Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Seeking Balance

I made this collage back in the golden days of collage (when a favorite family activity was making collages from catalogs that came in the mail). I used to make collages filled with puns. The back of this one has a picture of a jack (as in the game of jacks), a playing card jack of hearts, and a donkey, but the composition is lousy so I'm not showing it to anyone.

This collage is a play on balance, justice, and equality, but it is a really useful tool for me to keep on my wall so I can glance at it while I am practicing. It reminds me that playing the violin or the viola requires balance of both sides of the body, and strength in the center. I realized only recently that many of the problems I have with tendonitis (and I get it in both forearms) come from over using one side of my body when I should be simply using both sides in balance.

I just thought I'd share this image here. The image might help other string players who experience forearm tendonitis.

2 comments:

Lisa Hirsch said...

That is lovely! I can imagine many people finding it useful to look at occasionally.

The standing figure looks like a choral conductor about to start a piece.

Lyle Sanford, RMT said...

"over using one side of my body when I should be simply using both sides in balance."

When playing I often find myself forgetting that music making is a physical activity, by getting caught up in intonation issues or rhythms or whatever. How we use our body to make music affects both the music and our body.

The older I get the more I think this balance you're talking about within the body is a necessary condition for well made music. I really believe that on some intuitive or non-conscious level we can hear in the music they're making when someone is physically out of balance.