Changing a Habit?

I've been working with an idea for my students for when they are trying to change a habit, such as a different bow hold (the example I'll be using). The problem with a habit is that once whatever you are playing is sufficiently hard, not only are you back to playing with the old habit, you aren't even able to notice it, and you can't correct anything you aren't aware of. In order to make the new habit, you need to correct the old one many, many times. So, as I've come to put it, in order to change a habit, your goal is to be able to 'notice while hard.'

How do we work on this?
Well, first of all, you have to be completely sure that you can make the change if there is nothing at all in the way. Can you demonstrate the bow hold you want to have? Assuming you can, then we are back to the noticing while hard issue. You need to figure out something you can do that makes keeping that bow hold hard enough that you will mess it up and need to correct it, but not so hard that you will not be able to notice that you have messed it up.

I recommend starting with something very easy, such as Twinkle (if you are a Suzuki student), or just open strings or a short improvised note pattern, or a scale--whatever is easy enough that you can do it without messing up the bow hand. Then start increasing the difficulty gradually. My students are familiar with a multi-tasking strategy. If you can play Twinkle without needing to correct the bow hold, then can you play it with a second goal, such as keeping soft shoulders? Still no corrections to either? Try keeping the bow hold, soft shoulders, and rocking laterally on your sits bones. At some point, you'll need to make a correction. Perhaps it is to the shoulders, and the bow hold was still fine. No worries, as long as you were able to be aware of the bow hold the whole time, you were noticing while hard. As it gets easier, you will need to increase the difficulty by adding something else in order to stay in that zone where things are hard enough to need to make corrections, but not so hard that you can't notice. After a little of this kind of practice, you will have improved your ability to notice while hard. As you go on to other regular areas in your practice, you will find yourself noticing the bow hand more often. Just correct and go on. This is the point. Every correction is moving you closer to the new habit.