She Did What She Could Do

It has only been for a few days now, but I’m back on the violin in earnest. And let me tell you, I’m breathing like a dragon in heat while I give all the bruised soft-tissue a wake-up call like they’ve never had.

Sometimes it feels like someone is trying to screw my shoulder off my body while I’m moving around.

For those newcomers who don’t know what I’m talking about – it’s the aftermath of a dislocated shoulder.

In some ways it’s like I’m beginning to learn the violin all over again; getting it into position, forming my left hand, drawing a tone, moving the fingers independently, stretching out the hand, etc.

As I go through this I’m reminded of something one of my teachers said years ago. I was in high school at the time, and playing quite a few competitions. After one of them, in which I suffered a defeat to a very excellent cellist, he said of her, ‘She cannot do everything you can do, but what she does she does extremely well.’

Now that’s interesting. And I’ve never forgotten it.

You see, I am naturally coordinated and athletic. All well and good. Yet those attributes were only able to taking me so far.

Here was a gal with less natural gift who more than made up the stagger through mental calculation. She was further along in the mental game than I. And good things came to her as a result.

So, back to my rehab practice sessions. As I play I’m focused on two things; holding a crystal clear image of what I’m after musically and sonically, and keeping my form absolutely perfect.

In my condition it is even clearer than usual how important it is to frame what you want to do in your mind before attempting to do it on the instrument.

After all, it’s so easy to begin sawing away on some piece of music that’s in front of you without any real guiding thought behind one’s actions.

Watch out for this. Stop. Play it in your head, sing it out loud, see yourself playing it. In short do whatever it takes to get a strong, detailed mental image going.

Next, as you put the violin up and play, take score. Is your left hand well formed, your fingers contacting the strings independently, your right hand moving freely through space, your wrist, elbow, and shoulder relaxed allowing the hand this freedom, the violin resting in the ‘V’ formed by the thumb and base of the hand.

Yea, it’s a lot to think about. No need to rush yourself, take your time, and stay focused in the moment.

After you call these things to mind a few times the process begins to happen very quickly.

Reminds me of learning to ride a motorcycle last summer. At first the number of things to remember, that are different from a car – brake locations, clutch, shifting pattern, seemed overwhelming. I had to put forth some real mental effort the first day and a half.

By the end of day two, however, the same mental gymnastics were bringing me pleasure, not pain. The same is true on the violin

With the dislocation, by the way, I stretched the heck out of the nerves going through the shoulder and down the arm. As a result of this the signal strength to the tips of my fingers is presently quite reduced.

That’s another reason I’m breathing like a dragon; to push signals from my brain through the weakness down to my fingers.

Now go and figure out what you need to do to get the results you want. If you need new ideas you know where to find them.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. For some reason I’m thinking there is someone reading this who’s been thinking about investing in the Kreutzer series. Well, there won’t be a better time than right now to begin putting it to work for you.