Posted on May 17, 2008 by Abigail McHugh in Left Hand Agility/Articulation - Left Hand/Arm
When she showed me this practice technique, Lizzy prefaced it by talking about a neurologist who had been watching his child play the piano and had concluded that what we do as musicians should be impossible. According to the inspirational story, playing an instrument is the most complicated activity that we, as human beings, engage in. We must move the big and small muscles of both sides of our bodies very quickly and accurately, in response to stimuli received by our eyes and ears, in order to produce something beautiful. In other words, we are moving at break-neck speeds, neurologically speaking. The neurologist concluded that we do this by organizing our movements into groups, so that by sending one impulse, we perform a series of actions.
Lizzy had me practice this by breaking a difficult fast passage into very small pieces (as small as necessary to play with ease), and then practicing the chuck several times as quickly as possible. Obviously the idea of practicing small groups very quickly is nothing new, but what she emphasized that really helped me, was that I needed to maintain an attitude of complete relaxation and effortlessness while playing. If at any point I felt that something was difficult, that meant that the chuck was too big or I was just taking it too seriously. Doing this with my own students, I often spend a great deal of time reminding them to remain “cool as a cucumber” and to keep telling themselves how easy it is to play the cello. I also find it helps to hear the group of notes in my head before playing and then imitating the ease and connectedness of that sound. I try to really feel that I am moving once and several notes are coming out as a result (one impulse). As for the size of the groups, two notes is a fine size, especially if those two notes contain a difficult shift or string crossing, but then incorporate that two-note group into a larger group with the notes before or after. Also be sure that groups overlap so you have practiced all possible combinations.
Note 1: This practice technique works well for both the right and left hands, and even more importantly for coordinating the two.
Note 2: I have since read the books that the neurologist story came from, and though the above summary is not exactly accurate, it was certainly inspiring for me. The two books, both interesting and worth a read, are Tone Deaf and All Thumbs, by Frank Wilson, and The Breakout Principle, by Herbert Benson (especially the chapter on Athleticism).