Posture and body awareness for adult learners, with Rachael Ridge

This blog post accompanies Violin Class Podcast Episode 44. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Guest interview with Rachael Ridge

When it comes to violin, I’m always talking about the fundamentals. The basis of that often comes down to posture, which is one of the topics I’ll be discussing with my guest in this episode.

Joining me this week is fellow violin teacher, Rachael Ridge. Rachael is a former middle school orchestra teacher, and now teaches kids and adults learning violin as well as running the Adult Violin Academy.

In this podcast episode, we discuss:

• Body awareness

• How to relax and release tension as an adult learner.

• The importance of singing

• Proper posture on violin

Rachael also shares some of her own journey with arthritis and how she’s been able to practice to avoid pain.

You can find Rachael on Instagram, Adult Violin Academy Facebook page, and on her website.

Transcript

This transcript was created by AI, so there may be some errors.

When it comes to violin, you know, I'm always talking about the fundamentals. The basis of this often comes down to posture, which is one of the topics I'll be discussing with my guest today. Joining me this week is a fellow violin teacher, Rachel Ridge. Rachel is a former middle school orchestra teacher, and now works with both kids and adults learning violet. In this episode, we discuss how to relax and release tension as an adult learner, which is something mostly everyone struggles with when learning the violin, she shares the importance of singing proper posture and ways to work on both. Rachel also shares some of her journey with arthritis and how she's been able to practice to avoid pain.

No matter where you're at in learning this instrument. I think you're going to find some really practical takeaways from our discussion today. 

But before we get into that, welcome to Violin Class, the podcast for those learning violin as an adult, my name is Julia and I'm a violinist and violin teacher on this podcast. 

I share advice on practicing violin technique and all things violin from the perspective of someone who works only with adult learners. If you enjoy this podcast and you happen to not be doing anything with your hands right now, please take a minute to leave a rating or a review wherever you listen to this podcast. 

This is the easiest way to support the show and is the main way that people who are learning the violin find violin class for the first time. For those of you who have done so already a big thank you. And lastly, if you are stuck on something or working on a new technique or just needing some guidance with the violin, I do teach privately and would be happy to discuss working together. 

Just shoot me an email at violinclasspod@gmail.com.Without further ado. Let's get back into my discussion with Rachel. 

Rachel, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and , your path to teaching with violin? 

Rachael: I've been playing violin since I was eight. That's honestly just been I feel like everyone has a very similar story when it comes to violin, as far as like, they always just wanted to play it.

It was just always the thing. , so I always wanted to play it. My mom didn't really believe that a child knew that, but I did. And so, um, started when I was eight, and then continued through. Um, studied music education in college. So I went The dream was to be an orchestra teacher, and I was. For five years, uh, I taught sixth, sixth grade orchestra, which was obviously very different than what my focus is now, but it was super fun.

Julia: Sounds exhausting, but fun. 

Rachael: It was, but it was But the big dream had always been to be a mom. So when I got pregnant, I wanted to figure out a way to like, still teach, but also have my kids at home. So I left my school job and just did private lessons. And so I was teaching like 21 private students and had my kids and I was trying to do it all and it was just a lot.

And to be honest, um, I found myself really dreading my lessons with my younger students because as much as I loved them and they weren't bad kids, it was just I was parenting all day and then I had to teach young kids and the part of young kids is like helping them be disciplined and helping them like.

Stay focused on the lesson and I was just mentally and emotionally kind of exhausted and not really in the place for that. And I was finding myself really enjoying my adult students because I could have a more adult conversation and dive into concepts a little deeper than I can with my younger students. I also started to relate to them because as a parent and as an adult who doesn't have a lot of time and as well also trying to figure out a balance of my new role as a mom and how do I keep practicing and how do I uphold these other responsibilities.

