20/06/2020
A WORTHWHILE PROTEST
I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that I am inspired by the media frenzy about protests to join one of them. Actually, no, not today. I have something much more violinistic in mind. So, while so much protest is happening in the world, let’s consider a protest that might serve us violinistically.
PROTESTING DOODLING
I nominate “doodling” as a prime subject for violinistic protest. Doodling = the mindless scribbles of a distracted mind. Let’s protest against the time-wasting doodling of left hand fingers on the violin. (The same goes for the right hand, but more on that later.)
Fixing problems in the wrong place.
Doodling happens when we try to fix problems in the wrong place. What is the wrong place? The fingers are the wrong place when we do not have a clear idea of exactly what they are required to do. In that case the right place to fix problems is in the mind. First the mind, then the fingers.
When students make mistakes in lessons, as in the practice room, they often automatically start playing the passage over and over, hoping that the fingers will correct themselves without thinking carefully about the problem first. They try to fix the problem at the fingers, instead of where it originated, which is in the mind. Vague idea in the mind = wrong movements of fingers. Since they can hear the errors, they assume that the fingers will correct themselves. Usually this involves a drawn-out process of trial and error, with errors getting repeated more than the corrections, resulting in a self-defeating process that actually solidifies the errors. The pattern is something like this: error, error, error, error, error, correction (mostly by chance), yippee, it’s fixed! No, it’s not! Many errors + one correction does not = success! Especially if the correction resulted more from chance than from a clear conception of what should happen.
It happens countless times that students doodle at lessons, trying to fix mistakes at the fingers. When I ask them to explain exactly what their fingers are supposed to do - exactly what the intervals in the music are, and what the spacing between fingers should be to actually play those intervals, or exactly what measurable distances should be travelled - they do not actually know. They think they know, because they could hear that something doesn’t sound quite right. But that is too late, and it is not enough information. They haven’t understood exactly what is in the score, and they haven’t thought of exactly what the fingers should do. They had a vague plan, or no plan, heard the resultant mistake/s, and then tried to move the fingers differently, still without knowing exactly what should happen. That is, trying to fix the problem in the wrong place (the fingers) without having a plan (the mind).
When the fingers do not have a clear conception of exactly what they should be doing, in terms of spacing, patterns and frames, they are lost, trying to find their way based only on what is heard. Depending on our hearing for detecting mistakes is making use of information after the fact, which is too late. Instead of error correction, we should aim for error avoidance. Or better still, precision. With a good plan, we can play correctly from the start, with mistakes literally inconceivable (the brain doesn’t conceive of wrong movement, but of the correct ones).
I have often heard it said by virtuoso performers that technique is in the mind, not in the fingers. That is what they mean. The clearer your conception of what should happen, the more precisely your fingers can move. So, for example, my esteemed pianist colleague, professor Albie van Schalkwyk, refers to learning to play a piece at the piano, as first and foremost a process of “sorting out the geography” of the required movements. In other words, how movements relate to the keyboard and to one-another. I think of it as “sorting out the logistics”. Same thing.
That is also why great performers claim that much of their most essential practicing is done away from the instrument. It involves conceptualizing clearly what the fingers have to do, before actually having the fingers do it. How do we avoid mistakes? By having a good plan first. It is told that the great Russian pianist, Mikhail Pletnev, learned the complete set of Scarlatti sonatas for a recording, for which he received the highest accolades, on the plane from Moscow to London on his way to the recording session! I believe it is true. That is how effective proper mindful activity can be as preparation for finger actions.
Fingers can only do what the brain instructs them to do. If they do not get clear instructions from the mind, they cannot move precisely. The quality of finger actions is exactly equal to the quality of the instructions they receive from the mind. However, we instrumentalists all too easily fall into the habit of regarding the fingers as the place where most learning happens. As a result we develop a time-wasting habit of doodling with our fingers. We have our fingers move according to some vague idea of what they should be doing, and then try to correct the mistakes, still without a precise conception of exactly what is required. This is mostly trial and error, but even the error correction is clumsy because of lack of clarity in the mind.
Frame of reference for the left hand
To navigate the territory successfully we need to first have a good map. Since we cannot see the notes on the violin fingerboard, we have to have a frame of reference for placing our fingers correctly. Such a frame of reference involves feeling the distances between notes with our touch-sense (tactile sensations)as well as our movement sense (proprioceptive sensations). But those senses, working of course in conjunction with our hearing, have to operate according to a precise plan. The alternative is doodling.
