Face expressions

It's a common issue, even with great violinists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZrn2etdjaI

@Santiago: Though your face movements do not look especially tense themselves, I would still try to look into something along the lines of Alexander technique lessons if it really bothers you that much. At our schools, they are part of the curriculum so it's a no-brainer. I understand that if they aren't they tend to be pricey, but it might be worth it, or just read into it for a start. Being more aware of the body leads to being in control of it, too.

I highly second the Alexander Technique recommendation, and other modalities that mindfully connect you to your body, like yoga or meditation, although even those can be done with tension too.

Most importantly, for now, you can work through this very carefully in your practice, by practicing slowly, and breaking your practice into small chunks like just a shift at a time, but focusing on any bits of tension. You may be doing a bit of this, but doing something really tense once is not undone by doing it relaxed once - You have to be disciplined about relaxed playing.

Tx Trevor for the typo observation, that one slipped through the auto spell checker, rather funny it was! :-)

Musical impulses from the brain tend to go to your mouth rather than to the hands because singing is the most natural way of musical expression.

Dr. Bruce Berg
Professor emeritus
Baylor University

Another inter-individual difference which I think is widely acknowledged is the degree of independent control we have over our ring and pinky fingers. Maybe it's due to cortical overlap, maybe peripheral neuromuscular connectivity, but I can testify that it's just as hard to improve as facial contortions are to eradicate! And it isn't just the fingers of one hand that sometimes don't work independently; some individuals are incapable of totally dissociating the movements of the two hands ("mirror movements").

Don also made the point that it can be very hard to vocalise while playing the violin. The best I can manage is a kind of grunt which hopefully serves as a rehearsal mark. I'd be very interested to know how many readers can actually pronounce a sentence or even a word while playing?

Right now you're just tearing through it, without any intent at all, and that's what it looks and sounds like. Your fingers, bowing arm, and face are all competing for limited processing power, and each one loses. You need to be working at a speed you can handle perfectly, not diving in going faster than any part of your body can handle and hoping for the best. That is WHY you are stressed.

When you practice playing badly you learn to play bad, and that is how you will stay; when you practice playing well, no matter how slowly, you are learning to play well, then you can gradually speed that up until you achieve the speed you need.

Some people certainly can do it. I like this guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFbkVO5b2g0
but could it be significant that he's doing very different things with his voice and his hands? The same goes for guitar and piano of course where the physical separation probably makes it easier. The violin jammed up against your voice box effectively becomes your voice.

And it does link to what we were discussing last week. Vocal phrasing just comes naturally and so can violin phrasing if you let it.

Chances that you will ever do so should perhaps not be overrated, so why does it even matter if you make faces? Why don't you just enjoy the music you're trying to make?

Jeewon, I totally agree with you, here! At that point, a good teacher is invaluable. He/she should make sure to show the student the pathway of hard work and assuring him that when he follows it, he will reach good results.

When I look at my viola playing son, he is definitely the kind of person who isn't willing to do the hard work. So, it doesn't make sense to push him rapidly through lots of repertoire. I think, if he is only willing to invest just half an hour pratise time a day, it is still possible to do some good quality learning, during that time - this assures he is making progress in the right direction - just relatively slow progress.
Should he ever suddenly get professionally interested in the viola, he could at any time head off with more intense practising, still following the very same path. It is his choice.

I myself at high school age and still way too many teenagers nowadays don't have a teacher, though, who shows them the detailed path of progress. All I always heard was simply "Practise!" - well, I didn't really know how to, technically. I heard what was wrong, but didn't know how to work on it to fix it. That was frustrating, of course. It is hard to realize that change is possible, under such circumstances.

It is a great benefit to have forums such as this one, here, and also Youtube and other online ressources, nowadays, to search for solutions in case they aren't sufficiently provided by the teacher.

Second on keeping the Tongue touching the palate(roof of the mouth).

Tongue Posture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9OqEd5z1k

Also, make multiple videos of yourself playing the same piece, to see if your habits are relative to a particular finger movement. Every time you use fourth finger, your tongue sticks out, for example.

I've had beginner violinist do this also on their first days.