The bowed, stringed instruments such as the violin, viola, or cello are often regarded as some of the hardest instruments to begin studying, but don’t say that around Diane Byington, director and owner of Solvang Conservatory.
Byington thinks the stringed instruments famous from the orchestra are by far the best to study, she said. She teaches violin, viola, and cello at the conservatory—so she might be biased.
“We have the best repertoire,” she said. “We have the Beethoven string quartets, the Haydn quartets, the Mozart quartets, the sonatas, and we have the concertos. We kind of have it all with these instruments.”
String players also make up a significant part of an orchestra. Accomplished string players—which Byington tries to put out consistently through her pedagogy—are more likely to get in an orchestra, she said, simply because there are more seats available to violinists and violists than, say, flautists or timpani drummers.
Part of preparing her students for performing with an orchestra includes a yearly recital concert, which joins her conservatory students together in ensemble. The concert happens Feb. 4 this year. Students will play together, no matter what their skill level, including beginners and advanced performers sharing the stage.
“We have younger students in the beginning level, who are generally between 5 and 9 years of age, and they are playing simple pieces from the basic Suzuki repertoire,” Byington said. “We’re also playing American fiddle pieces, because those pieces work really well, especially for the beginners.”
The Suzuki pieces include settings of German folk songs, but in a more classical style, Byington explained.
It’s important for students to play a range of music, she said, and not focus solely on classical, but branch out. It’s important to keep young beginners interested, she said, so they’re encouraged to keep practicing and progress in their musicianship.
“The fiddle pieces are just pure fun,” Byington said. “They don’t take as much work to sound good.
“It’s good to have some encouragement along the way,” she added.
The ensemble setup also gets her students—who spend most of their musical time in solitary practice—engaging creatively together. That builds social bonds, Byington said, and gets both young and adult students excited to work, especially when there is a performance to look forward to.
Some pieces will include more intricate parts played by the seasoned students, while the beginners play simple accompaniment. This gives the youngsters a sense of belonging as well as role model, or example of what they could accomplish across years of study, Byington said.
“In the performance, everybody is at their best, all on the same day,” she said. “And on that day, in comparison to the year before, they can really see the progress they made.”
Another important aspect of the annual recital is the audience, Byington said. The family and friends of the musicians will be there to cheer on the performers, supporting their artistic efforts, no matter how fledgling they may be.
Receiving that support from an appreciative audience is a crucial element of the development of musicianship, she said, one that beginners and advanced players all need.
“When the music is shared with other people, it gets magnified. It’s a little bit like plugging the radio into the wall socket,” Byington said. “When somebody listens to you, their listening becomes part of the composition, and it changes the way you can play.
“A good audience is really helpful to a musician,” she added. “You realize your notes have sort of an extra magic, because they are reaching out to other people.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne could never hold a violin bow right. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 2-9, 2017.