Um, it became like this mutual understanding, this mutual connection of, okay, we're all trying to figure this out in some capacity and do this passion along our normal lives. And, um, so started like diving into how to help people with that, um, and then kind of just stumbled onto the online space and just realized there's a lot of people out there doing this and it's really cool.

And so just kind of started doing things and it's been really fun and just kind of seeing where it goes. 

Julia: That's awesome. And, you know, I became a mom last year and I can really relate how. I mean, obviously everything changes, but with my, my relationship with violin, I feel so much more in the same shoes as my students, even though they're, you know, they're learning the fundamentals that I had the opportunity to learn without having these extra responsibilities, so for sure I had it easier, but, , it's not easy to make time for practice, even though we're professional teachers and violinists, uh, we're struggling just like you guys are, I think, to, to fit it all in, into the day.

And I think that, for me, it's just made me a lot more strategic with how I practice, and I'm sure for you as well. 

 there's a lot of differences between teaching kids and adults, and obviously you've done both, um, as have I, and one of them is that we just kind of come with a bit more baggage, like physically, right?

Some people have had injuries we're sitting with bad posture all the time. And, there's a buildup of tension that happens with adult players. 

And I think that's one of the biggest hurdles to kind of get past, how can you play with the relaxed technique that kids just have naturally? our kids are all super flexible and their hands can move all sorts of ways and we just can't do that. what are your thoughts on that and how do you approach that with your students

Rachael: So, first of all, I approach it more like a puzzle because every adult comes with baggage, but it's all individual and it's our kind of a blank slate universality because they were all born with the same body shape, mostly like same structures, the same things.

Like obviously there are going to be some uniqueness, but they mold so well and they can adapt so quickly that. You can kind of teach them sort of all the same. Obviously it's going to be different approaches as far as like learning styles and, um, maturity level and all of those things. But adults do have learned things that have changed based on their job or their, um, activities they've done or injuries they have or illnesses, especially if they're older or even younger because I have arthritis, um, physical things that just prevent them from being able to do things.

So you, I treat it like a puzzle and I try to Um, my students think it's funny because I teach them in person. I walk around them and I'm like trying to evaluate from all angles. Like, how is their arm being placed? And then I'll try to replicate what they're doing because sometimes I, I, I've been doing this since I was a child.

So, like, I don't always. realize I'm doing something intuitively until I've like replicated what they're doing and they're like, oh, okay, that's why we do this. So, um, so just kind of like breaking it all down for them and it really helps them too, because they're seeing that process of diagnosing. So then they, when in their practice, they can like diagnose themselves better too.

Also, helping them diagnose is probably one of the Best things versus like teaching strategies and I'm not trying to strategy but teaching skills and techniques because they Can pick up those things faster than a kid to some degree But if they can't diagnose and they can't like build that body awareness It's gonna be so frustrating because their brain has it and their body does it and there's not a whole is it like a whole?

disconnect so yeah breaking that down for them and Then teaching, like, the goal. The end goal is not to, like, control everything, but more to put it into muscle memory, so that we can then, like, relax and just let it kind of happen, as weird as that sounds.

Julia: I was having this exact conversation with a student today, so this is a very relevant topic in my studio right now, too.

But, you know, we're all, we have so many things to control in life, you know. Parents, students, whatever you're doing, and we're used to being able to just tell your brain to do something and then you just do it, but in violin, that's very counterintuitive because the more you try to control it, generally, instead of being able to actually do what , your brain is trying to get you to do, is going to create a lot of tension, which is going to actually hinder what we're trying to achieve with the violin. So, how do you find that, with your students and have you figured out any, any ways to kind of get past? It's one of those really tricky things with adults is the, is letting go. 

Rachael: Oh my goodness. I'm, yeah, I'm probably going to go off a little tangent here because I'm a total control freak, so I totally relate to this. 

