Troubleshooting 1: Physical Problems

Do you have aches & pains or physical limitations when fiddling?  Or feel restricted in the kind of sound you can get?  Do you have trouble hearing and matching notes and patterns?   In this and the next two articles, we’re going to troubleshoot these problems and offer some tips on how to address them.  We’ll start with a look at physical aches and pains, next time talking about sound and bowing problems, and then issues to do with left hand notes and pattern difficulties.  We may need to spend several articles on each of these issues; I hope you find them useful and enjoyable.  Your comments are always welcome!

Let’s start off with the bow hand, work our way into shoulder and neck troubles, down the left arm to the hand and fingers there.  Finally, we’ll talk a bit about the back, hips and legs.

Keep in mind that many aches and pains are not be caused by the violin, so you should see a doctor or physical therapist, of course, if problems persist.

About videos — many of the exercises described below correspond to technique videos available on fiddle-online.com.  These videos allow you to work in real-time or at your own pace to make sure you learn and make use of the exercises while being reminded of what to aim for.  They can be very helpful because verbal descriptions are only a rough sketch of what to do.  In fact, often videos are not even enough — I’ve had many students discover that it takes a personal context to apply these ideas to their own playing.  If you feel this way, a one-off  online lesson can be arranged via the Credits Store.

Below are suggestions for addressing or preventing the following concerns:

• Shaky right hand
• Stiff right wrist/restriction on length of bow
• Right forearm tightness
• Right shoulder ache
• Neck pain
• Tooth or jaw pain after playing
• Left wrist and hand tension or awkwardness
• Back ache
• Ankle pain

Problem:  A shaky or tense right hand.  I know someone who started seeing a doctor for severe shakes in his right hand which got worse when he played more, or when he got tense about difficult tunes.  I took a look at how he was holding his bow and noticed part of what was causing the problem:  his right thumb was held stiff and straight as he played.
Suggestions:
—1. Thumb Roll exercise (#1 in Technique Video Group 1).  Lay the bow upside down across the middle of the fingers of the right hand and place the tip of the thumb on the stick, in the middle of your hand (not near first finger or little finger).  Moving only the thumb, bend and straighten it a few times — this will roll the bow back and forth.  End up with the thumb bent and touching the hairs.  Why this helps:  This isolates the thumb and practices bending it while holding the bow.  A straight thumb creates great tension in the hand by forcing the muscle at the base of the thumb to grip the bow, whereas a bent thumb supports the bow passively without tension, the way a weight rests on a column.
—2. Windshield Wiper exercise (#2 in TechVid Group 1).  While keeping thumb bent, weigh bow upside down with forefinger, and flip bow over to balance it with little finger.  Why this helps:  It builds awareness in forefinger and little finger, giving them a sense of how they can do their part without making the whole hand work too hard.
—3. Triangle exercise (#3 in TechVid Group 1).  Press bow to string a few times, in different parts of the bow, without moving the bow along the string.  Why this helps: It isolates the forefinger and gives it practice learning how to apply pressure in different parts of the bow without needing help from the rest of the hand.
—4. Inchworm exercise (#7 in TechVid 2).  Hold bow level to the floor and make your hand crawl up the bow to the other end, keeping thumb bent and little fingertip on top the bow for stability.  Why this helps: You have to free up your fingers and keep them all moving, thawing them out if they’ve felt frozen into a position they think is “correct”.  The different weight distribution of the bow as you move along it builds awareness in different parts of the hand.

Problem:  A stiff right wrist restricting the length of bow you can use. If your bow isn’t straight (parallel to the bridge), it’s hard to use as much bow as you may want or need; this is often caused by a stiff right wrist.
Suggestions:
—1. Place hand on a large sponge with flat hand, fingers curled over the edge.  Wipe down a counter with the sponge, keeping the edge of the sponge parallel to the edge of the counter.  Why this helps: This replicates the bowing movement and reminds the wrist how natural it is to bend and accommodate the sponge as it wipes the counter.
—2. Long bows (#4 in TechVid Group 1), and Short bows (#6 in TechVid 1).  Practice taking time to do four full length bows on each open string; then, keeping the same bow speed, try 8 short bows on each string.  Why this helps:   You can’t play a full-length bow with a stiff wrist, so this is a good chance to practice the movement you reminded your wrist of by doing the sponge exercise.  A short bow uses the same motion, a slice out of the long bow, and reinforces the long-bow wrist motion for quicker bows.
—3.  Body mapping exercise (#9 in TechVid 1).  Part of this exercise practices the motion of pushing the bow downbow and pulling it upbow, leading both directions from the wrist.  Why this helps:  The image of pushing downbow and pulling upbow can naturally remind the wrist to moving efficiently.
—4. Circular bows (#3 in TechVid 2).  Hard to describe, better to work with video!  Start in the air and gradually land the bow on a string, bearing in as it moves down the string, and take off into the air, never stopping but circling around to try again.  The bow must always be parallel to the bridge, and the movement from landing to takeoff is a single sweep.  Why this helps:  Liberates a stiff wrist and arm to enjoy the sweep of the bow; keeping the bow parallel to the bridge requires a flexible wrist.

