“This psycho-physical factor also constitutes a steady and firm condition which enables the Directive Agent of the sphere of consciousness to discriminate the action of the kinesthetic and motion agents which it must maintain without any interference or discontinuity.”

“The whole condition which thus obtains is herein termed ‘antagonistic action,’ and the attitude of rigidity essential as a factor in the process called the position of ‘mechanical advantage’ ” (Alexander 1908).

The “position of rigidity” for a string player would be the stability of the instrument. This is not to infer that the instrument is held rigidly, but rather that the support system upon which the instrument rests (the player himself) provides a subtle upward thrust, thus creating the antagonistic action between the string and the downward pull of gravity on the bow. The thrust comes from the ground up and occurs when the legs are connected to the back and neck in a way that, taken as a whole, the components are functioning as a united column of support.

“After locating the fulcra and power of the most important levers in the arm, it becomes obvious that the whole limb is fundamentally governed by the body. Another system of levers supports the body, i.e., the legs, so that in tracing these levers back we shall finally discover the true source of support to be the ground on which we stand” (Hodgson 1958, 8).

A way of understanding this principle is to discuss what happens to a player and their sound when this principle of “rigidity” is absent. All string players are taught to increase the amount of weight going into the string through the bow to make a larger sound. However, there must be a corresponding increase in the resistance of the violin to the increase of weight or pressure. If there is not sufficient support of the instrument, as is the case with many players, the increase of weigh through the bow will actually force the violin downward. The violin is then actually moving in the same direction as the bow, thereby eliminating any possibility of resistance or “antagonistic action.” This is analogous to trying to saw a piece of wood while the wood itself is moving in the same direction as the saw, rather than being firmly supported and stationary.

Many players may instinctively increase the support of the instrument as they increase the weight through the bow. This is often accomplished by clamping down on the chinrest with the head, causing over-tensing of the neck muscles; drawing up of the left shoulder, requiring relatively vast amounts of energy; or using the left arm as a rigid support beam, thereby impeding the left arm movements necessary to playing the violin or viola. A given player may exhibit a combination of any or all of these tendencies. A lucky few will accomplish the necessary increase of instrument support in response to increase of bow resistance through the use of the leverage in the largest muscle groups of their body, those of the back.

Here is where being able to direct a lengthening of the back and torso can be of great assistance. As the body lengthens and widens, the upward thrust of the hold of the violin increases the antagonistic of the bow to the string. The player must make the necessary adjustments as the bow reacts to the increase in antagonistic action. He is not only trying to increase the amount of weight on the string with bow, however, he is also increasing the resistance of the string to the bow. Instead of trying to accomplish a larger sound through the increase of weight on the string (which chokes the upper partials), the increase in sound is achieved through resistance between the bow and string. In his 1934 study, Motion and Bowing, Percival Hodgson states:

Thus the action of producing a large sound is accomplished with the largest muscle groups of the body possible, those of the back, as well as with the least amount of perceived effort. Correspondingly, less sound can be achieved by lessening of the upward thrust of the player's body.

This upward thrust, combined with the downward pull of gravity on the bow, is the vertical form of the bi-lateral motion advocated by Paul Rolland. Rolland believed that bilateral movement (in which the bow is moving in the opposite direction of the body) is an essential element of string playing. Perhaps the upward thrust of the player combined with the downward pull of gravity with the bow could be termed “bi-vertical.” In essence however, this phenomenon of movements in opposite directions is a three-dimensional entity. The spiraling mechanism of the human structure, explored in the next section, facilitates bi-lateral movement (movement in opposite directions) in both the vertical and horizontal planes.

The Double Spiral Arrangement of the Human Musculature and its Relevance for String Players

String players traditionally speak of left hand and right hand technique as if they were entirely separate entitities. When an understanding is gained of the spiral arrangement of the musculature, such terms should become only a means of designating the specifics of the tasks each hand performs. The hands themselves are the ends of a unified process that involves the brain and entire human structure of the player.

Raymond Dart identified and drew attention to the double spiral arrangement of the human musculature (Carrington and Carey 1992, 113). Dart, Australian by birth, emigrated to London after graduating from medical school in 1917. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy in Johannesburg in 1923, retaining the post until his retirement in 1958. For many years, Dart was dean of the medical school at University of Witwatersrand. Dart enjoyed a varied career, becoming famous for anthropological investigations, as well as for his work in anatomy. Dart and his family had Alexander Technique lessons with Alexander’s assistant, Irene Tasker, in 1943. Dart had a single lesson with Alexander in 1949, but maintained that Alexander influenced him for the rest of his life (Dart 1996, 26).

The spirals of the human musculature are mirror images of each other. Designating the right side of the pelvis as a starting point, the muscle sheet of one of the spirals travels diagonally around the side of the torso, crossing over the front mid-section to wrap diagonally upward to the left side of the torso, where the road of muscle makes a “Y,” one avenue junctioning with the muscles of the left arm, the other avenue snaking its way diagonally across the back, continuing on its diagonal journey across the neck to hook onto the head behind the ear in its original hemisphere of the right side (Dart 1996, 69), (figure 5).

The diagonal pull of these spirals of muscle accounts for the flexibility and upright capabilities of the human structure. These diagonal pulls may be likened to pulling on the bias (diagonal) of a piece of cloth. There is much greater flexibility in the cloth when pulled on the bias than when stretched on the cross grains (vertical and horizontal grains). The effect of an individual lengthening and widening his back is to activate the anti-gravity muscles (extensors) by causing a greater stretch on them. The Alexander Technique, mistakenly called a “relaxation” technique by some, is not about relaxation at all.

