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World Violist · #49 (**permalink**) Jan-06-2008, 02:54

I don't see why people make such a great deal about using shoulder-rests when obviously it's not doing anyone any good. I mean, if you compare the greats of today - Shaham, Vengerov, Mutter, Chung, Hahn - with those of yesterday - Heifetz, Menuhin, Oistrakh, Milstein, Neveu, et al. - I think many will find that yesterday's violinists were 1) generally far greater in technique, and 2) far more diverse than today's can ever hope to be. I think that a teacher's saying that one has to use a shoulder rest to play the violin/viola is both a ridiculous suggestion considering the above statements and an attempt to mass-produce students who all sound like the teacher, and are not really allowed to experiment, like yesterday's violinists were allowed to do a lot.