Cut Right to the Gut

Going to continue talking about the weekend’s master
class. Specifically, today, about playing from the gut.
Many people give lip service to doing this.

We actually DID it. And I mean with gusto.

As a warm up I had the class on the floor for a good
20-30 minutes Saturday morning. We did ‘dynamic
breathing’ with a vengeance.

Point was to not only breathe from the diaphragm, but to
FIRE UP the diaphragm contractions to an explosive level
while keeping the rest of the body absolutely relaxed.

What a feeling. After few minutes I felt quite a buzz;
a totally clean, natural buzz that put a smile a mile
wide on my face.

Course when I stood up I about fell over, too.

While regaining our equilibrium we discussed the
benefits of flooding the body with oxygen. Courtesy of
a medically trained class participant we learned that
doing this lowers CO2 levels in the blood stream,
alkalizing the system in the process.

And that’s a very good thing from the standpoint of
health, in case you didn’t know it.

But the real intent for me was to get folks transferring
all that ‘gut power’ right into their bow arms. So on
we went.

Next we played scales, separate bows, with accents on
each note. The idea was to use the diaphragm muscle to
drive the outward and inward thrusts of the bow – we’re
talking horizontal energy here, not the downward hacks
many mistakenly use to produce strong emphasis.

We exploded the bow down the string with out breaths.
We swept it back up the string with decisive in breaths.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.

No tension, just guts galore.

Then I got an attendee, who had been having tension
issues with the first page of ‘Praeludium and Allegro’,
to really put it to the test.

What a pleasure it was to see him power the bow back and
forth with absolute abandon.

And it wasn’t just the right side that benefited from
this. His intonation, shift timing and finger
articulation were all improved while he focused on the
breathing.

Now, I’m not saying you’re going to huff and puff your
way through every piece of music you play. But I’m
definitely suggesting that the conscious use of your
breath will inform your playing on a deep level and get
you in touch quickly with the most efficient, pure way
of doing things.

The folks learning, or relearning, the violin with the
Violin Mastery Beginners Circle are getting all of this from the
get-go. I expect them to make progress on the violin at
two or three times the rate normally experienced. And
with a far better outcome to boot.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. The more you feel as you play – and this goes for
the physical sensations in your body – the more you have
to offer an audience. It’s a nice feeling to get in
front of people knowing you’ve got some fire in your belly as well as your fingers, when you need it.