Violin Alchemist tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2008://1 2008-09-17T01:40:03Z transform your playing Movable Type 3.33 Bow Hold and Pinky Pushups tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2008://1.46 2008-09-17T01:22:44Z 2008-09-17T01:40:03Z A relaxed bow hold is important, but true relaxation can only come after you have developed the muscles in the right hand. Below is how I ask my students to form their bow holds, and an exercise that they can... Violin Alchemist Setting up the Bow Hold
  1. clip your fingernails!
  2. sit on the floor with your legs crossed under you.
  3. if you hold your right hand in front of your face loosely with your thumbnail pointing towards you, the top corner of your thumb is what will be touching the stick (wood part) of the bow.
  4. OK, hold the bow in your left hand, tip pointing left. Move your left arm so that it crosses your body, bringing the bow out to the right of you. You'll see why in a few steps.
  5. with your right hand knuckles up, fingers pointing away from you, bend your thumb slightly and put the thumb corner between the stick and the hair of the bow, so that the tip of the thumb just touches the black plastic/ebony. The thumb should not go inside the U-shaped hole in the black plastic/ebony.
  6. drop the 2nd and 3rd (ring) fingers onto the stick so that the 2nd finger is over the thumb. The fingers are pretty straight and are touching the stick in the middle section of the finger. Your hand will look like a shadow puppet animal.
  7. let those fingers (the animal's "nose"), curve now, so that they bend down and touch the black part of the bow.
  8. to the right of the 2nd and 3rd fingers, you will see that your bow [probably] is not perfectly round, but has distinct faces. Put your pinky next to your other fingers, on the face that is in back of the top face (the "back shelf"). You should have plenty of room to do this, because your bow is all the way to the right, leaving you more space to place the pinky.
  9. let your 1st (pointer) finger go wherever it wants for now, and maybe forever!
  10. now gently move your left arm left so that your bow hand is resting on your right knee. You'll see that it will make your pinky curve more on the bow.
  11. relax everything in your right arm.
  12. lift your hand slightly off your knee and feel the balance in your right hand between the thumb and the pinky. Can you balance the bow between them? Both thumb and pinky remain curved.
  13. with right hand back down on your knee and right arm/shoulder relaxed, press down with the pinky as if you're typing on a computer keyboard. The tip of the bow will rise. This is a "pinky pushup". Do several of these until your hand needs a rest or you lose the bow.
]]> The "Sofa Butt" tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2008://1.45 2008-09-17T01:02:05Z 2008-09-17T01:20:49Z The Sofa Butt is useful for anyone who is a perennial sloucher. The ultimate goal is to have a chest/torso that is lifted and supported by the abs, and to have a relaxed back. This gives you plenty of mobility... Violin Alchemist
  • stand comfortably with feet apart
  • pretend there is a sofa right behind your knees and you're about to let your butt go backwards to sit on it.
  • feel your lower back relax just as you begin to do it? It doesn't take much motion at all. That's the Sofa Butt.
    • Once you've felt the Sofa Butt, combine it with an elevated torso. Here are two ways: ]]>
  • get Thinner and Taller, but don't bounce your knees afterwards.
  • instead, put on the Sofa Butt
  • make sure you let your breath out and in, in your new posture.
    • Way 2: use the "That Makes Me Want to Throw Up"
    1. take an easy breath in.
    2. breathe out.
    3. feel just a little nauseated, like you might just throw up. Feel your diaphragm go up and in? Hold it there.
    4. put on the Sofa Butt.
