Playing Between Positions: Michael Tree's Unique Philosophy of Fingering
Over the summer I read William Primrose's enjoyable, "Walk on the North Side: Memoirs of a Violist." My favorite parts of the book described his days as a student, specifically his time spent with the great Belgian violinist, Eugene Ysaÿe. Primrose is effusive when describing his teacher's playing, especially his unique fingering style: "I got the impression from observing those fingerings and from the way he discussed them in general that he didn't 'think' in positions. The whole fingerboard was one position."
That passage immediately reminded me Michael Tree, violist of the legendary Guarneri Quartet, who was also well known for his unique approach to fingering. While I only had a few chamber music coachings with Tree, I was fortunate to work with his student, Che-Yen "Brian" Chen, who introduced me to Tree's fingering style, and would frequently dazzle me with his ability to get from one part of the fingerboard to another in ways that seemed impossible.
Brian was also the first to recount to me the story of Tree playing a 3-octave arpeggio WITHOUT SHIFTING as a means of demonstrating how the flexibility of the hand could be used for more creative fingering approaches. Over the years I heard or read this same arpeggio story from multiple sources—sometimes it was a 3-octave arpeggio, sometimes a 4-octave one, but either way the story seemed to have lodged itself securely in the annals of viola lore.
But while I had heard this story from multiple sources, I still had never actually SEEN anyone demonstrate this particular bit of fingering magic. My own attempts at reverse engineering it were, let's say...not fit for the public.
I wanted to know about this specific fingering feat, but I was also curious to understand more about Tree's general approach to the left hand. I decided to reach out to several violists who knew him well, Mark Holloway, violist of the Pacifica Quartet (faculty: Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music), and Steven Tenenbom of the Orion String Quartet (faculty: The Juilliard School and Yale University, among others). They both shared valuable insights into Tree’s thoughts on fingering.
A Philosophy of Fingering
Steven Tenenbom, summarized Tree's fingering style this way:
"[His] philosophy of creative and efficient fingerings was based on finding ways to avoid unnecessary glissandi unless intentionally used for expression."
While Mark remarked that Tree "always seemed to play between the positions."
Taken together, these two ideas form a concise and ingenious approach to fingering. To expand on Tenenbom’s quote, the technical demands of our instrument require us to move around the fingerboard, but most of the time we don't want our listeners TO HEAR those moves, unless it’s for a specific expressive reason. For seamless playing, the seams must be invisible (or in our case, inaudible!) to the listener.
Holloway’s description complements Tenenbom's elegantly: exploiting the "cracks" between positions, playing between them, allows for fingerings that can eliminate audible slides. But what does “playing between the positions” mean when put into practice?
Extending and Contracting between the Positions
Holloway was generous in sharing several practical of how Tree used extensions and contractions of the hand to play between positions, lifted directly from the repertoire. It's no surprise that many of the examples come from Brahms, who wrote such amazing music for us. Amazing music that often happens to also be incredibly awkward to perform!
Brahms Sonata for Viola and Piano in F minor: Allegro appassionato, mm. 223-224
This first excerpt comes from Brahms’ Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 120 #1, I. Allegro appassionato. In measure one, beat two of this excerpt, the 2nd finger extends to reach the F. This small stretch of an extra half step allows for a small, easy and smooth shift to the G on beat 3. The alternative, moving from 3 on the F to 1 on the G, makes for a more challenging (and more obvious) seam!
This excerpt is also an excellent example of saving audible slides for moments of high expression—in the final beat of the excerpt he slides down the D-string for the dramatic musical sigh from D-flat to E natural.
Brahms Sonata for Viola and Piano in F minor: Andante un poco adagio, mm. 55-56
In this next excerpt, from the second movement of the same sonata, Tree takes the opposite tack: in the last 8th note of the measure, he collapses the hand frame, allowing the first finger to come very close to the third. Now the E-flat at the beginning of the second measure is only 1.5 steps away along the string from the 1st finger—the same distance needed to extend in the previous example.
It's worth noting that some of these extensions may not be possible for those with smaller hands, while some of the contractions may be less comfortable for larger ones. For those with smaller hands, it's likely an ascending extension may be impossible in a lower position but that the descending one is possible, as it's easier for the hand to open backwards towards the first finger than it is for it to stretch forward with the fourth. Since intervals get smaller as we climb the fingerboard, it's also likely that while in first position an extension may be unreachable, the same interval in second or third position is doable.
