by
Jack Heggie and Ellen Rose
During the middle part of this century, Moshe Feldenkrais, a Russian-born
Israeli, devised a system called Awareness Through Movement®
where human awareness was improved by closely studying the movements of
the body. Before his death in 1984, Feldenkrais conducted special programs
in his method for musicians at Yehudi Menuhin's International School in
London and at the International Course of Orchestra Conducting in Salzburg
and Monte Carlo, directed by Igor Markevitch. Musicians, dancers, and athletes
have attained better levels of performance with the help of the Awareness
Through Movement method. Although Feldenkrais developed this system
working with basic movements such as standing, crawling, walking, running,
and breathing, his approach can also be applied to improving the fine movements
required to play a string instrument.
Feldenkrais discovered that our ability to move with speed, precision, and
power depends on our sensitivity, or our ability to feel what we are doing.
Recent findings by neurophysiologists about how the nervous system organized
movement (by changing the bias on the sensing elements in the muscle) confirm
Feldenkrais' practical work. Thus, by paying attention to the details of
small, light, slow movements, string players can improve both their sensitivity
and their performance.
One of the teacher's major goals is to help foster change in a student's
approach to playing. Often students will come to a lesson with a list of
technical problems that need to be changed and want immediate answers in
the form of exercises, different hand positions, or new instructions. Although
exercises are necessary and helpful at times, it is the approach to the
exercises or movements that is crucial. When practicing, students often
concentrate on the exercise itself rather than on the approach to it. While
repeatedly playing an exercise can improve the trouble spot, a new approach
is often needed to change a particular aspect of playing, such as switching
from an arm vibrato to a hand vibrato. The exercises presented here are
especially appropriate for this purpose and can be used for bowed instruments
as well as other string instruments.
Range of Motion
Because students and teachers often think there is only one way to position
the left hand or use the bow arm, they overlook an idea that could be more
valuable and helpful to them. Just as we have a range of motion in standing
upright in one place (leaning forward and backward, or to the left and right)
before we lose our balance, we have ranges of motion in the left and right
hands (an in the body as it relates to playing) before we get into the areas
that promote tension and distort positions.
Here is one awareness exercise that has worked well with out students. Set
aside abut an hour and a half to do the exercise. If at all possible, as
a friend to read the exercise to you so that all of your attention can be
directed to the exercise. Just before you start, record yourself playing
a few bars of a favorite piece. At the end of the exercise, record the piece
a second time and then play back both recordings to compare them.
Left-Hand Exercise
Sit in a comfortable position. Place your instrument in playing position
with your left hand supporting the instrument's neck. Allow your right hand
to rest comfortably in your lap, leaving the bow aside for now.
Direct your attention to your left index finger. Close your eyes and slowly
lift the finger up about one to one and a half inches off the string. Slowly
move it down until it just touches the string. Continue this motion, moving
the finger up and down, and feel which joint of the finger bends to move
the finger. Do this for a minute or two and as you continue to move, open
your eyes and look at the finger. Do your eyes confirm what you feel?
Many people have difficult feeling exactly how the finger moves to stop
the string without looking at it. Left-hand tension is often caused from
faulty muscular feedback such as this.
Continue to move the finger as before, close your eyes again, and feel how
the finger moves. After a few movements, open your eyes and look at the
finger. Once you repeat this process several times, you will find that the
feeling of movement in the finger is much more precise.
Now bring your finger down to rest on the string. Slowly increase the pressure
on the string and notice what happens. You will feel that as you increase
the pressure on the string, the skin at the tip of the finger is depressed
a fraction of an inch.
Do only the movement where the finger is in contact with the string. Press
down and feel the skin start to depress, but stop just as the string starts
to move down. Reverse the movement, and let the finger move up, but do not
let the finger break contact with the string. The motion of the finger will
probably be less than one tenth of an inch. Repeat this motion for one to
two minutes and remember to breathe easily as you are executing it.
Next, continue to press down on the string slowly, until the string moves
down and touches the fingerboard. The instant you feel the string touch
the board, stop and reverse the finger movement until the string is straight
again. Do not take the pressure of the tip of the finger. Repeat this movement
for one to two minutes and breathe easily. Pay careful attention to exactly
when the string touches the fingerboard so that you can reverse the movement
at that point.
Now bring the string down until it makes contact with the fingerboard. From
this point, increase the pressure until the string is pressed firmly into
the board, then release the pressure until the string is just resting on
the fingerboard. Repeat this movement for about one to two minutes.