    ]]>     Graceful Double Stops tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2008://1.44 2008-05-25T02:49:50Z 2008-05-25T02:52:54Z The accuracy and tone of double stops always improve for me when I concentrate on beautiful motion between each double stop. The technique for doing this involves using the current fingers to bounce you to the next fingers. It's essentially... Violin Alchemist finger preparation when shifting. If you can successfully do it with one finger when you're shifting, try using that same finger resiliency when playing double stops. You will immediately notice a huge difference.]]> Elegant Shifting, Part 3: Finger Preparation tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2008://1.43 2008-05-25T02:38:10Z 2008-05-25T02:47:57Z Once you're relaxed and you're allowing the arm to take your hand back and forth between positions, it's time to refine the shift by adding more grace in your finger movement. Picture this: You are standing with your feet together.... Violin Alchemist Once you're relaxed and you're allowing the arm to take your hand back and forth between positions, it's time to refine the shift by adding more grace in your finger movement. Picture this: You are standing with your feet together. You are about to take a step to the left. Do your legs stay totally straight before you take the step and while you are stepping? Of course not! Before you step left, your knees bend just a little, and you can even push off to the left a little, using your right leg as a little springboard to get you to the left with less effort. The same thing happens with your fingers. Set yourself up on a finger. This finger will be the springboard that gets you to your next position, wherever it is on the violin. Just before the shift, let the finger bend a little bit, just like your knee would, preparing for the shift. Then, bounce off the finger to start your shift, and let your arm carry your hand the rest of the way. Your shifts, when done with this technique, will suddenly be more graceful, fluid, take less effort, and will land with greater accuracy. Sometimes it's helpful to picture your fingers as legs, especially after practicing with your legs first, pushing off one foot to get to the next foot. A Child Can Understand Hand Balance tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2008://1.41 2008-04-04T21:21:21Z 2008-04-04T21:30:37Z I didn't post this, but after a student learns to balance the "float" and the "plop", I will often ask him/her to try to balance the thumb and fingers of the left hand in the same way. It's the fastest,... Violin Alchemist balance the "float" and the "plop", I will often ask him/her to try to balance the thumb and fingers of the left hand in the same way. It's the fastest, easiest way I've found to loosen up the thumb when putting a finger down makes the thumb take a death grip on the neck of the violin. With the little kids, they often don't have problems with balancing their arm (yet) because their arms are pretty short in relation to the rest of their bodies, and because they're used to tossing the violin into place from underneath anyway. But they often have a tight thumb because they're trying so hard to get the finger down, and the fingers aren't strong yet. The easiest way to loosen up a left thumb is to talk about how the thumb is on one side of a seesaw and the fingers are on the other, then ask if the thumb and fingers can balance each other so that they're equally loose. Even with weak fingers this is possible, and the concept is simple enough that the kids get it right away.]]> Bow Contact tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2008://1.40 2008-03-09T00:19:15Z 2008-03-09T00:28:38Z A few weeks ago I was trying to teach myself spiccato, which no one so far has been able to teach me, and no one has been able to figure out why I can't do it. Now I can--or I... Violin Alchemist without losing the loose left hand finger technique I needed. It's a different feeling than thinking "finger, bow, go" in Suzuki, though it achieves the same result. Try this:
    1. Put on Sandwich #1 and Sandwich #2
    2. Now, with your bow on the string (try the A string first), balance your right arm and your bow so that your bow feels like it is exactly in the same plane of balance as your left hand. Use the balance you feel in your left hand and try to match that plane in your bow.
    3. Let your bow balance sink slightly lower than your left hand balance--just a touch!
    4. As you play: now that your bow is balanced, its work is done. Your loose left hand fingers are now in charge--let them tell the bow when to go.
    This sounds really simple, but there's something about thinking about it this way that has made a number of my students suddenly have a perfectly focused, relaxed sound.]]>     Happy Fingers tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.39 2007-12-31T19:36:31Z 2007-12-31T19:47:48Z What if the only reason you play the violin is to make the fingers on your left hand happy? If you've mastered the basics of posture, this simple visualization exercise will take you to the next level. For this to... Violin Alchemist Sandwich #1 and Sandwich #2.
    1. Think of something small and lively and cute. Puppies falling all over each other in excitement, for example.
    2. For whatever you've just pictured: those are your fingers. The most fun thing for them in the world is to run all over your fingerboard. As you play something, the most important thing is to let your fingers keep having fun.
    This is so simple that it sounds silly, but making my mind shift from "this is work" to "this is fun" suddenly gives me twice the energy in my fingers. Try it and see.]]>     Dangly Elbows, and String Crossings tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.38 2007-10-29T23:43:57Z 2007-10-29T23:56:26Z "dangly elbows" is another, shorter way to think about counterbalancing. Once you've felt what counterbalancing is like, this is a nice shortcut to getting that feeling again without all of the counterbalancing steps. Sniff and Toss Your shelf (chest) is... Violin Alchemist counterbalancing. Once you've felt what counterbalancing is like, this is a nice shortcut to getting that feeling again without all of the counterbalancing steps.
    1. Sniff and Toss
    2. Your shelf (chest) is now floating. Check in with your shoulder blades and elbows and let them feel like they're loose and dangling from your shelf.
