And forget something too

Violin: Well today was hard work as I tackled my son of a bitch right hand. The tension I get in my knuckles is so ingrained and automatic it's almost impossible to play anything without it. I think I started to feel what it is to have them relaxed though. First I tried relaxing them right away, and then bowing, which I have tried before and it didn't do much good today. Then I forced them to collapse and played for a while like that. Then it occurred to me that in the same way I had worked on "connecting" all the other parts of my arm, I should connect the knuckles as well. And since they are joints, I figured I would try to connect them with my elbow. This proved to be difficult but ultimately fruitful. When I could feel a connection I was able to relax them in a way I had never felt before. I was able to bow a little and maintain it. Further improvements were made by remembering to keep the wrist relaxed and part of the system, and to pull down from the back of the upper arm and bottom of the elbow. In this manner I was able to successfully bow while keeping the knuckles relaxed. I was even able to apply arm weight without them tensing up which was something I had never felt before. So here's to forgetting what I knew all too well - stiff knuckles.

Life: I didn't post yesterday because after my exam (which I think I aced) I tried to practice and couldn't because I kept falling asleep. So I went home, and at around 7 went to sleep, and didn't get up until the next day at around 9:30. But I still learned something yesterday, and that was that I can't practice when I'm sleep deprived! The problem is that I'm concentrating so hard on making my body relaxed that I put myself to sleep. Hopefully I won't have the same effect on future audiences.

Practice Time: 4 hours