By Paul Stein: It is virtually impossible to describe what is actually happening when someone plays every note in tune on the violin, but it shouldnt stop us from trying. There are several components, including the ear, an acute sense of space, and muscle memory. The way they interact, all the while staying interdependent with the bow arm, lies in the realm of what we think of as talent.
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Housed in our DNA makeup, talent is the foundation for musical common sense and physical coordination that is commensurate with superb athleticism. Some of us are saturated with such qualities, and others are more or less endowed with them. The ultimate gift of music is how the latter can discover the talent within them and cultivate it to an incredibly high level. The tragedy is how someone with a huge talent can stagnate and never get beyond what they were initially gifted with. 10,000 hours of work encrusts the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Talent is a double-edged sword, but there is no doubt that its worth is beyond question. It showcases the essence of both music and technique. And each of us can identify it and nurture it. The exploration will surprise us, because the results feel so good. Ive always felt that it was significant that Suzuki established the Talent Education Research Institute. He set the standard that each individual pursues and develops the talent that is within him.
Checklist for Organic Fingers
Out-of-tune notes happen because several things may go wrong:
When something vague becomes concrete, you know youre making progress. It dawned on me that a whole step in first position is very predictable in how it feels, and becomes more and more unique as I compared it to slightly sharper and flatter variations of it. In other words, a tiny area with no physical demarcations or frets was transformed into something replete with fail-proof boundaries. Finally, the dissection of space that a pitcher or quarterback feels was within my grasp. This is what I mean by "organic fingers."
What we learn in first position stays with us the rest of our lives. When its done with a strong and knowledgeable confidence, it is a reliable template for all other positions. The feelings and proportions between fingers are the same in all the positions as they are in the first. The only difference is theyre a tiny bit smaller. Hence, the hand has the feel of an iron glove, which is very useful in its consistency. All we have to remember is the exact intervals. It doesnt take much effort to move smaller distances in higher positions, because the hand, which is already too big for the fingerboard, has already learned to be smaller in first position.
What We Can Learn From the Sport of Bowling
Music is so full of soft edges, elliptical contours, and ethereal beauty that we need to remember the right angles of rhythm and the laws of the violins planes. When it comes to the precision of our left fingers, it all comes down to the fingers entering the fingerboard through the slot thats meant for each particular finger. Like bowling pins, in which the apparatus that controls them is a well-designed machine descending from above the pins, our hand, wrist, and arm need to set up the perfect placement of the fingers.
Youll know things are working correctly when every interval, half-step or huge, requires an adjustment of the support foundation. Elbow, wrist, knuckles and palm enter into a lovely dance to get the finger ready for its slot. Keep an eye on your ring or watch to see how much movement is taking place. The third finger, so its so welded to the second finger, takes the most maneuvering. No one said it was easy. But its elegantly doable.
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- The fingers never developed a reliable template for the few intervals in first position.
- The hand is cramped and not centered over the strings plane. Fingers miss their target because the hand is askew.
- Lack of synchronicity with the ear. Theres a good reason why were told how important the ear is. The fingers are trained to follow the lead of the ear. Without the synchronicity of the ear, the rhythm, and the fingers, playing in tune would be virtually impossible. That the sequencing of this split-second, rapid firing experience of hearing the note and striking the fingerboard actually takes place thousands of times is one of the most remarkable aspects of our minds.
- An inaccurate assessment of how low or high the pitch is after a mistake embeds the mistake into future performances. Observe that the mistake, in each repetition, will usually happen with same degree of flatness or sharpness. This bodes well for fixing it. The less random the mistake, the better.