    3. As you play, keep thinking about your shoulder blades and elbows dangling.
    How this relates to string crossings: When crossing from the A to E string (or G to D, or D to A), your elbow drops a little and that changes the angle of your bow from the current string to the next string. Thinking about the elbow dropping works for many students. For some students, though, it results in the elbow moving without the shoulder blade moving at all. If you want your string crossing in this direction to be easier, and the shoulder isn't naturally following the elbow, instead think of this:
    1. (assuming you're already dangling shoulder blades and elbows from your shelf)
    2. to cross to the next string, feel your right shoulder blade relax and drop just a tiny bit. It will take the rest of the right arm, including the elbow, with it.
    This method helps when you are (usually subconsciously) holding with your right shoulder to try to control the bow. If it feels like "cheating" when you're bowing because you're not doing enough work, it's probably perfect. :-)]]>     Visualize for Quicker Success tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.37 2007-10-14T21:54:50Z 2007-10-14T22:08:55Z Something I find myself saying a lot is "you don't practice with your ears." The first time I learned to play the violin, the strategy for practicing (as I understood it) was to lock yourself in a practice room and... Violin Alchemist what movements you are doing. Keep refining your movement each time you repeat something--be better at The Forehead, or The Sandwich, or whatever you are working on. Your ears will tell you when you're improving, but you will also know you're improving by an increasing feel of ease when you play. Visualizing helps me and my students learn music more quickly with better technique from the very beginning. Here's what to do:
    1. Pick a small section of a piece you're learning (say, 2 or 4 measures)
    2. Read through it without your violin (rest position), but try to feel your fingers in your mind, going down on the correct place on the correct string, as you read.
    3. There will probably be a part that was hard to "feel" in your fingers. Go back over it until you can feel all of the fingers. Note: if you can hear the music as you read it, go ahead and hear it and feel the fingers as you read.
    4. Now try to get the same feeling in your fingers as you play the section on the violin.
    Once you know what the section sounds like, you can also close your eyes and do the same steps as those listed above, but just hear the section in your head as you feel your fingers. You can also do this while you lie in bed at night--sometimes I'll do this with complicated, fast scale passages and find that the next day they are much improved on the instrument. If you're not used to visualizing, this will really stretch you. Take it slowly (just a few measures -- or even a few notes -- at a time.]]>     "Tilt and Pop" for a Relaxed Low 1 tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.36 2007-10-09T23:56:27Z 2007-10-10T00:01:31Z This seems like a good time to talk about "tilt and pop" since I just posted about the Sandwich #2. I like to center all of my students' hands around the 3rd finger. If you do this, you will have... Violin Alchemist Here is a song that I use to practice the "tilt" followed by the "pop".]]> Sandwich #2 tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.35 2007-10-04T23:07:58Z 2008-04-04T21:31:08Z There's another type of sandwich that happens when you play. This one is probably mostly happening for you if you're already counterbalancing, but it's helpful to visualize it specifically. Procedure: Sniff and Toss Feel how your shoulder blades are down... Violin Alchemist counterbalancing, but it's helpful to visualize it specifically. Procedure:
    1. Sniff and Toss
    2. Feel how your shoulder blades are down in back, supporting your arms, so that your hands are just floating up in front of you. Your left hand is floating there in the air. As long as you're counterbalancing in back, that left arm/hand will be able to float up there with no more work on your part.
    3. Drop a finger onto the fingerboard. Notice that the fingerboard just happens to be sandwiched between your floating arm and your dropping finger. It isn't holding up your finger, nor is it being held up by your hand and arm. It's just there in the middle.
    4. Feel that balance between your floating arm and your fingers dropping. As you drop a finger, it is balanced by your floating arm -- too much force and it will disturb your fingerboard. You want to drop each finger just enough that it still remains in balance with your floating arm. The fingerboard just happens to be in the middle of this balancing act. This is the Fingerboard Sandwich.
    ]]>     Sandwich #1 tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.34 2007-10-03T00:18:56Z 2007-10-03T00:38:36Z 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... Violin Alchemist amazing when we're playing. It is seriously a huge rush and is making me wonder, should it be legal?! :-) The Sandwich #1
    1. Sniff and Toss
    2. violin floats on top of your shelf.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.     Sniff and Toss tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.33 2007-10-03T00:10:33Z 2007-10-03T00:18:07Z "Sniff and Toss" is the short way to get into great posture, once you've gotten used to the idea of counterbalancing. I'm writing a post about it because I do it all the time now with my students, and now... Violin Alchemist counterbalancing. I'm writing a post about it because I do it all the time now with my students, and now I do it with new students because it's easy to do, to say, and to remember. Procedure:
    1. Big sniff through your nose, sending it all into that point in your chest where you would wear a gold medal. Your chest will inflate. Your shoulders will stay loose and relaxed and down where they were.
