(no subject)
Aug. 11th, 2006 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluebeardI've been doing my scales every day; I can go about 10 minutes now before my right hand starts complaining. That doesn't sound like much, but it's amazing how long it takes for the hands to build up such specific strength. I'll keep at it, though.
It's given me pause to think about my relationship with my hands. For most things, for most people, using your hands isn't anything we really think about -- your head says "eat bagel", not "hey! arm! you and the hand -- reach over and grab that! now bring it up to the mouth! there's a good lad!" And typing -- I've been typing for 21 years, and all I have to do is think about the words; my fingers pump the letters out on their own.
With the fiddle, though, I have to re-evaluate where the line is between concious, intentional movement, and unconcious, intuitive movement. If I stare at my hands while I'm doing scales, I get the positions almost right, but I'm pretty sure to screw up. If I don't look and don't think about it, and just say "Play A#," I'll most definitely screw up. However... if I don't look, but still monitor my movements, I can trust that I'll hit the note; the relationship between my concious thoughts, my hands, and my ears becomes a lot more complex.
I wonder if I should try running up and down scales while wearing a blindfold.
It's given me pause to think about my relationship with my hands. For most things, for most people, using your hands isn't anything we really think about -- your head says "eat bagel", not "hey! arm! you and the hand -- reach over and grab that! now bring it up to the mouth! there's a good lad!" And typing -- I've been typing for 21 years, and all I have to do is think about the words; my fingers pump the letters out on their own.
With the fiddle, though, I have to re-evaluate where the line is between concious, intentional movement, and unconcious, intuitive movement. If I stare at my hands while I'm doing scales, I get the positions almost right, but I'm pretty sure to screw up. If I don't look and don't think about it, and just say "Play A#," I'll most definitely screw up. However... if I don't look, but still monitor my movements, I can trust that I'll hit the note; the relationship between my concious thoughts, my hands, and my ears becomes a lot more complex.
I wonder if I should try running up and down scales while wearing a blindfold.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-11 07:53 pm (UTC)Don't look (close eyes if you like), just listen. Play the scale slowly and adjust the note if it's wrong until it sounds right. Play the same scale multiple times, not just once each. What you're doing is grinding in neural pathways in the brain: the more you do each one, the better.
Good for you, for playing scales at all though. People often don't realise how much difference it makes.
I'm wondering why your right (bow) hand is the one getting sore. I have Carpal Tunnel in both hands (from the computer, not the fiddle) and the left is the one that usually complains first when I play, due to the twisted position on the neck of the fiddle. If your right hand is giving you problems you may be gripping the bow too tight (very common!). No death grip is required - you may want to check you have the hand position correct on the bow, and consciously pay attention to relaxing it when you play.
best of luck with your playing!