Julia: You know, we're all very type A people. I find with the adult students, not the kids, the kids are all everywhere, but the kind of person that comes is like, I want to learn violin it's type A personalities, like 9 out of 10 of my students and I am right there with you guys. Oh yeah, 

Rachael: I have noticed the same thing. Yeah, okay, you too. So, yeah, so first of all, this just like blows my mind because I feel like it's kind of common sense, but our society like tells us to multitask everything, and yet our brains literally can't.

Yep. There's research that says that your brain If it's multitasking, it's probably only able to do two things at once. But if, but most likely, it's not actually multitasking those two things. It is, um, just jumping back and forth rapidly between those two things. And if you try to do more things than just two, then your brain, the, it's trying to hop back and forth rapidly so that you're doing them simultaneously.

But then your production level and your focus level is going way down and the level of like Results that you're going to get is not going to be as good. And then if you think about the violin and. All that's happening simultaneously, like, you can't do that all well at the same time. I mean, just mechanically alone, you're trying to do left hand stuff and right hand stuff, and hold your body correctly and hold the instrument correctly and all this stuff, and then you're, like, trying to read music and interpret it and actually make music, not just sound like a robot.

There's, like, multiple levels to all of that. Yeah, and so kind of helping them see like a bigger picture like it's just literally not possible and so we have to Do things so I like repetition, but I want to be very careful with that because um, you have to make sure you're repeating things correctly, otherwise you're just create a huge problem for yourself.

Um, but that's like a whole nother tangent I could go off on. But, um, repeating things enough and in a calm and relaxed mindset. I am big on that because if you are practicing stress, as weird as that sounds, you will practice stress into that technique. Like, and it's just gonna be a Full problem. But practicing in a relaxed mindset, um, bow is a really great, because everyone struggles with a good tone, but like just long bow strokes, thinking about your wrist movement, your finger movement, how are you playing, is your shoulder hiking up, and just playing open strings.

And just seeing if you can make every stroke super beautiful, super controlled. Um, and what you're doing is you're teaching your muscles that when I play and I hold this bow, this is the movement, this is what I'm doing, this is how I feel, this is what I'm thinking. All of those things, so that then when you're playing a piece and you're focusing on left hand technique, this is just going on autopilot.

You don't even have to think about it. So yeah, that's kind of like the process I try to get them towards. Obviously that's really difficult because I can only take them so far. And then they actually do the work, which takes a lot of discipline and is not always very fun. But once they start seeing the results.

Then they're like, it's like a lightbulb moment, like, oh, okay, yeah, this actually is going to make my playing more fun, like, little steps first. 

Julia: One thing that you said that, uh, really resonated with me, because it's something that I say all the time, is that you cannot be relaxed when you're playing violin if you are stressed in the rest of your life. Like, you can't just go about with your shoulders up and thinking about all the stuff that you have to do, and then just, like, Pick up the violin and not like magically just melt and play with the relaxed sound.

You have to make that really conscious in the rest of your, existence. 

Do you , any tips or anything , for students that are struggling with this? 

Rachael: It is a hard question. Um, two things just popped into my head because I was talking to one of my students yesterday about this, cause he was playing a shifting exercise and he did several run throughs of it for me.

Um, and by the third time it was. Like totally different than the first time and I said something about it, and he was like well Yeah, that's kind of been my thing this week. It's like every time I play it it gets better I was like well to me that means that it's not so much that you haven't practiced it It's that you weren't mentally prepared to play it the first Yeah, now you were kind of you've warmed up your fingers you've warmed up your brain You've warmed up everything and so now you can play it.

Yeah Because he's not practicing it. He's just running through it. So yeah, you see what I'm saying? So, uh, it's tricky because you're saying it without just thinking about it but it a lot of it is mental because the other thing that popped into my head is how Hilary Hahn does her hundred days of practicing and sometimes her practice videos are literally just her looking at a piece and thinking and doing some things but she's not actually like what we traditionally think of as practicing, you know, playing her instrument because so much is mental and preparing to play.

