Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Working on basics pays huge dividends
Yehudi Menuhin
It's about ten weeks since I decided to do away with the shoulder rest on my violin having used it since I started just two years ago. I wrote at the time that my reason was to free myself of a contraption that tended to cause fixation in my shoulder and hold the violin rigidly. I wanted closer contact with the instrument and freedom of movement so eventually I may be able to play more fluidly and hopefully better.
Removing the shoulder rest meant that the instrument was no longer held in place and so is now balanced between the left thumb and my collarbone. It required a lot of practice in order to balance the instrument steadily while playing without tending to clamp tightly with the chin. Indeed this is how all violinists played fifty years or so ago before the shoulder rest was invented. Many would have had long necks too and managed to hold the instrument without fixation or pain.....and so being a traditionalist at heart I also wish to do it that way. I can only liken it to riding a horse bare-back without a saddle... except I can't fall off.
My approach has been to work on the process of 'how' I play the instrument. So back to basics of simple long bowed notes and scales, watching in a mirror to see what is happening from the 'outside' so giving a different perspective. Because although we may think we're doing something in a particular way, the mirror may show diferently. We cannot always trust our senses.
My focus has been on making less effort, being light and free in my neck and for my left shoulder which does not support the violin as it sits on the collarbone, to be free too and able to move and not inhibit vibrato. Any attempt to play music early on only caused the 'technique' I have been working on to fly out of the window and I would tighten up with the intent to 'play the piece well'. So I chose to play a lot of random notes which don't matter so giving me the chance to focus on technique. This is rather like learning to drive a car in an empty parking lot without any traffic to worry about. By simplifying it all down to basics and removing aspects of consideration to do with musicality, I can work on the 'means whereby' I play the instrument. It's the 'how'. It's 'how' I play the instrument and not 'what' (music piece) that's important at this stage.
I've also watched and studied as many examples as I can possibly find of film recordings of early 20th century performers such as Heifetz, Oistrakh, Menuhin, Stern and many more. I watched the fluidity, the smoothness of movement, the ease and grace, the effortless approach, the balance and poise of the player. This is 'how' they play and the evidence is in the sound. But it is the 'how' that must come first. I may be talking here about playing the violin, but you'll guess it could easily be about a golf or tennis swing, piano playing or any other performance.
Now after ten weeks of patiently working on the 'how' I do it, I can honestly say that I'm truly excited about progress. It feels great, It looks right in the mirror as far as my poise, balance, ease of movement and free relaxed quality is concerned....I've just go to get the notes in the right order now to make some music! But that will come. Now I'm playing better than I did before I ditched the shoulder rest and the Handel sonata is sounding a whole lot different. I'm smiling.
This morning was a landmark day. I truly felt that it's all suddenly coming together. You may say that ten weeks is a long time to mess around with technique, but it's the technique that will determine how well I play in the future and there's a whole lifetime of that left.
Whatever you're learning to do, be it in sport, music, dance, or any other activity where demands are put on your personal performance, it's really worth making sure that your technique is fundamentally sound. Get great examples of other performers to copy and stick with basics for as long as possible as these will support your technique and every future performance you give.
I'm off to play a few notes now....
Have a great weekend.
;-)