Problem:  Right forearm aches.
Suggestions:
—1.  Flex the hands.  Straighten arm and bend hand up with fingers pointed to ceiling, as if motioning for someone to stop.  Circle hand around and point fingers down, flexing wrist so that palm is facing away from you.  Hold and repeat a few times.  Why this helps:  The forearm muscles can get overused if there’s too much tension in the bowhand (or left hand).  Remember that while you’re playing, your right palm faces down and your left palm up; it’s important to balance this off, and flex the wrists the other way sometimes.
—2.  Review the wrist exercises listed just above, with a focus on doing them while deliberately keeping the right forearm relaxed.  Use open strings so you don’t get distracted by fingering any notes.  Only go as far on the bow as you can relax the forearm; this range of relaxed motion can be expanded if you keep doing it.  Why this helps:  Leading with the wrist relieves the forearm of a lot of unnecessary work and worry that can tense things up.

Problem:  Right shoulder ache.
Suggestions:
—1.  Make sure you’re holding the violin off toward the left side, not in front of you.  Why this helps:  Holding the violin toward the left allows the right arm to bow in front of your body.  Holding the violin directly in front of you forces your right shoulder to pull back unnaturally as you bow.
—2. See wrist exercises above.  Why this helps:  Leading with wrist rather than elbow relieves the shoulder of doing any bowing work at all, except for choosing which string to play.
—3.  Door stretch.  Stand in doorway, grip both sides of the doorway with hands and step slightly forward across threshold for 20 seconds.  Why this helps:  Rounding both shoulders forward, to hold fiddle and bow, needs to be balanced by stretching shoulders the other way.
—4. Biofeedback.  Hang onto fiddle with shoulder rest, and while bowing a string, use left hand to pinch the right armpit muscle.   Make sure that muscle is not tensing or moving at all as you bow.  Why this helps:  No amount of words can replace the physical feedback of feeling that armpit muscle jerk as you bow, and getting it to relax.  This helps make sure you bow more efficiently and stop using the big upper arm and chest muscles for bowing.

Problem:  Neck aches.  These should be taken seriously.  I once had a student who was perfect in every way — practiced a lot, took care of kids, had a high-power job, a spotless home, and was a gourmet cook.  She worked too hard at everything, including relaxing!  She ended up with a neck brace.  Gaining awareness and allowing your body to do the right thing does not mean trying harder; it means having the right approach, concept, image — and allowing your muscles to embrace it.
Suggestions:
—1.  Place violin under your chin or jaw, but don’t reach for it with your chin.  Make the violin come to you, rather than move your head toward the violin.  Why this helps:  Reaching for your violin with your head bends the back of your neck awkwardly; it needs to stay upright to avoid restricted movement and possible aches and pains.
—2.  Use the shoulder and wrist exercises above to make sure you’re not hunching your right shoulder when bowing, and adjust your shoulder rest to make sure you never need to hunch the left shoulder to hold up the violin.  Why this helps:  The neck muscles (trapezius) are tied into the shoulder muscles.  Hunching the shoulders is unnecessary, tiring, and over time can cause pain in the neck and shoulders.
—3.  Vary your position regularly, even if slightly.  Distribute the work to different muscle groups.  Why this helps:  Freezing your muscles in one position for any length of time will strain them.
—4.  Strengthen and use the shoulder blade muscles.  Push palms of hands together and feel the shoulder blade muscles engage.  Keep the pressure on while lifting hands up slowly.  When at forehead level, separate the hands but still feel the shoulder blade muscles engage.  Why this helps:  The shoulder blade muscles hold both arms up, relieving the shoulders of having to overdo it and keeping you more relaxed.  Use your abs to help the shoulder blade muscles too.