Learning to Think Between Positions
Positions are obviously a great way to superimpose order onto the fingerboard, but they also have important limitations. Some of these limitations originate in how we name positions and the ways notation works. For example, if I'm on the D-string, first finger on D#/E-flat is half position, first on E is in first position, and first on F-natural is second position. All good so far!
But what about F#/G-flat? Is that a "high" second position, or a "low" third position? Second-and-a-half position? Ditto for just about every flat and sharp afterwards!
If given something like this whole-tone scale, think about how your fingering choices might change if it was written this way:
Versus this way:
I don’t know about you, but my initial impulse in the first bar of the scale written with flats is to use a fourth finger on the G-flat, while in the second example my reflex would be to use a third finger for the F#.
The same notes, spelled differently, can lead us to make different fingering choices! Thinking enharmonically, transposing sharps to flats or vice versa, is a helpful step to opening the mind to other fingering possibilities, not to mention making many passages easier to read!
Of course, we could just completely change how we label positions, as Roger Benedict advocates in his excellent book Scale Up! In his book, Benedict proposes naming positions by half-step. Going back to the D-string, that would make D-sharp/E-flat = 1st position, E-natural = 2nd position, F-natural = 3rd, F-sharp/G-flat = 4th position. This is more specific, and doesn't break down as easily as the other naming convention, but unfortunately the cat is a bit out of the bag with this particular issue!
The 4-Octave Arpeggio
But what about this mysterious 4-octave arpeggio I had heard so much about? Steven Tenenbom pulled back the curtain on this particular sleight-of-hand for me:
…a D major arpeggio would start on the C string, 1, 2, 3 ending in third position. Contracting your first finger to D natural on the G string, and repeating that pattern on each string. Coming down would be a mirror image of the ascending patterns.
Here's a demonstration of the arpeggio, starting on D:
I found the descending version of this, which requires lots of contractions of the hand frame, to be SO much harder than the ascending version! As you’ll hear, I also found it very difficult to keep my playing finger from pivoting slightly as I prepared the next extension, which would change the pitch.
Holloway and Tenenbom both stressed that Tree didn't necessarily use this particular fingering in his playing. Rather, it was meant as a demonstration of the flexibility of the hand, and a means of opening the student's mind to think outside the “box” of positions.
Tree's method of extension and contraction reminded me of Ruggerio Ricci's description in "Ricci on Glissando: The Shortcut to Violin Technique" about how pre-chinrest players favored crawling fingerings. In this style, players would extend fingers backward and forward, accessing different corners of the fingerboard without breaking contact between their hand/head and the neck of the instrument, which could result in dropping the instrument!
Instead of thinking in the standard numbered positions, Ricci advocates thinking of a low, medium, and high position, accessing many notes from each positions with a flexible hand. Especially in higher positions, where intervals are smaller, crawling opens up so many fingering possibilities, and is often easier than a traditional shift with the whole hand/arm moving together!
Learning to Think like Tree
How can we take this philosophy of fingering further, and learn to think more like Michael Tree?
I often take walks around my school’s campus. If I'm pressed for time, I'll take a short walk on a routine path, but when I’ve got more time I'll take longer ones. San Diego State University is spread across a sprawling area roughly the size of Disneyland, so even though I've taught here for a long time, there are still many unfamiliar nooks and crannies. On these longer strolls I’ll challenge myself to take a route I haven’t taken before. Sometimes these new paths end up in dead ends, but often I find that parts of the campus connect in ways I was previously unaware of—a shortcut!
A similar exploratory attitude towards the fingerboard helps open our mind to the space between positions. Building a detailed map of the fingerboard gives you a better idea of where shortcuts may lie. In particular, knowing where half-steps occur in a key helps you to make decisions about where an extension or contraction could eliminate a shift.
This three-octave "no shift" scale develops that half-step awareness, and is one of my favorite mapping techniques. This fingering approach works in all major and minor keys, so try it in all keys!
3-Octave “No Shift” Scale
The whole tone scales mentioned earlier in this post are another great way to open your hand (and your ears!) while exploring the nooks and crannies of the positions.
2-Octave Whole Tone Scale
In this whole tone scale the hand starts in 1st position, but crawls forward a half step at each string crossing in the ascending part of the scale, ending up in 3rd position by the time you’re at the D on the A-string. The hand reverses those half-step movements on the descending portion of the scale. If these reaches are a strain, transpose the scale to a higher starting note to make the extensions easier.
These two exercises are a great way to get started exploring the flexibility of the hand and thinking between positions, which should opening your mind to the possibility of more creative fingerings.
