June 2003

June 22, 2003 16:08

holy crap! i think i just figured out the secret to playing the violin...

it's so easy, really. all you need to do is relax. simple as that.

all of this sort of came to me as i practiced today. i wanted to try and analyze different basic technique flaws in my playing, and realized that i had a terrible overall problem consisting of two things:

1. A posture that was not straight (ie a misaligned spine, especially in the neck)
2. An abundance of pressure/tension in both the right and left hands

So I stopped playing with pressure. Well, I stopped playing with unnecessary pressure, and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING fell into place. I play much more in tune, my tone has increased tenfold already, and I don't feel so exhausted when i play for longer periods of time. And this has all transpired in about 2 hours of rehearsing.

It's freaking awesome!

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Mark O'Connor's method books -- released this week -- teach students using many styles of American music. Enter to win a set of the books this week, on Violinist.com. Photo: Deanna Rose