Almost Spring

March 9, 2008 at 12:42 PM

Last night we set the clocks ahead. That's usually a good omen. And, the "Almost Spring" concert is coming.

Now, if the weather would just cooperate . . .

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with too much music to learn and practice.

I brought it on myself, I suppose, I said yes to the small group accompanying the chorale for this concert. I said yes to my violist friend to play in church. I said yes to violin I in orchestra.

So much violin playing is doing odd things to my inner life, to what I think about when I'm not playing. There are neurological mechanisms to explain why certain smells can transport a person to another time and place by triggering whole sensory memories. I don't know, but I suspect music can have the same function, bringing you to an entirely new, or entirely old, context.

I had a breakthrough this week concerning my left thumb, which I injured in a car door accident as a child. My question about "the shakes" in the discussion thread did exactly what I hoped it would do: brought me the resources to think about my old thumb and vibrato problems in a new way.

Typically, after 15 minutes of woodshedding something like the Haydn with a lot of running 8th or 16th notes, my left hand is very tight. I grip the neck of the instrument between the thumb and the side of my hand. There's no space there at all, no way for the hand to move freely. I'm using the side of the hand, not the thumb, to feel where I am on the instrument. Even to hold the instrument. I've been doing this so long that it feels completely "natural."

The subtlest of shift of the instrument, more onto the thumb and away from the side of the hand, only a few millimeters, brings an entirely different feeling: not just sensory and tactile in those two places on my hand but all over, even into this non-playing mental space.

When I injured my thumb back in 7th grade, I had a big immobilizer on it for weeks, maybe months. It was metal, with blue spongy stuff inside it. I was also learning 3rd position, and shifting on the violin, at the same time as the injury. I think I learned to feel my way to the shifts using primarily the side of the hand because my thumb was wrapped in this big cocoon. It worked okay at the time, but didn't work as well later when the cocoon came off and shifting became more complex.

I may have been dwelling too much on this thumb injury. Everyone else minimized it even at the time: don't let it slow you down. Keep playing. Take that NYSSMA audition. And now that so much time has passed it seems even more remote. "Don't use a 30-year-old thumb injury as an excuse," is the unspoken message I hear in my mental space.

But I think I finally figured out the injury's legacy and can put it "behind me" in a way that makes sense, not by being tough,, calling it an excuse, and ignoring it, but instead by allowing myself to listen to it and analyze it. This is a small step, maybe, but enough of these, like the small shoots just coming up from the bulbs in the backyard, will bring a new spring.

From T Netz
Posted on March 10, 2008 at 3:31 AM

Karen, I do the same thing with my left hand when I play. It really inhibits smooth playing on the E string. What are you doing to correct this? I can't seem to get out of the habit of keeping the side of my index finger against the neck. I think I started doing this when trying to not press my thumb into the neck. I've traded one bad habit for a new one.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 10, 2008 at 6:19 AM

I think you're doing the right thing to face up to the facts on your thumb. Acknowledging the problem can be the first step towards solving it. One of my adult students had a similar issue, and since we've been dealing with it, his playing has improved tremendously.

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on March 10, 2008 at 10:45 AM

T. Netz, I don't think it's an all-or none thing. I'm trying to keep the instrument more balanced on my thumb and especially, to not bend the top thumb joint in a gripping motion but rather always keep it straight with the instrument right above it. The neck sometimes still touches the inside of my index finger (actually it's a little lower, more like the inside of the index knuckle) but I don't think that can be completely avoided just the way my hand is shaped.

What I'm having to get used to is thinking about the position of my fingers and instrument in space with my thumb rather than inside of knuckle as the primary reference point. That's what I meant by "entirely different feeling."

It just feels weird because I had surgery on that thumb, which healed long ago, but there's a scar and the scar touches the neck.

And it's somewhat distracting to always have to be thinking about my thumb while I'm playing. I'd really rather be thinking about fingerings, phrasings, dynamics . . . but as Laurie says, it takes 21 days to establish a habit, and I have about 15 to go.

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on March 10, 2008 at 10:59 AM

Pauline, I definitely want to face the facts about my thumb, I just haven't been sure what they are or which ones are relevant. Good for you for helping your student through his issues! My teacher has been very patient in listening to me talk through this.

From Tom Holzman
Posted on March 10, 2008 at 6:15 PM

Good luck in finally working out the problem with your thumb. I am sure you will succeed.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 11, 2008 at 8:29 AM

I watch my student play, and when I see signs of muscle tension, I tell him to stop, stretch his muscles or massage them gently, and only when his violin-playing muscles feel relaxed can he play again. I can see the signs of muscle tension before he can feel them. (He's a beginner.) These rests give us lots of opportunities to talk about whatever he's interested in musically.

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Almost Spring

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