Review of a DVD by Simon Fischer

Review of The Secrets of Tone Production by Simon Fischer (Edition Peters)

If you have the discipline to sit down and watch two music DVDs which feature almost exclusively the note D, you are bound to be able to take the exercises presented here and make them work for you. You may have found it easy enough to improve your or your students’ tone by simply reading what the treatises and method books have to say about effective bow use. However, Simon Fischer has painstakingly studied and applied these ideas over many years and has come up with five simple exercises that both distil and expand upon them.

Fischer must be the most methodical thinker among the pedagogues of any string instrument. His clear, almost scientific, approach leads you to see that the most wonderful results are achievable by anyone.

In these exercises, which are designed to improve tone production on all bowed string instruments, Fisher isolates the elements of playing in order to understand each one fully. If you are clear that there are three elements in tone production: the soundpoint, bow speed and bow pressure, then you can thoroughly explore what difference each one can make by keeping two elements constant whilst varying the third.

Presented in a book these ideas would not have nearly the same impact as they do on DVD. The format is that Simon Fischer presents each exercise and then applies it in lessons with students aged between 11 and 20. Hearing each exercise played well, you know exactly the quality of tone to aim for and you can also see the common pitfalls that prevent the exercises from being done perfectly. Perhaps most importantly you understand just how meticulous a player needs to be to play them without a blemish.

This DVD could be the very thing you need to improve and maintain your playing as an advanced player, or to set a less advanced player on the right tracks. The title and tagline, The Secrets of Tone Production: the ultimate lesson for every string player, make a bold claim and one that is, in my opinion, fully justified.