Um, so what I was telling him, yes, my student yesterday is before you play, do like a physical check in. Um, what is my body feeling like right now? Am I holding tension? Am I still thinking about what just happened at work right now? And just like, resetting and then looking at the music and kind of mentally playing it first and mentally even i like to sing out loud because if i sing the first couple of measures out loud then i've thought through without even realizing it like how does that phrasing go how does um That bow stroke go, how is that, what's the direction of my bowing and stuff like that.

Um, so, those are the things I was telling him yesterday. If you have any thoughts, like I'd love to hear it too, because I'm always trying to help. That's a huge hurdle for a lot of people. 

Julia: It really is. Yeah, and I can relate too, you know, we were both working moms. We have very small children. Well, I just have one, but still that's a lot for me.

And um, you know, it's, you're, you're just constantly going back and forth between all of these activities. We're used to being constantly interrupted too, which I think adds a whole other dimension to practicing. But what I tell my students is that we need to have some transition between what we're doing.

Especially a lot of them are practicing when they get back from work and you know, all of that stress, you have to be able leave that at the door when you come to the instrument. And I think that's where warming up is really, really important because it becomes a little bit meditative when you're doing, as you were saying, the long bows.

Just kind of get your breathing right. And it doesn't need to take very long, but I think it's very key to being able to make that separation of like, okay, I'm playing violin now and I'll deal with everything later on.

I really like singing. I think that's a really great idea. I've, I've not tried that, um, as, as a warmup, but I can see how that would get you kind of in the music space, . But yeah, long tones, that's my favorite. I feel like one minute of just playing my bow on an open string kind of just gets everything to settle. I can relax my shoulders, I'm breathing,

Rachael: singing is honestly like I wish more people did it. I had a great private teacher who she was, she sang fine, but she wasn't like a vocalist or anything. But she was always like, I sound terrible, so you should sing too. And she would, because I was terrified. 

Julia: And 

Rachael: I didn't want to sing lessons, and most people don't.

But the more you try to encourage that, and the more you at least say, okay, if you're not gonna sing in front of me, at least sing at home. Because It's, I don't know what it does, but it like connects. I don't know, especially with like pitch awareness. I've noticed that too. If you sing the pitch all of a sudden, it's like.

There's a brain finger connection that happens, and I love it. 

Julia: Yeah, you can tell when someone's been taking lessons for a while because they are more comfortable singing, whereas like 100 percent of everyone hates it at first. Um, and it's just like something you have to get back past, and as, um, Rachel was saying, it's not We're not talking about like singing singing, it's just kind of producing sounds of their voice.

I don't have a beautiful voice by any means, I can more or less control the pitch, but that's all you need really. 

 I found in my studio something that helps a lot is just humming instead of singing, because most people are comfortable humming, but most aren't comfortable singing. We kind of work up to singing, and sometimes I'll just Play and they'll hum along.

And that's like that way we get, they're doing it, but it takes away some of the stress with singing in front of someone that you aren't used to singing in front of, but it is the most helpful thing for musicality. And I can imagine too, just kind of getting in the zone of, of playing.

we're going to switch gears here a little bit and talk about the rest of your body, not just your fingers and your wrists and your arms and the things that we are Most, most consciously thinking of when we're playing violin, because as we were saying earlier, it's important to have a really relaxed approach globally when it comes to violin.

So,, Rachel, what do you have, like, do you have any thoughts on that and , how do you approach,, body awareness and anything that you do with your students to play with more relaxed sound? 

Rachael: Yeah, so Just a little background on me, because kind of this is why I dove into this more, um, I have psoriatic arthritis.

I was diagnosed when I was 17, and it's, psoriatic arthritis is a little different than rheumatoid in the way that it presents itself, but also in the areas it affects, and so the primary areas are like your feet, your hands, your knees, and your hips. So, um, thankfully I haven't had like tons and tons of inflammation in my hands, but it has happened.