Four-Part Movement
Set your instrument down and rest for a minute. While you are resting, review
the various stages of the movement you have learned. By moving very slowly
and paying attention to your movement, you should be able to feel that the
movement the finger makes to stop the string is composed of four stages.
In the first stage of the movement, the finger moves down to make contact
with the string. In the second stage, the string presses into the finger
and slightly depresses it at the tip of the finger. In the third stage of
the movement, the finger pushes the string down until the string makes contact
with the fingerboard. In the fourth stage, the finger pressure increases
slightly, holding the string firmly against the board to produce a clear
note.
Put your instrument back in playing position and move your index finger
through the four stages of stopping the string. Pause about one second between
each stage of pressing down and releasing the string. Do this for two minutes.
When you are finished, set your instrument down, rest your hands in your
lap, and close your eyes.
Direct your attention to your left hand and compare the first finger with
the other three. What is the difference? Wiggle all four fingers around
a little. Which finger moves more easily? Which finger do you think will
play better?
Put your instrument back into playing position and go through the previous
series of movements with each of the other three fingers. Be sure to move
slowly and easily, and to think of your breathing from time to time. After
working with each finger, be sure to set your instrument down and compare
the fingers that have done the exercise with the ones that have not. When
you have finished exercising all four fingers of the left hand, take a bread
for a few minutes.
Right-hand Exercise
When you are ready to start with the right hand, put your instrument in
playing position and lay the bow across the strings. Draw the bow its full
length back and forth across a string, sounding an open note. Observe your
right arm, watching how it moves to draw the bow.
Start with a down-bow at the frog. As the right hand moves away from the
instrument, all the motion is in the elbow; that is, the shoulder and upper
arm remain immobile while the elbow straightens so that the forearm moves
to draw the bow. At a certain point, however, the elbow joint stops straightening,
and the movement switches to the shoulder joint. You may find that you have
used up half or more of the bow to get to this point. From here on, the
movement of drawing the bow originates in the shoulder joint, and the upper
arm moves. Reverse these movements starting at the tip and ending at the
frog to get back to the original position.
Spend as much time as you wish experimenting with this until you can clearly
observe how the movement of drawing the bow is composed of two stages. In
the first stage, beginning with the bow at he frog, the elbow joint straightens
to produce the movement, and the shoulder joint is immobile. In the second
stage, the elbow joint is immobile, and the should joint moves to produce
the movement. When you are thoroughly familiar with this movement, close
your eyes and continue to feel the movement of the arm. Can you feel the
two stages of the movement?
Set your instrument down and rest briefly, then bring it back to playing
position with the bow resting across the strings. To increase your awareness
and sensitivity, move the bow in an unorthodox manner.
Reverse Draw
To do this, begin the movement with the bow at the frog. Hold the angle
of the right elbow constant and begin to draw the bow with a shoulder motion
only. When the upper arm is pointing out to the right side, the should joint
will have reached the limit of its range of movement in this direction.
When this happens, begin to unbend the right elbow to complete the down-bow
movement. Reverse the two movements to bring the hand back to the instrument
and repeat them.
Make sure that as you execute the reverse draw, you are clear about how
you are moving. When you begin the down-bow by moving the hand away from
the instrument in the first stage, the shoulder joint moves, but the angle
of the elbow joint remains unchanged. In the second stage, the elbow joint
is moving, but the angle of the should joint remains unchanged. Thus, only
one joint moves at a time.
When you can do the reverse draw easily with your eyes open or closed, try
your normal draw a few times. Does it feel any different? Try several normal
draws, several reverse draws, then several normal ones and so on until you
can do both easily. Again, set your instrument down and rest for a few minutes.
Pick up your instrument and play the piece into the tape recorder again.
How does it feel to play now? Rewind the tape and listen to the before and
after recordings back to back. Which sounds the best? Most musicians notice
a definite improvement in their playing after spending an hour or so improvement
their awareness in this way.
The exercises presented here demonstrate two general principles of learning
that Feldenkrais incorporated into his work. In the fist, or left-hand part
of the exercise, you can feel that reducing the effort in movement to a
minimum and paying attention to small details results in a dramatic improvement
in movement. In the second, or right-hand part, you can feel how practicing
the wrong way, slowly, but with awareness, considerably
improves the correct way. |
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