On Sun, 27 Nov 2016 13:28:47 -0800 (PST)
Post by JPDPost by David Raleigh ArnoldWith age muscles tend to become weaker and less resoponsive. If you are
skilled and efficient, you exercise opposing muscles less and less. When
the lack of exertion in the opposing muscle passes a certain threshold,
the homunculus (the brain's body/brain image) is no longer able to
coordinate the motion. Sensing weakness, the homunculus tenses the
system to provide strength, both immediately and through exercise. If
the weakness or lack of skill, which are the same thing to the
homunculus, is too great, the tension is uncontrollable because it is
undifferentiated. It becomes like a telephone pole with three guy wires
at right angles. Without the fourth, failure is certain.
The opposing muscles of the a and m fingers share a common tendon, so
they necessarily act against each other. Because of that, they cannot
become weakened in spite of use as the opposing muscle of the index can.
1. Strengthen the opposing muscles in the hand through exerrcise.
2. Retrain the hand by practicing strokes.
Heavy (and light) rasgeado is the best way, perhaps the only way, to
strenghten the opposing muscles in the right hand to the degree
necessary. Pianists afflicted with this problem need to get a guitar,
learn a few chords, and practice heavy rasgeado also, because they can't
do it playing piano. We guitarists are very lucky, ;-)
David: Lately I've been thinking about fixing my FD. (At 62,
it's now or never.) Your thoughts from 2009, quoted here,
are interesting. Reading your more recent posts, however,
you seem resigned to FD. I'd like to know your latest thoughts
on FD, especially with regard to older players. Thanks. -John
I've become convinced that FD is similar to post traumatic stress
injury. Therefore, it has nothing much to do with the present
state of muscles at all, but what I wrote is not wrong in terms
of falling prey to it.
The cause, IMO, is extreme fatigue. The brain begins to respond
inappropriately when you play, as I wrote, but training to
forget the inappropriate response is a long and difficult
path. Mark Twain wrote that you can't throw bad habits
out the window; you have to walk them down the stairs.
Playing *very* slowly with complete control and attention,
especially to the feel of the strings, is doing some good,
but I despair of a complete cure.
First, I do a few DGT scales, whisper quiet, all appoggiato.
Appogiato because there is more contact with the strings,
and therefore more feel. In the unlikely event that
I improve enough, I will go to m-a tirato and later
a-i tirato and even m-i tirato. Warmup is a really
big deal.
I found a way to make Segovia's(?) maj7 chords into
an exercise on touch, developing the ability to double
the power on any one voice in the chord
*no arpeggios!* and to
play it enough sooner to make it the leading voice
but not enough sooner that the chord does not
seem simultaneous. I use the Carcassi Method
first "Prelude" routinely as I wrote before.
A lot of my own stuff is suitable for touch
work because the left hand is so rudimentary.
You can develop the ability to hear other players
when they play a chord properly. I heard Narciso
Ypes hit a few in Sor's 24 on YouTube, but
he was not consistent. You'll never hear it
from Segovia or any other arpeggiators.
Tarrega's arr. of Chopin's prelude in C# minor
is super.
Anythiog very slow is good, no matter how
difficult.
FD also bothers me when typing or using the
mousepad. A day with too much guitar and
computer without breaks caused me to have it.
Keep in mind that you are learning to forget
something. That's what makes it so hard.
You have an opportunity:
1. To learn some great slow stuff. Schubert,
Albinoni.
2. To apply timbre/orchestration to great
music. You must be a fanatic about that.
It's not spontaneous, any more than the
artist buying tubes of paint is spontaneous.
If you're not consistent, it goes to waste
Compare Ypes' Poulenc Sarabande to others.
Just a bit more consistency would make a
big difference, not that there wasn't any
already. He seems to be the only guy who
understood the piece to any extent.
3. To learn touch. Tempo means nothing in
relation to that.
Kindest regards, Rale