Um, recently I had a pretty bad flare up where it like hurt to even just wring out a washcloth, like I couldn't squeeze tight enough. Um, meds have kept it pretty well controlled, thankfully, but when I'm having pain or flares or just morning, normal morning stiffness, um, that's been the, like, the key.

driver to me to figure out how to obviously continue violin. I don't, I don't even like to think about the fact that it might be more difficult in the future, but like, um, keep my body as healthy as possible. And also make sure that when I'm playing the violin, I'm doing it from a place of stability and strength and focus so that I'm not putting undue stress on my body.

I'm not going to injure myself unnecessarily. So, cause I just can't afford it. Um, And so, always bringing, like, I like to do yoga, and that was kind of, like, the connection from violin to yoga is when I was like, okay, that really helped, yoga really helped me build my core, build my foundation, build, like, whole total body awareness, and that has to translate to everything in life, and that includes my violin.

 But one of the things I have noticed about and like reflecting back on my own education is so much of violin education focuses on our shoulders and our upper body and we kind of forget about everything from the waist down because we're so focused on helping our students place their fingers and hold the bow and do all of those new things you That we forget to focus on the rest of our body.

Rachael: Um, so bringing it back to good posture isn't really enough. Because what is good posture? Like, it has to be grounded. Um, so holding, thinking about your core, thinking about aligning your pelvis, thinking about having a good bend in your knees, feet hip width apart. Those are all good and they're good like mental things, but what if that person doesn't have good body awareness?

Because I didn't. And I don't know. 

Julia: Most people don't. Like, that's something that we're trained as, like, a very high level musician, but I didn't have that at all until probably third year undergrad. 

Rachael: Yeah, because it's all about quick results.

It's like getting them, and I don't say that to bash any teacher or any, like, system. It's just, even the student wants quick results. They want to be able to play. And so they don't want to, like, sit back and say, especially young kids, Okay, let's think about breathing and, like, how we build our body. Um. And to be honest, some kids don't really need that because those are things that like happen to our body as life just happens to us.

Um, but adults do. Adults need it. 

Julia: 100 percent of them do. Myself included. 

Rachael: Yeah. And I have to like, it's a, it's a, it's a practice. It's a reminding myself. Um, cause you will notice things like, um, what was happening with my student yesterday?

She was playing spiccato and it just wasn't coming out the way she wanted it to. And the more she focused, the more her shoulders came forward. And she didn't even know she was doing it. Oh yeah. I was showing her physically, like when we hold our shoulders forward and we do this like automatically, like even just think about walking into a social situation where you're uncomfortable, like immediately you like kind of hold your body.

It's like a self preservation thing. You hold your feet together because you're just trying to like, check out the room and make sure everything's okay. And it might not be very obvious, but it's just enough. And it immediately limits your range of motion in your shoulders and your Um, chest cavity, like it caves everything together.

Um, and I, I might be like, now that I'm thinking about it, like a compact, like we're going to like hold ourselves together and fight or flight motion, but I don't know. Probably actually. When we open up our shoulders and we have proper alignment. immediately you're taller, immediately you're broader, immediately you have more range of motion, and that's going to free up so much in your bow technique, and then immediately she was playing it fine.

Like, we don't even know that we're doing it. I kind of went off on this little rabbit trail, so I'm gonna refocus here, but um, So how do we get there, right? How do we like develop that? Um, some of my favorite techniques is first of all, I really encourage everyone to do yoga or some sort of like Pilates or physical training that helps you connect to your core and build a foundation.

Um, but there are ways to develop this with your instrument too that I love. There's a couple of accounts I found too that are super interesting. I wish I Could think of them, but um, 

Julia: maybe we'll, we'll get those later and I'll, I'll send them out with the newsletter. 

Just jumping in here with a reminder to make sure you're assigned up to the violin class newsletter. If you want all the extra tidbits, I always send out resources that are mentioned in the episodes there it's free and you can sign up at violin class.co/newsletter. 

