Small Adjustment - Big Difference

November 21, 2008 at 5:16 AM

This week, I was early for lessons, learning my lesson to give myself even more time getting through Portland during rush-hour traffic and rain this time of year.

While warming up on the requisite scales (now doing C-Minor 3 octave, 12 notes per bow), my teacher noticed the shape of my hand and how it differed between third position (best hand shape) and first position. He jokingly suggested that I chop off about 3 inches of the neck of my viola and only play in 3rd position or higher. A year or two ago, just the thought of playing in higher positions all the time would have put me into a mild state of shock (nevermind the thought of chopping my viola down to violin size).

However, the point he was making was that up in 3rd position, I had a small space between my first finger and the neck, and all my fingers were nicely curved, even more when my 4th finger was placed down. So he had me try to fix my hand in that position on the next round of scales. That didn't work very well :-) He suggested that maybe if I dipped my scroll down a little it would help. Nope, made it worse. So this is my homework assignment (I'll come back to this in a moment).

Then onto the Sarabande & Courante. We continued working on chord execution, and playing very very very softly - over the fingerboard. I kept migrating back towards the bridge, even when I was watching the bow. Funny, I used to have the exact opposite problem. Now, it is more about putting the bow where I want it to be when I want it to be there. Another homework assignment. We also worked on slowing down my shifts. As Joel said, slow it down as much as you can... trust me, I'll tell you when it is too slow. My shifts are still "lightening" fast. Going slow is the least of my worries at this point.

Onto the Courante we worked on some of the string crossings - from C to A. This has been challenging - not hitting the G and D along the way from one to the other. We finished the evening on my nemesis - the Allegro movement of Beethoven's 5th (a nasty run of triplets divisi). My left hand can play the notes at tempo (proven when we tried them slurred), but my right hand was lagging, tripping up my left hand. Finally, I was getting it by the end of lessons.

On the way home, I was stuck in traffic once again (another wreck on the other side of the tunnel, same spot as last time). That gave me a chance to think about conctact points with my left hand. I developed a plan while crawling my way through the tunnel. When I got home, I took my shoulder rest, lowered the right hand side a few mm, and tried my scales again with little if no contact between my first finger and the neck. What do you know!!!! I lowered it just a little more and it got even better. A little more, and it started to become more difficult to get a good tone with the bow, so back up a notch or two.

Having found this happy place, I tried my scales again with the space between my first finger and the neck. Much better. Not quite what my teacher suggested yet, but better. So then I tried playing the Sarabande & Courante again. The chords were easier to get with my left hand, even the ones down in half position that I've been struggling with. On the Courante, the string crossings from C to A were MUCH easier.

So there we go, a minor adjustment made a big difference in ease of playing. Note to self however - leave this adjustment where it is for the next week or two... no piddling around with it!!!!

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Small Adjustment - Big Difference

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