< Maybe your violin teacher was teaching you classical style along with the good basic violin technique, and the classical style was impeding your traditional style.
I don't think so, but there's no way of knowing. I've never claimed to be a "good" player of anything (I would describe myself as a devoted and conscientious dabbler), but I do claim stylistic awareness. Give your average classical violinist a folk tune and the results can be bizarre in the extreme. It also amuses me to hear classical singers trying to sing pop/rock songs without changing their style/technique. A certain Peter Hofmann [1]http://www.peterhofmann.com/index-lebensweg.html used to sing "rock classics" in exactly the same way as he sang Wagner - dreadful. I have, in my day, sung traditional ballads, classical music (baritone), early music (countertenor), pop rock, blues rock, progrock and even country (backing vox only - I don't really like country, but being with a band was fun at the time) without being "good", but without having any complaints about lack of stylistic awareness either. The person who disapproved of my improved technique was capable of being dismissive of, for example, Stephane Grappelly as well as the entire classical establishment. and indeed of anything too sophisticated, including Genesis, Gentle Giant and Steely Dan q.v. < Two styles can be inconsistent. Doing one well might well mean doing the other badly. A classical violinist might try to play quavers equal, others such as a baroque violinist - or Willy Taylor - definitely wouldn't. Yup, I've played baroque and classical too - under some pretty good conductors such as Jaap Schroeder, Hans-Martin Linde and Guy van Waas (with the latter of whom I am performing (on viola) both Vivaldi and Haydn this very evening (concertos from Estro Armonico and Schoepfung (Creation) respectively - unfortunately on modern instruments). But with the nsp, all good players, including Kathryn Tickell and Billy Pigg, have (have had) a largely detached technique, and crux of the argument is a stylistic point as to whether a 'good style' can include open-fingered ornament. If Chris and Adrian are at the 'wee free' end of the spectrum, all good players are some sort of protestant at least..... I'm glad you agree Kathryn and Billy were "good players". The justification for the 'wee free' position is that if you allow open fingering in some contexts but not others, then bad players (they exist) will take these contentious elements as the basis of their 'style' and ignore the closed-fingered basic technique. The bad players probably don't give much consideration at all to what they are doing (this is why they are bad) and as such are hardly of much relevance. let them get on with it. there are bad players of all instruments. If religious analogies are felt inappropriate in this forum, try the Judaean People's Liberation Front instead! I do hope you mean the People's Liberation Front of Judaea! Chirs -- References 1. http://www.peterhofmann.com/index-lebensweg.html To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