To do so, we use half-tone and whole-tone spaces between neighbouring fingers as our basic units of “measurement”. We can then extend that into patterns of arrangement. The most basic pattern of finger arrangements consists of two whole-tone spaces plus one half-tone space (the location of the half-tone space can vary) between fingers on one string, making up the interval of a perfect fourth (E to A on the D-string, for example). The perfect fourth constitutes what we call the basic frame of the hand. When that spacing between fingers is done across neighbouring strings, the result is an octave. That is the basic frame of the hand, making a fourth on one string, and an octave on two strings. That Frame of the hand should be as basic and familiar to you as is half-tone and whole-tone spaces between neighbouring fingers.
So now we have three elements constituting our frame of reference for finger placements and movements of the left hand:
Half - and whole-tone spaces
Patterns of those spaces
The Frame of the hand
For finger placements in one position, we use the basic units of measurement (half- and whole-tone spaces between fingers) and their possible arrangements in patterns as our frame of reference. For movements between positions (short or long distances), we use the basic frame of our hand, measuring distances between frames, rather than between single notes.
I consider this conceptual framework to be essential for executing precise finger movements on the violin. Most of the strategies for left hand movements relate in some way to it.
Frame of reference for the right hand/arm
Of course, for right hand/arm movements a similar frame of reference is required. The most basic
elements of such a framework is the numbered sounding point system proposed by Carl Flesch and used by many great pedagogues since. The system consists of 5 distinct sounding points between the bridge and the fingerboard.
Sounding point 1 = right next to the bridge (Flesch would say “on the bridge”)
Sounding point 2 = a little bit further from the bridge (let’s say halfway between sounding point 1 and the middle between the bridge and the fingerboard)
Sounding point 3 = in the middle between the bridge and the fingerboard
Sounding point 4 = next to the fingerboard
Sounding point 5 = on the fingerboard (right next to the edge of the fingerboard)
This is a very effective reference system to control the movements of your bow relative to the bridge and the fingerboard, using visual information. It allows for having not just two, but three sources of information about the bow’s movement: auditory, kinesthetic and visual - you can hear, feel and see what the bow is doing. Having the visual information provided by the 5-point sounding point reference system is invaluable for developing good control of your bow strokes.
The great violin pedagogue, Simon Fischer, has developed excellent exercises based on this system for developing sound production on string instruments. It is worth exploring in detail.
So, to summarize: this is a protest against doodling on the violin. The antidote to doodling is to realize that activities of the mind should precede activities of the hands. A conceptual frame of reference that allows measurement of distances for both hands allows for clear instructions from the mind to the fingers. First the mind, then the fingers. That’s the right way around.
A WORTHWHILE PROTEST
I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that I am inspired by the media frenzy about protests to join one of them. Actually, no, not today. I have something much more violinistic in mind. So, while so much protest is happening in the world, let’s consider a protest that might serve us violinistically.
PROTESTING DOODLING
I nominate “doodling” as a prime subject for violinistic protest. Doodling = the mindless scribbles of a distracted mind. Let’s protest against the time-wasting doodling of left hand fingers on the violin. (The same goes for the right hand, but more on that later.)
Fixing problems in the wrong place.
Doodling happens when we try to fix problems in the wrong place. What is the wrong place? The fingers are the wrong place when we do not have a clear idea of exactly what they are required to do. In that case the right place to fix problems is in the mind. First the mind, then the fingers.
When students make mistakes in lessons, as in the practice room, they often automatically start playing the passage over and over, hoping that the fingers will correct themselves without thinking carefully about the problem first. They try to fix the problem at the fingers, instead of where it originated, which is in the mind. Vague idea in the mind = wrong movements of fingers. Since they can hear the errors, they assume that the fingers will correct themselves. Usually this involves a drawn-out process of trial and error, with errors getting repeated more than the corrections, resulting in a self-defeating process that actually solidifies the errors. The pattern is something like this: error, error, error, error, error, correction (mostly by chance), yippee, it’s fixed! No, it’s not! Many errors + one correction does not = success! Especially if the correction resulted more from chance than from a clear conception of what should happen.
It happens countless times that students doodle at lessons, trying to fix mistakes at the fingers. When I ask them to explain exactly what their fingers are supposed to do - exactly what the intervals in the music are, and what the spacing between fingers should be to actually play those intervals, or exactly what measurable distances should be travelled - they do not actually know. They think they know, because they could hear that something doesn’t sound quite right. But that is too late, and it is not enough information. They haven’t understood exactly what is in the score, and they haven’t thought of exactly what the fingers should do. They had a vague plan, or no plan, heard the resultant mistake/s, and then tried to move the fingers differently, still without knowing exactly what should happen. That is, trying to fix the problem in the wrong place (the fingers) without having a plan (the mind).
When the fingers do not have a clear conception of exactly what they should be doing, in terms of spacing, patterns and frames, they are lost, trying to find their way based only on what is heard. Depending on our hearing for detecting mistakes is making use of information after the fact, which is too late. Instead of error correction, we should aim for error avoidance. Or better still, precision. With a good plan, we can play correctly from the start, with mistakes literally inconceivable (the brain doesn’t conceive of wrong movement, but of the correct ones).
