Avoid THIS Playing Pain
Just returned from a quick weekend jaunt over to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I cavorted in the back-country with a friend. On Sunday we ran through snow showers, arriving well above the 10,000 foot level before making the turn for home.
Got a great, old-fashioned ‘Rocky Mountain High’ on THAT one let me tell you.
Today, however, I’m sitting at my desk facing the red-rock buttes of Sedona. And I just spent a good hour or so reviewing some wonderful videos on YouTube.
Amongst them was one featuring Zukerman in an interview on violin playing and the importance of learning to play properly.
The interesting, or perhaps a little confusing thing about this particular video, however, was that Maestro Zukerman begins his remarks by saying how much physical pain he suffers while playing. And it is within this seemingly ironic context of pain that he expresses the need to learn to play ‘correctly’.
Now, Zukerman is an extra-ordinary violinist, and my comments here should in no way be taken as a criticism of his playing or musicianship.
I also don’t want to give you the impression that I don’t experience any discomfort whatsoever when I play. As Zukerman himself points out, the very positions we take when raising the violin are undeniably unnatural to the human body.
Yet there are things we can do to keep the discomfort to a minimum; to where it does not overwhelm or detract from the pleasure of playing the instrument.
After all, one of the great pleasures of the playing the violin or viola is the close proximity they have to our ear while we play them.
We are literally enveloped by the tone.
The irony of Zukerman’s comments, however, arise from his emphasis on learning correctly, on the one hand, and the specific pain he experiences in his neck and shoulders from his ‘hold’ on the other.
You see, Zukerman was taught to secure the instrument to the shoulder with his chin. Most of us have been taught this, actually.
Yet fortunately for me, and now potentially for you, 3 decades ago I came under the tutelage of a fairly decent fiddler by the name of Nathan Milstein, who had something quite different to say about this important subject.
He said, very matter-of-factly in his heavy Russian accent, ‘hold the violin with your left hand, not with your chin.’
Wow, what a concept. ‘Can this really be done,’ I thought to myself.
Yet there the man was, standing in front of me playing the G Minor Caprice – he always referred to them by key, not by number; #16, in this case – playing with the violin slid half down his shoulder with absolute ease. It would have taken the neck of an ostrich to reach the chinrest from where it was.
Ok, I’m exaggerating just a tad.
Yet the point remains, you can alleviate much of the neck pain and chin abscess issues you may be experiencing by weaning yourself away from the constant reliance on the chin, and to keeping the instrument pinned to your shoulder.
In the process you may also learn a thing or two about how to balance and organize the fingers of your left hand. And guess what, by doing THAT your playing immediately becomes more seamless and fluid.
Not a bad addition to the bargain, I’d say.
So, if you’re having the issues I mentioned, and are up for liberating yourself from the ball and chain of a ‘chin hold,’ come take a look at a great program I have to help you accomplish it and much more.
It’s called, ‘Kreutzer for Violin Mastery.’
All the best, Clayton Haslop
P.S. By the way, last Thursday we finished recording the music to ‘Avatar’ after some 60 or so hours of recording over the past couple months. I also learned that I will be given screen credit for the violin solos. Keep your ears open, and your eyes peeled as the credits roll, on this one.
