Disassociation Exercise

Lately in my teaching, I've been particularly aware of technique problems that arise when two of the things we are doing are affecting each other. The example that triggered my exploration was to do with interruptions to a continuous vibrato. Often in practice we are trying to coordinate different movements so that they can become fluid. Other times, however, we need to do one kind of thing with one part of the body, and another somewhere else.

Continuous vibrato is not difficult except when you have to do something else at the same time. Here are some examples of things that a cellist might need to do without interrupting his or her vibrato:
change bow directions, shift to a new position, change to a different finger, change to a different finger with an extension on a different string in a different position while changing bow directions. One or more things are changing, the other is not. In cases like this, we need to make sure the two activities are disassociated. Disassociation problems are fun, once you identify them. Here, the basics are one continuous thing (vibrato) against one changing thing (somewhere else in the body). Some changes to think about would include a change from something not in use to in use, a change of direction, a change of speed, a change from relaxed to tense.
Here, then, is an exercise which is actually pretty fun. Most students laugh at some point while trying it. All you do is pick a note to vibrate (no bow, just silently) and try to keep it smooth. Watch out for glitches like a stop and start, or sudden changes of vibrato speed. When you find something that triggers one of these glitches, you've found some stuff to work on disassociating.


Here are some things to try while keeping constant vibrato:


Wiggle toes/move feet
Bow arm circles, keeping the tip pointing up, or other large arm movements
Making faces
Talking
Singing
Moving the head: Yes/No/Bobble Head
Sinking and Floating (collapsing the lower back and stomach, then "floating" back up to sitting tall)
Body Bowing (twisting the upper body back and forth. like turning handle bars)
Rocking on Sitz Bones
Playing down bow circles
Changing bow direction
Changing strings (different patterns, circles, waves, arc, figure eight, etc.)
Changing bow speed
Changing bow pressure
Down/Up Bow Staccato

Hand shapes with bow hand: this could be a different post entirely, but I'll briefly describe.

    Fist-this one is obvious

    Star Fish-straight fingers, spreading out

    Duck Bill-straight fingers, bend at base knuckles, thumb with fingers

    Claw-straight base knuckles, bent at other joints

Same hand shapes as possible with the left hand

Boga: my term, meaning yoga for the bow hand. these are exercises for developing ease and control with the bow hand. my students know these already, so combining them with vibrato is the only challenge. perhaps I'll do a separate post on these.

The list keeps growing as I think of more challenges. Let me know if you think of any more good ones.

One last word about vibrato. The muscles that drive the vibrato are not really involved in many of the other movements required of the left hand/arm, but they often interfere. I think one approach is to work a little like above so that we can more easily identify "hidden" disassociation problems we may be having but not noticing.

Also, there are surely other aspects of playing (besides vibrato) that benefit from disassociation, such as the weight or pressure of the bow as compared with that of the left hand. Perhaps an exercise like this can help reveal to us other such problems.