I have often heard it said by virtuoso performers that technique is in the mind, not in the fingers. That is what they mean. The clearer your conception of what should happen, the more precisely your fingers can move. So, for example, my esteemed pianist colleague, professor Albie van Schalkwyk, refers to learning to play a piece at the piano, as first and foremost a process of “sorting out the geography” of the required movements. In other words, how movements relate to the keyboard and to one-another. I think of it as “sorting out the logistics”. Same thing.
That is also why great performers claim that much of their most essential practicing is done away from the instrument. It involves conceptualizing clearly what the fingers have to do, before actually having the fingers do it. How do we avoid mistakes? By having a good plan first. It is told that the great Russian pianist, Mikhail Pletnev, learned the complete set of Scarlatti sonatas for a recording, for which he received the highest accolades, on the plane from Moscow to London on his way to the recording session! I believe it is true. That is how effective proper mindful activity can be as preparation for finger actions.
Fingers can only do what the brain instructs them to do. If they do not get clear instructions from the mind, they cannot move precisely. The quality of finger actions is exactly equal to the quality of the instructions they receive from the mind. However, we instrumentalists all too easily fall into the habit of regarding the fingers as the place where most learning happens. As a result we develop a time-wasting habit of doodling with our fingers. We have our fingers move according to some vague idea of what they should be doing, and then try to correct the mistakes, still without a precise conception of exactly what is required. This is mostly trial and error, but even the error correction is clumsy because of lack of clarity in the mind.
Frame of reference for the left hand
To navigate the territory successfully we need to first have a good map. Since we cannot see the notes on the violin fingerboard, we have to have a frame of reference for placing our fingers correctly. Such a frame of reference involves feeling the distances between notes with our touch-sense (tactile sensations)as well as our movement sense (proprioceptive sensations). But those senses, working of course in conjunction with our hearing, have to operate according to a precise plan. The alternative is doodling.
To do so, we use half-tone and whole-tone spaces between neighbouring fingers as our basic units of “measurement”. We can then extend that into patterns of arrangement. The most basic pattern of finger arrangements consists of two whole-tone spaces plus one half-tone space (the location of the half-tone space can vary) between fingers on one string, making up the interval of a perfect fourth (E to A on the D-string, for example). The perfect fourth constitutes what we call the basic frame of the hand. When that spacing between fingers is done across neighbouring strings, the result is an octave. That is the basic frame of the hand, making a fourth on one string, and an octave on two strings. That Frame of the hand should be as basic and familiar to you as is half-tone and whole-tone spaces between neighbouring fingers.
So now we have three elements constituting our frame of reference for finger placements and movements of the left hand:
Half - and whole-tone spaces
Patterns of those spaces
The Frame of the hand
For finger placements in one position, we use the basic units of measurement (half- and whole-tone spaces between fingers) and their possible arrangements in patterns as our frame of reference. For movements between positions (short or long distances), we use the basic frame of our hand, measuring distances between frames, rather than between single notes.
I consider this conceptual framework to be essential for executing precise finger movements on the violin. Most of the strategies for left hand movements relate in some way to it.
Frame of reference for the right hand/arm
Of course, for right hand/arm movements a similar frame of reference is required. The most basic
elements of such a framework is the numbered sounding point system proposed by Carl Flesch and used by many great pedagogues since. The system consists of 5 distinct sounding points between the bridge and the fingerboard.
Sounding point 1 = right next to the bridge (Flesch would say “on the bridge”)
Sounding point 2 = a little bit further from the bridge (let’s say halfway between sounding point 1 and the middle between the bridge and the fingerboard)
Sounding point 3 = in the middle between the bridge and the fingerboard
Sounding point 4 = next to the fingerboard
Sounding point 5 = on the fingerboard (right next to the edge of the fingerboard)
This is a very effective reference system to control the movements of your bow relative to the bridge and the fingerboard, using visual information. It allows for having not just two, but three sources of information about the bow’s movement: auditory, kinesthetic and visual - you can hear, feel and see what the bow is doing. Having the visual information provided by the 5-point sounding point reference system is invaluable for developing good control of your bow strokes.
The great violin pedagogue, Simon Fischer, has developed excellent exercises based on this system for developing sound production on string instruments. It is worth exploring in detail.
So, to summarize: this is a protest against doodling on the violin. The antidote to doodling is to realize that activities of the mind should precede activities of the hands. A conceptual frame of reference that allows measurement of distances for both hands allows for clear instructions from the mind to the fingers. First the mind, then the fingers. That’s the right way around.
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