Rachael: One of the things I like to do is just walk around with your instrument on your shoulder. So if you place your instrument in playing position and then just walk around your, your living room or your practice space or wherever you're at, um, thinking about like, How you're moving, how you're, is your instrument staying in place?

Because sometimes, like, if you, like, because I, I'm, what I mean, because I know not everyone's going to be watching video with this, like, your hands, don't hold your instrument with your hands, like, hold it with just stability, because you should be able to keep it there without your hands holding it up. So that alone is going to reveal something. ,

walking around the room is going to help you see how you're holding your body as a whole because movement kind of forces you to think about those things. Mm hmm. Um, I also really like having students do squats while they're, um, Ooh, that's a first. While they're playing. I don't know what it, it like helps you align your spine.

Interesting. I have noticed, I had two students who, when I had them do this, like, didn't get the concept because they were holding themselves so rigid, they were like, doing a really weird squat. So that's why you have them sit down in a chair and then stand back up. It's like a firmed chair, like a piano bench kind of thing.

So I had them sit down and then stand up and then it fixed, fixed it. It's so, it's so. It's so cool. I love that. 

Julia: Have you ever done any Alexander technique 

Rachael: before? I haven't and I really wish I had and I really wish I could. 

Julia: It sounds very much I've done a bit and I found it to be incredibly helpful with just my posture and just how it was just to give a little bit of background.

I also come with injuries, they were playing injuries not, autoimmune but they did really affect how I had to approach the instrument because I had to take a year off when I was in my undergrad from playing and to this day I really just don't have the stamina .

I have to be able to just fit things into small amounts because I can't just play two hours in a row for days on end, as I once did. And that's okay, it's just, I've learned to live with it. But I've found that the thing that helped me the most when I was getting over the playing injury, other than resting, was, uh, yeah, alignment

like I had so many Internalized things that I was doing with the instrument and all I wish I had known all the things that you were just talking about because I really think that is what I needed to do. It just took me a long time to be able to figure out those steps. Um, I had someone that I worked with, uh, who worked with injured musicians and did something actually really similar to you that you were saying, um, kind of walking around with your instrument.

What he was doing is he'd take the violin and he'd just have me like stand up straight really relaxed and take the violin and just like bring it on my shoulder and back and it was crazy what I was doing like I was literally just like tensing up as if like someone was about to like punch me in the Um, and that's just because I was, that's what I did with my violin.

Like I just, everything would just go all rigid. Um, and it took so much work for me to be able to just like, okay, the violin's here, I'm not moving, the violin's here, I'm not moving. And, uh, that was instrumental, pardon the pun, for being able to, to start to play without tension.

In hindsight, it's the best that, you know, the, the, the injury was really difficult to deal with, I think mentally at the time, but had I not, I had to go through that.

I wouldn't have, I think, gone as far as I did with, with music because, it just had me thinking about things completely differently and, um, all these like holistic things that you're talking about, like posture and walking around.

to tie back into, to Alexander technique. I did that for a little while when I was, I was injured and I couldn't play, but I still wanted to, like, work on violin.

And one of the things they have you do is actually just sit and stand and sit and stand. And we did that for like months, but at a certain point like my teacher would even say like, Oh, you look taller. Like, really everything is kind of aligned. And not that everyone has to do Alexander technique, but for me at that time.

It really, really helped. 

 but it goes to show that it's really a lot mental and a lot of things that we do outside of the practice room that makes us better musicians. And for those of you that are low on time, which is I think 90 percent of everyone, really, that's learning the instrument. There are so many things that you can kind of integrate into your daily life.

So that's my next question for you is how can people practice not necessarily their their music or their technique but like just generally violin related things without the instrument and outside of their practice time.

Rachael: Gotcha. Um, before I jump into that there was something you said that Reminded me, um, of something else I wanted to add.