The Double Spiral

The pelvis and the head are connected not only by the bony, vertical structure of the spinal column, but also by the winding diagonal ribbons of muscles that make up the voluntary musculature of the torso. It is because this musculature is under voluntary control by the human nervous system that difficulties arise in an individual’s use, and consequently, potential exists for improvements in an individual’s use. Voluntary control should not be confused with conscious control. It is the unconscious control of voluntary musculature that gets one in trouble. By definition, voluntary muscles have the potential for being under the control of the individual. For an individual to have voluntary control of his voluntary musculature, he must be conscious of how he is using it. The essence of the Alexander Technique is learning to exercise conscious control of the voluntary musculature.

Anatomists have traditionally divided musculature into various muscle groups. This is useful for identification purposes but not useful for understanding the working whole of human movement. Because of the large “sheets” of muscles that form spirals around the human torso, the simple act of raising the arm to place the bow on the string cannot be made without involving the muscles of pelvis. The act of turning the head and placing it on the violin affects the musculature in the lower back, conversely, the muscular condition of the lower back affects the act of placing the head on the violin.

Support of the violin with the head involves both sets of spirals and the support of the whole back. It is when violin support is taught as a localized task of the head and shoulder that holding the violin becomes a “posture.” When the spiraling action of the human musculature during movement is considered, from the smallest movement of putting a finger down on the string, to a larger movement of shifting, to even larger movements of using the whole bow, any action involved with playing becomes an affair of the entire torso and total body.

String players traditionally speak of left hand and right hand technique as if they were entirely separate entitities. When an understanding is gained of the spiral arrangement of the musculature, such terms should become only a means of designating the specifics of the tasks each hand performs. The hands themselves are the ends of a unified process that involves the brain and entire human structure of the player.

Percival Hodgson, in his 1934 study Motion Study and Violin Bowing, made the discovery that bowing motions themselves describe arcs and spirals. Through the use cyclegraphs (“a photographic record of the track covered by a moving object”), Hodgson was able to photograph the bowing paths of artist players (Hodgson 1958, 58).

Dart himself believed in “the universality of spiral movement."

I recalled an elderly otologist named Miller, 30 years ago in New York City, demonstrating by means of examples ranging from the spiral nebulae to the human cochlea, and from the propagation of sound to the propulsion of solid bodies, that all things move spirally and that all growth is helical
(Dart 1996, 57).

The Asymmetrical Placement of the Violin and Viola

Violin and viola playing have usually been defined as using an “asymmetrical posture” because of the placement of the instrument on the left side of the body. Richard Norris, an M.D. writing on injuries endured by musicians, states:

“Over months and years, such asymmetrical posture can result in muscle imbalance, with the muscles on the left side becoming shorter and stronger than those on the right. Muscle imbalance can lead to joint dysfunction and so on” (Norris 1993, 24).

This is a scenario that describes many violinists and violists after years of playing. The above excerpt reflects the mind-set of string playing as a set of postures, rather than a system of continuous movement. No account is made of the fact that the bow is an “instrument” and much of the time is moving in the opposite direction away from the support of the head and neck (described by Rolland as bi-lateral motion). Frederick Polnauer in his article “Biomechanics, A New Approach to Music Education,” put forth the idea of whole body mechanics in playing in 1954 when he wrote:

“It is insufficient to look at bowing as a mechanical-physiological problem of the bowing arm only. The needs of a highly perfected violin technique require that bio-mechanical functions of the entire body be included. The older concept of the arm performing the bowing is being replaced now by the concept of the body performing this function. It seems to us more useful not to think any more in terms of a ‘right’ and ‘left’ hand technique, but rather of an ‘entire body’ technique.” (Polnauer 1954, 254).

Polnauer was a proponent of bi-lateral movement. Paul Rolland used the above quote in his book The Teaching of Action in String Playing. Polnauer's ideas was a source of verification for his own principles of movement in string playing. Rolland’s description and teaching of bi-lateral motion in string playing may be used to address the problem of “asymmetrical posture.”

“In the Project, the weight shift is introduced with a imple exercise, the “Flying Pizzicato,” in which the movement of the body in bi-lateral (in the opposite direction to the bow stroke). Bi-lateral movements benefit strokes of fast or medium speed. Polnauer recommended bi-lateral movements exclusively” (Rolland 1974, 34).

When viewed from the perspective of relationships of the bowarm to violin support system, the placement of the violin does not seem so asymmetrical.

That one can learn to use one’s neck and back for greater strength, agility and coordination is not part of our cultural or educational heritage. Learning this “use of the self” is fundamentally a kinesthetic experience. Musicians have come to the Alexander Technique because their use of themselves quickly manifests itself through the playing of their instruments. Frank Pierce Jones sums it up in his article to musicians titled “Awareness, Freedom and Muscular Control”:

“There are musicians—some say there were more of them in the past—who get as much pleasure from a performance as they give, who always perform easily and well, and who use themselves so efficiently that their professional lives and their natural lives coincide. There are others, however, with equal talent and training, to whom performance and even practice are exhausting, and whose professional lives are cut short because they lose the mastery of the skills they have acquired. They put forth more effort in solving technical problems than the results warrant, and ultimately discover that they have used up their reserves of energy. If they understood the use of themselves as well as they understand the use of their instruments, such breakdowns would be far less frequent…”