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To die trying...September 1, 2008 at 3:57 AM Greetings,One of the biggest enemies of the violinist is `clenching.` I think most players don’t reach their full potential even though they reach really high levels simply because they habitually contract something somewhere in the body when performing a specific action on the violin. And typically of habitual actions, we are unaware of them or have trained our body to think they are right to such an extent that not doing the action feels `wrong.` A lot of it simply boils down to `trying.` We are exhorted to try from a young age in many fields of endeavor and the well meaning criticism of the teacher trains us to be more and more stressed out by a certain passage or note perhaps because we are so keen to please that person and so on. This trying has very little to do with the necessary mental control of playing the instrument. One of my favorite example you might like to play with is from Agopian`s `No Time To Practice,` a real hard core volume for advanced players although not all the exercises are beyond the ken of the less skilled. Try placing the fourth finger on c in a curved and relaxed shape. Now reach back with a second finger on d flat on the a string and the first on b flat. This is not a hard stretch by any means. Now place the third finger on d. One is going to play four beats at mm120 on the a string. During this time the third finger will slide up and down in 8th notes playing dededede. Really push your self and try and get this movement. I will tell you in advance that the hand does not like this kind of stretch. It is not designed to work this way in the real world. The outer finger are the stretch fingers and the two middle actually prefer to work together as a pillar supporting the outer fingers for want of a better metaphor. Casals based his whole idea of fingering around this key point of body mechanics… Keep trying to get that damn side to side movement. You can do it. Now take a break. Have a shake. Put the violin up. Relax yourself systematically. Check shoulders, neck , wrist, and especially base of thumb and fist finger. Fell how relaxed and soft your whole hand and arm is. Now visualize the finger going from d to e and back retraining this amazing sense of freedom and relaxation.
From Tess Z
Buri, you've been missed around here. :)Posted on September 1, 2008 at 5:24 AM I have been working on the 'side-to-side' finger movement for a couple of months now. It is my biggest sticking point, not having the necessary dexterity between the fingers. I also do a similar exercise off the violin using a pencil for the fingerboard.
From Stephen Brivati
Greetings,Posted on September 1, 2008 at 10:08 PM Thanks for your kind words. I did take a summer vacation and I was fasting for six weeks so using a computer was a no no. I cited the exercise to make a point and i do think the Agopian collection and sequencing of technical work is superb. However, side to side movement is really about gently developing the stretchy web between the base of the fingers. I suspect one of the simplest ways to work on this is more along the lines of a lot of work in thirds which are beautiful for shaping the hands as well as intonation. Then fingered octaves, worked form the upper finger stretching backwards. That might be of some use to you. Cheers, Buri From Megan Chapelas
So how do we try not to try - and how do we learn to accept where we are without drifting into complacency? For me, the most challenging part of this has been separating the concentration needed from a physical sensation of 'working hard'. Feeling the challenge without letting my body sympathize, and make it all that much more difficult. Understanding that a stretch doesn't necessarily have to feel like a stretch unless I tense my hand and make it that way. Posted on September 2, 2008 at 11:32 AM I watched a lot of Olympics this summer and was struck by various athletes who didn't seem to be working at all. Usain Bolt stood out: running the 100m looked like the easiest thing in the world, until I looked at his competitors. A lot of it is trust in one's abilities, and a willingness to be led by sensation and not determination, which is not easy when you're trying to achieve certain results - those perfect 10's in archery, personal bests, winning races, or competitions, or auditions. I've been meaning to ask about the Agopian book for a while. Who publishes it, and is there an ISBN or equivalent? I'd like to order it here in Germany (can't via Shar), and have the feeling I'll need more than just the title and author.
From Tess Z
Thanks for the additional advice, Buri. Posted on September 2, 2008 at 1:00 PM The lack of side-to-side movement was/is hampering my intonation and also the root cause of my hand not staying in place when playing flats or sharps. It seems as a player progresses, the more you strive for beautiful tone and dynamics. Then it's a matter of dissecting what is holding you in place.
From Corwin Slack
I need to go home and try this. It strikes me that it won't work if one has a hyper curved finger posture.