    2. Huff out through your mouth as you swing your arms toward the ground. Your elbows are heavy and swing toward the floor. Your elbows stay close to your body. Let your hands (and violin) swing up using the momentum. You will feel your shoulder blades tilt down in back. Leave them down there so that your arms are suspended in front of you using the muscles in your back.
    3. When you tossed, the violin probably came flying at your head and you turned it around quickly and parked it on your shelf. If not, I hope you are OK and not hurt...
    4. Let your head drop into the chinrest.
    5. Check in with your loose knees.
    ]]>     Elegant Shifting, Part 2: Quiet Stomach tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.19 2007-02-09T22:57:02Z 2007-02-09T23:08:22Z Once you're using the big muscles to shift, it's time to improve your aim. Here's a magical way to do that: Deep breath, float your shelf Counterbalance: let shoulders slide down in back Shoulders down in back means arms float... Violin Alchemist using the big muscles to shift, it's time to improve your aim. Here's a magical way to do that:
    1. Deep breath, float your shelf
    2. Counterbalance: let shoulders slide down in back
    3. Shoulders down in back means arms float up in front of you
    4. Toss violin onto your floating shelf
    5. With floating shelf and arms, feel like you could hula hoop with your pelvis
    6. Find your forehead
    OK, now you're ready. Put your "forehead mind" on your stomach. Now play 0-3-1, shifting into 3rd position (1 goes where the 3 usually goes) with the big muscles. As you let your armpit/elbow come closer to shift you into 3rd position, can you let your stomach stay quiet? There it is, simple as that. Part 3 of Elegant Shifting will have to wait for a while, because I need to talk about finger motion first. Stay tuned!]]>     Elegant Shifting, Part 1: Big Muscles tag:blog.violinalchemist.com,2007://1.18 2007-01-30T00:55:37Z 2008-05-25T02:37:36Z I love to shift. It wasn't always this way. Preparation Before I teach shifting, basic beautiful posture and focus must be in place. This means: Scoop and Deposit or Shelf and PeeCounterbalanceForehead You should feel absolutely great standing there with... Violin Alchemist Preparation Before I teach shifting, basic beautiful posture and focus must be in place. This means:
    1. Scoop and Deposit or Shelf and Pee
    2. Counterbalance
    3. Forehead
    You should feel absolutely great standing there with plenty of breath going through you, air in your armpits, floating, focused. Shifting with the Big Muscles When you shift "up", it's not really up, it's horizontal. Your hand moves toward your nose (shifting "up") or away from you toward the scroll (shifting "down"). Sometimes it helps to stop saying "up" and "down" and instead shift "across" to the other position. The tendency is to want to raise the left shoulder to do this. Please do the following instead:]]>
  • Make sure you have your forehead on.
  • Close your eyes.
  • Plop your first finger down on the A string.
  • Let your left elbow draw towards you, bending more, closing your left armpit, until your left hand touches the body of the violin.
  • Now let your left armpit open again; your left elbow easily opens and moves away from your body until your left hand arrives back in first position.
    • Do this several times, enjoying the totally relaxed feeling of opening and closing your left armpit and letting the elbow open and close. That's the only thing that needs to move here. Everything else--shoulders, left hand, fingers--stay the same. Many people shift as if the finger is doing the shifting. No. All you're doing is opening or closing your armpit and opening or closing your elbow until your hand reaches the position you want. Then you just let your fingers plop down, and there they are, with no effort on their part. The other thing I see is people moving the hand away from the violin when shifting and then flying at the violin and hoping to land in the right place. Kind of scary! :-) If you concentrate on opening/closing the armpit and opening/closing the elbow, this kind of thing won't happen. Your hand will stay over the string and move easily and fluidly, because you are moving with the big muscles of your arm. Note: I'm not talking about shifting into positions higher than, say, 5th or 6th. That comes later. Get the basic armit opening/closing in the lower positions first. Training the Muscles Once you're feeling the motion, shifting becomes a question of training the armpit/elbow how far to go to get to the place you want. An easy place to start is shifting from the 3 in first position to playing that same note with the 1 in third position. The notes ring against the open string below, so it's easy to make sure you're in tune. Once you've figured out how far you have to draw your elbow in for third position, use your forehead to remember what your left armpit and elbow feel like. Then open back into first position and see if you can smoothly get to the place you remembered. Use your ear to tell you if you remembered the way the muscles felt. Try shifting on the A and E strings this way. Shifting into higher positions and shifting on the D and G strings require a slight modification of this technique to stay relaxed.]]>