Starting With Ease

I remember once visiting my brother in New York while he was studying at the Juilliard School of Music. He took me to a recital of one of his classmates playing the Franck Violin Sonata. In one passage, the violinist threw his hand up into a high position for a change of color. It was such an effortless easy motion, that you might think it was as natural as breathing. Unless you play the violin, that is. Then your eyes bugged out and you suddenly had a change of color yourself. I went a bit green with envy. That recital was seventeen years ago now. And I still remember that one moment. Not because he was able to do it. But because he did it with such ease.

One of our goals in playing the violin is to use the least amount of effort to achieve the desired effect. We never get there, of course, but it’s still our goal. Why should this be something to strive for? Well, holding excess tension is very tiring. It causes us to stiffen up, which gets in the way of our freedom of motion. Our tone becomes more wooden and one-dimensional. Our vibrato becomes stiff and mechanical. And worst of all, we become prone to overuse injuries and muscle aches and pains. It’s hard to have a long career if you’re in constant pain.

Some musicians think that the solution is to first learn to play a piece and then to learn to do it with more ease. This is putting the cart before the horse. It’s much harder to unlearn tension than it is to start from a state of rest, adding only the tension that you need. Part of playing a piece is recreating the same muscular tensions that you had as you learned it. Excess tension, then, is a learned habit that’s an equal part of playing a piece as the notes and rhythms and phrasing. This is why it’s so important to start with ease, rather than to start with excess tension. I’ll explain more about how I do this in a bit. But first, let’s discuss how muscles work.

How Muscles Work

A muscle can only do one of two things: 1) it can contract, or 2) it can stop contracting. A muscle cannot push by lengthening — it can only pull by contracting. So how is it that your forearm, for example, can move in both directions from the elbow? The answer is that most muscles work in pairs. One set of muscles — your bicep — will be in charge of bringing your forearm toward your shoulder. And then another set of muscles — your tricep — will be on the opposite side of the bone, pulling it in the other direction. Between the two opposing muscles, you’ll be able to get your arm to where you want it to be.

In order to have a smooth movement, you need both muscles to be working at the same time. If a muscle pulls unopposed, you would have an uncontrolled flop. It’s like if one side in a tug-of-war drops the rope. So allowing as many muscles as possible to go loose and floppy is not the goal here. Tension is not the enemy. It’s necessary and useful. What we want is to use the right amount of tension in the right places, and no more.

What happens if neither muscle is pulling the attached bone? Let’s try a quick experiment.

Introducing the Zero Point

Let your arm dangle, with your hand relaxed. Notice how your fingers have a slight curve to them. Now squeeze your hand into a fist. And relax. Did your fingers go back to that same curve? Good. Now try the opposite — straighten your fingers as if you want the teacher to call on you in class. Then relax again. Same curve, right? When neither muscle is pulling on a body part, it returns to a neutral position in a state of rest. This position is called the zero point. It’s the point of zero effort of either muscle. 

Let’s try another quick experiment. Bring your arm up, so your hand is above your elbow. Keep your fingers relaxed. But wait a second, wasn’t the zero point for those fingers more straight? What’s the deal with that? I’m stating the obvious here, but when your hand is pointing down, gravity opens your fingers up. And when your hand is pointing up, gravity curls your fingers toward your palm. Keep this in mind, because while playing the violin, your left hand is pointed up, and your right hand is not.

That’s Great, Eric. But What Do I Do With That?

I’ll give you an example of how I start with ease and build from there. The zero point is a good place to start before every practice session. I make it part of my warm-up. Before I pick up the violin, I check in with my posture. Am I sitting or standing straight with my weight supported by my bones? Or am I slouching, throwing the work onto the muscles of my back and neck? Then I put the violin up. I do this in three steps: 1) violin on the shoulder, 2) look left, and 3) nod down. This is much better than throwing yourself into position in one motion. Why? Because the three-step process is more likely to keep your head and neck in good alignment. It avoids the pitfalls of hunching up the left shoulder and leaning your head to the left. It also gives you a chance to make sure your shoulder rest is set up well for that day. All of this happens before I even pick up the bow or tune the strings.

This simple check-in takes me less than a minute. As I progress through my warm-up, I add in one extra difficulty at a time. Full bows on open strings, focusing on an easy tone. Then slow single notes with a relaxed left hand and an easy vibrato. Then scales, improvisation, or whatever simple thing I feel like playing that day. I’ve got this all written out on a single page, with “Easy Does It” in big bold letters across the top. After five minutes or so, I’m relaxed and comfortable, playing with ease. I’m ready to practice.

Conclusion

As I said at the beginning, playing the violin with ease is the end goal. But it should also be the starting point. In the middle, we’ll encounter challenging passages that will cause us to tense up. This is inevitable. When we realize we’re too tense, it’s our job to find our way back to that ease that we started with.

Remember this — playing at a high level isn’t about learning difficult music. It’s about making that difficult music easy.