Posted on September 2, 2008 at 4:50 PM From Stephen Brivati
Greetings,Posted on September 2, 2008 at 10:11 PM Megan, the Agopian you can order from Shar. )No Time to Practice) I can`t see why there is a problem? Its in an odd section though. Maybe somethinglike Teaching Aids rather than the etudes section one would expect. A general search should bring it up though. Cheers, Buri From Stephen Brivati
Greetings,Posted on September 2, 2008 at 10:13 PM >So how do we try not to try - and how do we learn to accept where we are without drifting into complacency? For me, the most challenging part of this has been separating the concentration needed from a physical sensation of 'working hard'. Feeling the challenge without letting my body sympathize, and make it all that much more difficult. Understanding that a stretch doesn't necessarily have to feel like a stretch unless I tense my hand and make it that way. I think the bottom line is probably mental clarity/vizualisation. Unless one has a clear mental image of what one wants the body to do (with a lot of slow practice) then what does almost all of our practice consist of? I dare to suggets that it is looking at a page of black dots and saying to yourself `Go.` No more precise instrcution than this is given to our body (a sa computer to be programmed). Depending on our level of tehcnique the whole shebang may be more or less sccusseful but in either extreme we pretty much rpeat the procedure , either to consolidate or `deal with` the bad bits, which get better sort of by default over time. From Willie M
Trying is only emphasizing the thing we know already.Posted on September 2, 2008 at 11:07 PM -FMA
From Corwin Slack
Well I tried it. It was easy. I did it for a while but there was never a sensation of stretching. I suspect that this may have been nearly impossible back in my shoulder rest days. Posted on September 3, 2008 at 3:21 AM I think that the trick here is "flattening" the finger when moving to the e and pulling it back to a more curved position for the d.
From Stephen Brivati
Greetings,Posted on September 3, 2008 at 5:54 AM Megan, the Agopin is in the practice section of the books department at Shar. Can you not order from them i Germany? Chees, Buri From Megan Chapelas
"I think the bottom line is probably mental clarity/vizualisation. Unless one has a clear mental image of what one wants the body to do (with a lot of slow practice) then what does almost all of our practice consist of?"Posted on September 3, 2008 at 7:17 PM Can we take this a step further, do you think? In practice, we are working on cultivating a physical response to a set of commands, working with the body itself. I'd like to suggest that the ultimate goal is the cultivation of a nearly instinctive response to sound and the conception of a given sound. "Klangvorstellung" is such a nice word in German, and my English translation above doesn't really do it justice. My first teacher had a bit of a mantra that went: "if you hear the note (pitch, sound, etc.), the right action will happen itself". This applied to shifting, but also to contact point, bow speed, and colours in general. The point holds true, but is not always helpful for a developing technique. But what it emphasizes, and what the work I did with a later teacher reinforced, is that all this thinking about what to do with your hands is the long way to get there. It's necessary up to a point, but after that it just begins to get in the way. Of course, this can only work with a well-trained awareness, physical, technical and musical, and a feeling of freedom in the body goes completely without saying. But I wonder if letting go of the physical "steering wheel", and trusting well-trained, well-conditioned instincts to function with sound and intent can also help to rid us of this constriction - of being stuck. I'm aware I've moved here from practice to performing, but I'm only now really beginning to grasp how different these tasks are. Sounds stupid, but auditioning crystallizes many of these things in a very particular way.
From Stephen Brivati
Greetings,Posted on September 3, 2008 at 10:20 PM I think by what you are saying you are actually defining the learning process itself. Something that is new has to be worked on consciouslt until it achives automaticity. The challenge for us is to get the most precisely organized and efficient automatic reflex. That is done with the mental work first. Otherwise the badly learned habit will always limit ones abiltiy to express music as freely as the organism will allow. One childrens book that allows for this very strongly is Adventures in violin land. In a very subte way, it makes sure the child develops pitch and sound color cocnepts before anything is done on the insturment. Quite remarkable. RE Agopian, I will try to remeber to punch in the number tomorrow. I did check the disributor which is SHAR. Unfortunately I don`t have email but if you don`t ind printing your mail addres shere...... Cheers, Buri This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments. |
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