Most Common Misconceptions About Practicing & Improving Technique

What is freedom, and what does it mean when playing a musical instrument? What are the limitations we place on our own capabilities — and how do we transcend them to create new patterns, both physically and emotionally? Why is overcoming fear inseparable from the way we play? Does our movement enable us to elongate and open, or does it cause us to contract and close? These are questions we can begin to answer for ourselves as we broaden our perspective and discover untapped potential. This one factor alone can make the difference between a performance that is musically satisfying and one riddled with fearful anticipation.

Automatic Patterns vs. Awareness and Slow Practice

One of the most important reasons for slow practice is that it prevents our automatic responses from taking over — the habitual patterns in technique that may or may not be optimal. Do we clench before a big shift? Do we grip the neck of the violin while moving from one finger to the next? Many players are frustrated when they can verbally identify a problem — “I squeeze my hand and fingers excessively” — but cannot seem to change it.

Key Concept: The smaller and more slowly we make a movement, the finer-tuned our sensitivity to that movement becomes. That is the point at which the body begins to speak to us — so that we are no longer just experiencing the problem from the outside, helplessly.

Two definitions worth keeping in mind as we explore this:

• Elongate — an exercise that elongates the muscles, creating length and openness.
• Contraction — the process in which a muscle becomes shorter and tighter; neurons control the contraction of muscles.

Automatic vs. Voluntary Movements

According to Feldenkrais, when most people encounter difficulties, they tend to start avoiding those areas. By the age of 13 or 14, many people have already established for themselves what they are and are not good at — and some will create rules to reinforce those beliefs: “I’m not good at math,” or “I’m not really musical.” Feldenkrais believed there is no limit to improvement. Every time we expand the boundaries of our awareness, the greater will be our ease of action.

With the invention of language, we have largely muted a more direct mode of thinking — relating to experience primarily through words. But language is ultimately a descriptor; it separates us from the actual experience. Changing anything into language slows down the thinking process. For many players, employing a non-verbal approach to practice will open up a world of sensory experiences that inform the brain and eventually lead to the repatterning of movements that previously seemed fixed.

Awareness Study: From 1st Finger to 4th Finger

The following study addresses one of the most common left hand challenges: moving comfortably from the 1st finger to the 4th finger. (You may be surprised how many professional-level players have learned to tolerate a certain amount of discomfort here.) This study should be done as slowly as possible. The aim is not the number of repetitions but the quality of the experience.

Begin by bringing the violin or viola up and placing the 1st finger on B on the A string.

1. Notice how many different ways you can position the hand in relation to the space between the thumb and index finger. Don’t describe it verbally — just let the body do it.
2. Observe where you tend to place it by habit. Simply notice, without judgment.
3. Intentionally position the hand differently — higher or lower than what you do automatically.
4. Return to the habitual placement. Simply bring up the hand and fingers and allow what happens automatically to happen.
5. Repeat the non-habitual placement — perhaps above the habitual position this time.
6. Return again to the habitual. Notice the contrast.

After this, rest for a moment. If the body becomes strained from repetition, the feeling of strain will pervade the sensory experience and make subtle differences harder to detect. Then experiment with moving from the 1st finger to the 4th finger, making similar observations about where the hand is in relation to the neck of the instrument.

Throughout this process, try to experience it in non-verbal ways. What signals is the body giving you directly? It is in these tiny, seemingly imperceptible moments — when the body speaks to us — that new, more efficient patterns of movement are created and eventually become automatic.

It will also become possible to notice whether you tend to contract the hand when moving from finger to finger, or elongate it. When the left hand is moving optimally, there will eventually be a feeling of expansion from note to note — as the player learns to balance the hand and fingers in relation to the fingerboard.

The Role of the Large Back Muscles

Simple observations of where the humerus bone is in relation to the shoulder girdle — and the muscular patterns that may compromise that relationship.

For movements of the hand to become truly efficient, the player will eventually need to discover how the larger muscles of the torso, back, and even pelvis are involved in what seem like unrelated movements of the left hand. To do this, one must first discover how to support the instrument using the back muscles rather than relying solely on the arm and neck. This will be explored further in a future post.

* Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement, 1972.

by Rozanna Weinberger