I have been thinking about the Sandwich a bunch in the last 2 years in my own playing, but it hasn't been time to introduce it to my students. Suddenly, this week, it's time! It's so exciting! Especially for one viola student I have who is now bursting out of her skin with how cool it is to be able to play the viola and feel like it's easy. Woohooo!
I gave a couple of students the "center of the universe" exercise last week. I haven't written about that exercise yet. But I see that it is good preparation for the Sandwich #1.
Purpose of the Sandwich: further shoulder relaxation. It also somehow magically fixes a lot of things and I don't really understand why. The other thing I don't understand is why in the world it makes me and my students feel so amazing when we're playing. It is seriously a huge rush and is making me wonder, should it be legal?! :-)
The Sandwich #1
- Sniff and Toss
- violin floats on top of your shelf.
- feel like your head is floating 10 feet above you, so that you're looking down on yourself playing. Keep that feeling and let your chin down into the chinrest.
- With your head still feeling like it's floating, imagine that the rest of you is looking up at the violin, playing from underneath it. Letting your knees relax forward will help you get this feeling.
- It will feel like your violin is in the middle of a sandwich, with your head floating and looking down, and the rest of you playing up from underneath the violin.
My students play more easily when they do this, and I personally feel fabulous when I do this. After a day teaching high school followed by teaching 5 or 6 violin lessons followed by running downtown to play a gig late into the evening, I can still get up on stage, tired, and feel great when I'm playing.
Students say it's "the weirdest feeling", "it makes everything easy", and "I feel more relaxed." For me, it also makes me feel so good that I hardly even get stage fright anymore because I'm feeling so good when I'm playing that everything else seems less important. That is SO cool.