stillnew

Dr. S, that is interesting to read about.  At some point I thought about posture, and that as much as it is about balance, we still need a certain amount of strength to stay upright and if you are weak or doing things the wrong way, both will create strain.  That thought is what brought me to the gym.

Btw, one of the things my trainer started on is what he dubbed "synchronicity", meaning the body works together as a whole from the center.  I am remarkably poor at this (and hate the exercises because I'm so poor at them).  In one of them you hold a (weighted) medicine ball at body center in a semi squat, and then bring it to the upper left or right as if stacking shelves while rising.  You are transferring weight while staying centered, and the motion involves feet, torso, and arms which most work together. No joint should be locked.  The other day I came from this exercise, to the violin, and thought of the experience while playing.  For a few minutes that sense was there for me at the violin and as the bow moved in whole bow strokes, there was a richer and deeper sound.  I have no doubt that this contributed.

This may be simplistic, but wouldn't a lot depend on the musical context of your F# or Gb?  If you're playing with other instruments - especially a pretuned one like keyboards - then this is another context that limits your choices.

Partly as a result of all this, I joined a gym and am working with a personal trainer with the stated aim of not only strength and flexibility but healthy movement and balance.  I've also ended up learning things in related areas (as you write) because of all that.  Yesterday at the gym I had an interesting encounter with a lady who had retired from something physical.  She cited things from ballet and gymnastics, and said that they had been pushed past human limits, and also that "in those days" they "didn't really know what they were doing".  This retired professional was doing exercises prescribed by a physiotherapist due to injury from all that.  There was a time when I looked at ballet and gymnastics as an ideal, "Wow, they learned how to use their bodies."  By that time I already knew this wasn't so, because of the reading I had done.

While I was searching I went wherever the search would take me.  I was running into yoga instructors and other fields who were going against the same commonly held beliefs, citing injury because of them.  There is a trainer of trainers (!) who is fighting to get his findings accepted - to have people listen - and the biggest obstacle is a blind adherence to tradition.  It's true because that's what's been taught.  In a sense I am lucky that I didn't learn anything formal until well into adulthood.  I have a lot of self-taught nonsense to undo in piano which I did as a child but it wasn't pushed and engrained.  There was a list of things in Thomas Mark's book, citing causes of injury and tension which are things taught everywhere - not just piano - including things I recognized from on-line violin things.  He encourages understanding your body rather than any set of rules.

Another book that was passed on to me stressed that a lot of things are not in our conscious control but come together, and one can end up imitating perfect looking form yet what is inside isn't working - somebody else may have something that does not look perfect, but the workings inside are in harmony. Again it was not violin, but could have been.

 

Wow, you actually helped yourself because you were inquisitive and did your own due diligence.  We are proud to be the witnesses! :0

 

My point about the posture is that between pointing the scroll down to the ground and pointing to the sky, it seems that we tend to favor the latter.  We regard the former as bad posture, slouching, etc.  We welcome scroll pointing higher because it looks more inspired.  The truth for an individual is probably somewhere in between and imo, slightly less than horizontal.

Thx.  

I think I remember an explanation about higher, that it was supposed to improve the sound (because?).  I guess that what you're describing is more a matter of showmanship.  The important thing would have to be what works the best for the individual.

Well that will teach me to proofread my posts.     Of course it's a fifth.  I've corrected it now.  Thx.
 

Might have been easier to spend a few hours learning the clef and gain a new life skill.... 

I do in fact know my clefs.  I guess I didn't explain the situation properly.  My violin was being borrowed but I still had to prepare for my next violin lesson.  So I practised my violin music on that viola.  I wanted to come in to my next lesson prepared, so by transposing down a fifth (ahem) I had the motions I needed in my hand when I was back on violin at the next lesson.  Just shrink the intervals.  I practised on a viola.  I had my violin music.  There was no alto clef anywhere to be seen.  I could have played everything in the original pitch by starting one string up (checks up and down) but that wouldn't have served the purpose.  In this case it's a lucky thing to have relative pitch rather than perfect pitch, because to PP folk, transposed music sounds "wrong" and can throw them for a loop.  (I have a friend with PP.)

I've always found the C clefs rather cool because of the way they point to middle C. 

Point having been the physical relationship to the instrument, which surprised me, since we always read about how uncomfortable the viola is supposed to be.