what I DO know. As a kid, the concept of “low 2nd finger” or “half position”
never really made sense to me. “Low 1”
really didn't make sense. I knew that I
was feeling the spacing between my fingers, and I could hear what I needed, but
the concept of the patterns was never really introduced to me. Finger Pattern Exercises changed all that for
my teaching.
So, what, exactly, are Finger Pattern Exercises?
Here are a couple of the basic ideas:
There are 4 basic finger patterns (Dr. Bornoff
called these tonal patterns)
1/2 = half step between first and second finger
2/3= half step between second and third finger
3/4=half step between third and fourth finger
Open= all whole steps
These can be taught in a cyclic manner
where the student first plays each step of the pattern for 4 quarter notes,
then 3, then 2, then one. This allows
the student to listen and make adjustments to the pitch of each finger, initially
for 4 pulses, then with incrementally less time to adjust.
The same finger pattern is played on all 4
strings, reinforcing the idea that the patterns happen on any and all strings
and allowing for a great deal of repetition, leading to mastery.
These can be taught in groups so that
students have the freedom to make mistakes, listen, and adjust as part of the
exercise.
Initially, there is no shifting. The students find third position using the
interval of a perfect fourth. (Here comes the bride) So, once they are up
there, they stay there. Shifting can
come later!
Initially, there is no note-reading. The students
is simply listening and playing.
Once we have established the names of the
finger patterns, they can be used in a variety of settings, including when introducing
difficult passages in orchestral repertoire. This has been key to my teaching
because for the vast majority of my teaching career, I have been essentially
the Orchestra Director, not the string instructor. (Although I think we all
know that it is always both!)
Once the Finger Pattern Exercises are
ingrained, they can be used to teach other techniques. I use them to introduce a variety of bowing
and right hand techniques. (hooked bowing, spiccato, martele’, portato, and
many others.)
The instructor can provide a harmonic
underpinning, making the exercises much more musical and providing a harmonic
underpinning for the pitches. I started
doing this using the guitar or piano when teaching 3rd position to
my sons when they were little. It made
the exercises fun and my boys always loved it! (I taught my younger sons 3rd
position very early in their training and it was very successful.) This also
gives the instructor the opportunity to express their musicianship to the
students. The back-tracks that I have
provided on Youtube can serve this role for you or your students anytime and
anywhere. I have also provided the chord changes for you. (I believe that Dr. Bornoff
encouraged students to use a drone when practicing these exercises. I really believe in this as well and have
been so pleased to hear my high school senior son practicing his scales with a
drone lately. It makes all the
difference in the world to hear those intervallic relationships!)
This really works for older students,
too. They feel empowered to shift and
learn the fingerboard in a non-threatening way.
The resources that I have created work very
well in a “flipped-classroom” environment.
Students can work at their own pace and use the audio/video resources as
a practice tool at school and at home.
The concepts and system lead very neatly to
scale study and I believe that the harmonic underpinning really enhances scale
study. I have provided harmonic underpinning for 1 and 2 octave scales and plan
to add 3 octaves in the future.
Finally, you can modify, clarify, and adjust
this system as you see fit. For example,
if you like scales to begin on 2nd finger, the finger patterns still
make sense and you can use the harmonic underpinnings.
I have organized the Youtube resources into playlists that
seem to make sense to me. They include
the Finger Pattern Exercises for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Bass, and all of the
one and two octave major scales. They can be found as playlists on my personal
Youtube site, or on the NCSSMDistanceEd site as individual videos. They are also linked here and on my personal
website,
http://www.scottlaird.net. I hope that this is useful for you and I would
love to hear from you if you try some of these concepts and ideas. I encourage you to look further into the
Bornoff Approach at
http://www.fase.org as
well.
I truly hope that you find this description and resources to
be useful for both you and your students.
Peace.
Scott
