I have developed a method, called The Shonert Technique, which has enabled my students to successfully learn the most difficult violin techniques in a very short period of time.
“First, you must understand it, then teach your hands to do it.”
“Firm staccato is not born in the hands. Firm staccato is born in the mind.”
I not only teach violin but I also teach how to think about it correctly. The skills I pass on to my students are useful in many aspects of life.
A guide for teachers and students of secondary and higher educational institutions majoring in the field of musical art and instrumental performance
THE SHONERT TECHNIQUE
Besides learning to play firm staccato, The Shonert Technique will empower all your bowing strokes and styles with a beautiful, clear and bell like sound that is guaranteed to move the hearts and emotions of your audience.
What are the benefits/rewards of The Shonert Technique?
• Firm Staccato Up and Down in 3 Lessons
• Achieve powerful, clear and rich sound without bow pressure
• Play for your audience with complete confidence
• Complete relaxed playing, enjoy your music
• Play firm staccato with firmness, clarity, evenly, fast or slow and long
INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN ACADEMY OF A. SHONERT PRESENTS
Knowledge should not be confined to learned tomes on dusty shelves, but should be made available to everyone who needs it and to all who are willing to learn. My aim is to put my thoughts and ideas at the ready disposal of all, whether they be novice students or veteran performers.
I am a cleaner. I can help you clean and improve your violin technique using my own method called The Shonert Technique. It’s a powerful, and effective technique helping you clean out all obstacles to optimal performance, such as fear, stiffness and nervous tension. I teach how to feel and relax your hands and how to get results in the form of beautiful and steady sound you always dreamed to have, all without using muscles strength and pressure. If you are an advancing student, you may be inclined to think that trying my technique would conflict with what you are learning from your teacher. I assure you, it will definitely not, but rather enhance existing techniques you’ve been taught. My technique is, unlike any other developed before, so effective, that you can apply it to multiply your productivity and quality in any area of your life involving performance, not just in violin playing. I am not a competitor for your teacher. I have my own method how to do it. I can also teach you how to practice at home correctly and get more result for less period of time.
One of the most important features of the method which I developed is that I don’t just teach playing the violin but also I teach to think in the right direction, and the skills which I give to my students can be of practical use in life, which especially concerns working with energy. I have been able to join the Chi energy and the violin together and use that energy to get more efficient technical skills such as a firm staccato. It is important to know that this method helps to gain beautiful and deep sound without using force. It is absolutely natural to use these techniques in martial arts but in music you rely more on intuition and, in my opinion, it is a mistake as all laws of physiology and energy are the same. The Chi energy follows the same rules whether you use a sword or a bow. The difference is only in goals: the sword is for battle and the bow is for playing the violin. I’m a teacher, but sometimes (and quite often) I feel myself as a doctor. The most important thing in being a doctor is to make a timely and correct diagnosis. I see when and where the student has a problem. Moreover, I look for the cause of this problem which prevents him from executing a particular technical skill or from playing a piece with sufficient expression. After I make a diagnosis I give advices which could help student to overcome the problems he faces in the shortest time. One of the secrets of my method is that I use the laws of psychology. The student more quickly absorbs the information if he receives it associatively. During my lessons I love telling parables. Here is the parable which shows the point of my method. Three persons got the task to break a heavy wall using only his hand. One person beat it for an hour, bruised his arm and decided to stop. The second person beat it for seven hours and even broke the wall but after that he lost consciousness. The third one first of all studied the wall for two and half hours, found the thinnest point and the least power that should be used to break the wall, and then broke it without harm to his body. My method is more about the third person. Getting a proper violin technique requires not only time but also the efficiency of lessons. As my professor used to say, “Playing the violin requires more work from brain than from hands”. But the most important thing is that in helping the student to get this knowledge, I want him to use it not only in music but in other spheres of his life even if they are completely different, because the even the most perfect knowledge of technique is only the first level – we can reach spiritual perfection from playing the violin or from martial arts. It is a philosophy, a style of life.
The father put his son in music lessons. The boy then played at home for days on empty strings, made a bow strokes up and down. One day violinist David Oistrakh appeared on TV; The father told his son, “Look how he presses tones along the entire fingerboard while you’re still playing only empty strings.”The son replies,” Dad, Mr. Oistrakh’s still looking for that, but I’ve already found it.”That’s the trouble. A lot of people think they have found it, and do not want to change anything.
Prof. Shonert is a natural born teacher. Fortunately for me he has chosen to teach string instruments. He has a unique ability to discern what I need, what my specific problem or difficulty is and then to find a way to teach me how to fix the problem or learn the new technique in a way I can both understand and act upon. I have experienced many teaching/learning situations and know that this is a unique ability. He is truly gifted.”
First of all I would like to transmit to Prof. Shonert my most sincere gratitude for the publication of his book. Its reading has turned out to be very interesting and useful to me both: as a musician and as a teacher. I consider it a “must have” in the library of any teacher or student that invites reflection on fundamental aspects of the profession and of life itself… This book made many important changes in my manner of play and understanding the violin and Life.
Prof. A. Shonert has discovered a new technique or a new way to execute the bow stroke firm staccato. Most experts are saying that playing the violin is a closed art, that nothing new can be discovered. They are wrong and Shonert has demonstrated why.
It is never too late to learn this amazing staccato bowing technique. I have played violin for many years but could not play continuous fast and firm staccato using one bow direction only. Finally at 50 years old, Alexander Shonert has taught me how to do it effortlessly, both up and down bow. Read more…
I play in a prestigious string quartet – Pavel Haas Quartet. Despite intensive work with the Quartet, I took lessons with Alexander Shonert. Step by step I learned his method and the way of violin playing. His method is based on naturality and relaxation, which comes from the correct use of physical and psychological laws of playing the violin.
This technique is revolutionary! People who have trouble with this finally have a new method to execute it and have the control to do so at any speed. It is well known that it is difficult to perform this type of staccato but now there is a way to not only perform it but to have full control of it. It is amazing how Professor Alexander Shonert developed his method to achieve this.
It’s great! Thank you Alexander that you share your method! It works and gives good results.
Prof. A. Shonert has shown me a completely new world – a joy of the sound and the beauty of the tone that I had not been aware of before.
Practice is now easy and joyful, simply because the results are achieved quickly and without too much effort. Read more…
Contact Information
Schonert s.r.o.
ICO: 26 44 76 65
Skype: alexshonert
E-mail: shonert.staccato@gmail.com