I’ve come to think that so much of figuring out violin technique has to do with solving problems with angles. In my opinion, some of the traditional teaching ideas could be misguiding because of two things:

1. They operate on the idea that we move from the center of the body (middle), but playing the violin does not-it’s an asymmetrical activity. Not only do we not rotate from the middle, we also have to apply force to an object in front of us, and to our left, and to even hold and support weight on that side while having the R side lean into it. Figuring out how to do all this from the idea of moving around the spine as the axis just isn’t logical. 2. Identifying and separating L hand and R hand technique can be useful at times for clarity, but too often the ideas themselves disregard that the two sides are connected. And not only that, the hand is connected to the arm to the shoulder to the side body to the pelvis, etc…. Even the terms L hand and R hand technique feel like misnomers to me as they are too narrow to reflect what we actually need to do to play.

Think about the angles of all we do. Bow on strings doesn’t go up and down, but sideways. Depending on which string (and then where the L hand is) the angle is entirely different. We don’t press bow down on string-it’s really more oblique for the most part. And think about it. It’s easy to bear weight if something comes down on you horizontally. Tilted is much more difficult for the body to organize to receive.

Shifting is not up and down either, otherwise one jams into the rib of the violin past fourth position. Our elbow’s range of motion is limited by the fact that it’s attached to the upper arm to the shoulder. So constantly to have only the instruction to push elbow in under the violin, for example, seems to defy the structure of our anatomy.

I find it helpful to think about technique as figuring out which angle to apply to different shapes. Almost all the traditional terms we use (up bow down bow etc) in music do not reflect the actual physical motion required. I think it’s worthwhile to re-examine whether or how these might have affected the way we think about how to play.