Frances Gall

How to maximise resonance with minimum effort.

We all want a full rich tone without forcing the tone and without straining the right arm. Kato Havas famously said, “There is no bow”. In this workshop session for violin and viola players and teachers I will talk about my understanding of this paradoxical statement and demonstrate practical exercises to increase resonance and fluency. Influential string educators like Shinichi Suzuki and Fintan Murphy are two of my mentors and their insights and exercises will be discussed, among those of many other educators. There will be demonstrations of multiple interconnected ways to develop your own expressive resonant sound in a freely flowing way. Breath and body awareness are part of this. I will make suggestions for how to help students develop this aspect of bowing in a logical way appropriate to the students’ level. Please bring instruments. Time allowed for Q & A.

Frances career path has been irregular, due to her many interests and periods of overseas travel in between her arts, education and music studies at the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts. Her violin and viola teachers included Robert Pikler, Marco van Pagee and Lois Shepheard. She is an advanced accredited Suzuki violin and viola teacher. Frances played freelance viola with Orchestra Victoria (1986 to 2000) and was in the string trio Trio Istar which played original arrangements by John Nisbet. She moved to Castlemaine in 2011, taught violin and viola at Castlemaine Secondary College (2012 to 2017) and now teaches students of all ages in her private studio. In 2014 Frances co-founded the Castlemaine Chamber Players string ensemble to develop playing opportunities for professional string players in the Central Victorian region. She plays viola in the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra. Frances was an experienced Australian Music Examinations Board string examiner, retiring in 2024.

Simon Veitch and Frances formed Twofold Media to produce and publish videos of violin/viola technique by Robert Wakely and Fintan Murphy. This partnership with Fintan is now in its 25th year, and they are working on a new title ‘Kreutzer Etudes’.