Blindfold blues

July 31, 2007 at 07:41 AM · What was the purpose of this exercise? Did your teacher tell you? I'm imagining it was to break a certain habit (i.e. looking at the bow, looking at fingers, habits which make reading music difficult). If she's stuck looking at her fingers, it would do her good to get past it.

I don't know how to help you though, because I haven't asked anyone to play blindfolded.

July 31, 2007 at 09:05 AM · I don't know, I think the whole blindfold thing is misguided.

We have three senses in use to play a musical instrument (sight, sound, touch). To remove sight, which is the fastest mechanism by which to identify things like intervals (looking at the fingers) and tone production (point of contact) seems to me an exercise in futility. The speed at which light travels, and which your brain interprets those signals, is several orders of magnitude faster than sound in air, or tactile feedback.

A teacher of mine always mentioned to me, "if you don't look at what you're doing, don't expect to be able to reproduce it again later." :)

There is absolutely nothing wrong with watching one's fingers. There is a certain confidence in being able to place exact intervals before the sound is even produced. And for many of us younger players who are part of a very visual generation (thank you, television), we have to use our most well-developed sense to play, and not expect to somehow develop some amazing spatial recognition in light of our dependency on vision for everything else in our lives. We don't operative motor vehicles or conduct orthodontic surgery with our eyes closed, and I certainly don't expect a six-year-old to place her finger in a spot approximately a millimeter in diameter without looking!

Bravo to your daughter for doing by instinct what I have to teach many of my older students to do!

July 31, 2007 at 01:22 PM · I taught sisters long ago (just played at one's wedding :) whose mother came in all concerned that she found them playing their violins lying on the floor with scarves wrapped around their eyes. My questions were, are they concentrating? and how's their playing position? // I can't think this blindfold thing is any good for your child if she is now a frustrated six-yr.-old book oner. I do wonder if your teacher might be concerned about your girl turning her head to look down the fingerboard. You could look up Judy Weigert Bossuat's article on eye dominance. I've forgotten if it was ASTA or SAA magazine, but maybe somebody here knows, or do a search at their sites. Sue

July 31, 2007 at 02:10 PM · "if you don't look at what you're doing, don't expect to be able to reproduce it again later."

That's interesting to me because memorizing anything complicated has become sort of an impossibility, at the same time as I've gotten into the habit of never looking at my fingers. Also, I wonder if it might relate some to the reputation good readers have as poor memorizers.

July 31, 2007 at 02:54 PM · sounds like that Heifetz myth. Does the teacher beat the student with a stick if she misses a note?

July 31, 2007 at 06:39 PM · OK, so I took out our old S/M kit (just kidding), put on the blindfold, and played some Bach. As expected, I could not use my eyes for anything: to read notes, to look at the point where the bow touches the string, or even to look at the fingers. Touch, kinesthesia, and hearing filled in the gaps nicely. For me, playing the violin depends more on feeling and hearing than it does on sight.

I suppose this exercise could be useful to someone who relies on sight to the exclusion of the other facilities, or as a way of building confidence.

For a child of six it must be very difficult at first. Why not tell her teacher about the difficulties and ask what benefits you may expect from this way of practicing?

Good luck,

Bart

July 31, 2007 at 06:51 PM · They do have those "peek a boo" things in the Shar music catalog that prevent a child from looking at their fingers.

I think looking that the fingers will stop eventually when she gets to reading music... if the suzuki teacher teaches note reading.

July 31, 2007 at 06:48 PM · I understand other's concern with the blindfold, but I like the idea. Three of the more influential mentors/friends in my life have been blind.

When we break down a string crossing into approaching the double stop are we not also limiting something, as in the tactile experience of 'just doing' the string crossing?

So, isolating the senses and putting them back together may not be such a bad thing if done with care. Finally, I have tried this many times on piano for tactile immersion, and like the results.

Indeed, I'll try it on violin a little later.

July 31, 2007 at 07:11 PM · When I travel I will pull out my violin wherever we are, even if it's sitting outside at family dinner gathering, and fiddle out a few familiar tunes. When it gets dark (usually the earliest time I get the chance to pull out the violin), I keep playing. One night in June I didn't stop till it was very dark and I'd been playing 20 mn w/o seeing where my fingers were going. I really enjoyed the experience - much less threatening than a blindfold, but nonetheless, had me focusing on all the other senses, particularly touch and sound. So, that would be my suggestion to you and your daughter - find a time/place where it is dark enough to see the violin (and not freak her out...), but too dark to rely on sight to know where the fingers should go. Outdoors, with the sky darkening, is a rather fun experience. (Unfortunately, close to a 6-yr-old's bedtime, tho.)

July 31, 2007 at 07:41 PM · Teacher is trying to get the little one to listen above everything else

August 1, 2007 at 02:45 AM · Can't she just close her eyes? A blindfold screams "liability" to me as a teacher and is certainly potentially hazardous if unsupervised.

August 1, 2007 at 03:11 AM · I wonder where the teacher is going with this. Don't let her make you buy a seeing-eye dog. A white cane could be kind of stylish though, depending on where you live.

August 3, 2007 at 07:03 PM · yes