Problem:  Tooth pain after playing a lot.   It happens and you may even think it is caused by something else (of course, that’s possible too!).   Just pay attention to these very important suggestions.
Suggestions:
—1.  Keep teeth slightly separate, to avoid clenching your teeth or it can cause tooth pain and affect your bite.
—2.  Relax tongue.
—3.  Don’t forget to breathe!

Problem:  Awkwardness, aches, or tension in the left wrist and hand.  This is a big one and very common.  Well worth pay attention to, whether to address a problem or to prevent one.
Suggestions:
—1.  The Drumming exercise is critical here (#7 in TechVid 1).  Best to work with video but I’ll try to describe it!  Hold fiddle across belly like a guitar and make sure your right hand can swivel the violin up to playing position all by itself.  Bring fiddle back to belly and fit left thumb onto neck without touching any other part of left hand to the neck.  Now bend fingers such that they can drum on the fingerboard, as they might do on a table if you were waiting for someone.   S-l-o-w-l-y have the right hand bring fiddle up to playing position while left fingers drum.  Don’t let them stop for even a split second (it means they’re trying to help hold the violin and we don’t want that).  Allow elbow and wrist to slowly accommodate the hand as it’s drumming on the fingerboard all the way to playing position.  Why this helps:  It allows body to teach itself how best to keep the hand natural, comfortable, and efficient while playing notes with left hand.  Great for all levels from beginner to pro.  Teaches fingers to play without tension, and teaches wrist that there’s no need to collapse to hold fiddle up.  (Shoulder rest recommended!)
—2.  Ugly Scale (#6 in TechVid 2).  Play a scale but place each finger down so slowly that for a moment it sounds terrible because it’s not all the way down on the fingerboard.  Stop adding pressure as soon as each note sounds good.  Why this helps:  It teaches fingers the minimum pressure needed to make a good sound.
—3.  Body mapping (#9 in TechVid 1).  Place two fingers on a string and slide only the second one up and down the string as far as it can go without moving the first finger.  Why this helps:  It reminds the fingers that all they need do to find a high or lower finger position is to straighten or bend, which is easy for everyone.  Many people imagine they have to separate their fingers sideways, which is faulty body mapping, and creates great tension and sometimes causes unnatural compensations in other parts of the hand.

Problem:   Back aches.  Most musicians have back aches at some point, especially those who play while sitting.  It’s not necessary!
Suggestions:
—1. Place the heels of both hands against each other in front of you and press them together, with elbows out to the sides.  You should feel the muscles of your shoulder blades engage.  Keep the pressure on while slowly lifting your hands upward in front of your face and just above your head.  At this point allow the hands to separate but try to still be aware of the shoulder blade muscles engaging.  Why this helps:  This is how both arms should be held up — from the back.  If you try to hold your arms up from the shoulders, you get tired and tend to slouch, ultimately hurting your back.  If your shoulder blades stick out, you’re probably not using those muscles and would do well to work on them!.
—2.  Learn how to correctly do the many exercises that are out there to strengthen the abs — for example, Pilates (if done correctly) is excellent for this and requires no gym or equipment.  Learn also about the TA’s, which are the major source of stability for standing or sitting.  Why this helps:  The abs are your core and absolutely support your back, keeping it from aching from the overuse of muscle groups you might be depending upon for more work than they can handle.
—3.  Occasional breaks, general stretching, and mindful whole body workouts.  Consider buying a timer at the Dollar Store to make sure you take breaks to move around every 20 minutes or half hour.  Why this helps:  Spending too much time in a row sitting or standing and playing music can overdo imbalances, since the violin makes us use the two sides of our body differently.  Make sure you unwind these imbalances regularly, and develop abs and shoulder blade muscles to take a load off the lower back.
—4.  Shift your position regularly, even if slightly.  See above under neck aches.    Why this helps:  Muscle groups can relieve each other if you use them, but staying in one position too long causes fatigue and ultimately pain.

Problem:  Ankle pain.
Suggestions:
—1.  Stop pounding out the time on a concrete floor!  This may seem silly but it’s true — if you are pounding your foot, especially in directing others, take note of whether the floor has any give.  A concrete floor may actually end up hurting you.
—2.  Don’t direct your band by pounding a sharp stick on the floor.  One famous musician put his sharp staff right through his foot, and died from blood poisoning!  (Jean-Baptiste Lully, 17th century French composer)  Just sayin’.

If you have comments or questions, feel free to add them below or send a message by clicking “contact” above.  I look forward to hearing from you.

©2017 Ed Pearlman