Comments

I'm a new player and my teacher gets right in there and moves my arm or my fingers. I've found for me, words aren't the same as really feeling it. What one sees (the teacher), the other must feel (the student). No matter of language from one person to another can describe the 'feel' of the instrument from one person to the other. Your 'straight' versus 'diagonal' observation is a case in point. The real challenge is to train for the correct 'feel' of the instrument in your hands so that you will create the best tone and music. Tactile awareness for musical production. Seems logical, and it defies grammar.
Hello, everyone! This is my first posting, so I hope I do everything right and not trod on any fingers (especially on the left hand!!).

I think you put your finger right on the issue, as came out also in the T-shirt blog as well. It's a question of labels vs. concepts.

As long as people tend to stick labels on people or things, they don't have to go through the effort of understanding the concepts behind them. In these past days I have seen people being called (or calling themselves) terrorist, socialist, hockey mom, maverick. These labels are all great for marketing, but not for understanding - and can be eventually misleading. Upon close examination in fact they all mean the same thing: nothing. The underlying concepts are far more complex, yet few people try to dig that far down.

One of the biggest labels of all times, the economist and bonafide bogeyman Karl Marx, once famously said that "if this is marxism, I'm not a Marxist". And if HE said so...

So I would say that understanding the concept should precede the labelling, if at all possible.

(I press "submit", now, right? deep breath...)

Is that THE Dmitri Musafia, above? Whoever it is, he makes a great case with his argument.

:D

Indeed, he makes a great case. :) Thanks, Dimitri! The one and only. I guess I'm in the habit of making "cases"..! in case we want others to understand, we need to make the case in their language, on a case by case basis. I too have made some great Case's, though mine need perhaps more upkeep than Dmitri's. Food, water, stuff like that...:) Looks like we need some kind of case history here. May I suggest this one? http://www.violincasecollecting.com/