So, when you are doing any of the, like, body awareness things I mentioned as far as, like, walking around or the squats or any of that, um, I really recommend using a mirror or if you don't have a blank mirror, either record yourself because, like, you were saying when you brought the instrument, you were, there's, like, a learned response, right?

Exactly. You. You can feel it, but not always. And sometimes there's something that you're doing that's so slight that if you saw it in a mirror, you'd be like, Oh my gosh, I had no idea, like, I was doing that. So, I really recommend, just for like a visual aid, when you are doing those things. Um, when you said that with the violin, I was like, Oh yeah, a visual thing.

Yeah. Um, practice techniques without the instrument like completely or like practice techniques that could be with the instrument and not playing it though? Let's do both. Cool. So practice techniques without it completely. I have already mentioned singing but like that's always like Top number one is like, um, as a kid, I think one of the things that really helped train my ears, I just was kind of nerdy about it.

And I loved to like challenge myself to sing scales and major, minor modes, like everything. Like I was always trying to see if I could sing all these different intervals. Um, so as simple as that is, like just practicing singing different Tonalities in different pitches, in different intervals, and even chords is going to heighten your ear so dramatically that your awareness on the instrument is going to grow exponentially, faster than you can even imagine.

Singing is always my top one. And singing songs also is great, but like very, um, specific, intentional singing is also like, that's going to give you growth faster. Um, listening is probably another really big one for me. Especially if, um, you listen with intention. So, obviously filling your life with music all the time is great, but listening with intention for whatever it is at that time that you're working on.

So, an example, um, listening to a piece that you're working on for pitch or for, um, Also, we have the ability to, um, view video with YouTube and stuff like that. So you can. Watch for bow usage, bow distribution. How are they articulating that? How much bow are they using? Um, what stop? Like, um, how are they holding the bow there?

Like, are they leaning in really deeply with the string? Like how are they put, pulling that sound out? Um, all of those things are really great for developing your music musical awareness and how to express a piece. Um, you can also listen for just like. articulation in general. So like if you're trying to articulate a specific bow stroke, I'm thinking specifically of like staccato or um, even some staccato because staccato can be different depending on the style of the piece.

Um, so listening for how long staccato is, how it's Articulate. I keep saying that word, but you get what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that's those are my top two is listening and singing also for body awareness Just like I'm really big on that. It's just like going about your day like thinking about How you're holding your body like I know that's not really musical related, but it it pertains really is though Yeah, yeah I mean you can't play the violin with really great technique if you're Not having really great posture.

So it's described as more than just how you hold your body. It's how you feel within your body. And so how are you holding your body with your shoulders? Are you holding your body with your core and your, and your foundation? Um, so. Yeah, just as you go about your day. I know right now I'm really like trying to re learn a lot of things because I'm breastfeeding and I have little, little kids and I've been dealing with some flare ups with my arthritis.

So I'm like noticing as I walk by the mirror, I'm like, ooh, I'm so hunched over. I'm so tall, I need to hold myself properly. Um. Because it's learned, like over time it just becomes this is the way I hold myself. I hold myself with my shoulders forward. Um, so just being fully aware and present with your body. 

Julia: I'm glad you mentioned that because it goes to show even at a professional level, these are things that kind of wax and wane. We have. I would say spent a lot of time thinking about body awareness just with the nature of our profession.

There are things that are out of our control that make it so that, you know,, your body literally changes. I found after I had my baby too, I mean I was on bed rest for a bit, so I could not even walk upstairs without getting winded. And it took probably a good year before I started to feel like, okay, I can play again and start to like hold everything correctly. That's one example that obviously not everyone listening is going to be able to relate to. But, you know, maybe you do have an injury that you got from playing golf or, you know, whatever it is, or just your body's getting older.

So it's things that you need to, to just constantly be checking in with and also be patient with yourself when you find that you are starting to feel tense. 

 It's something that's learned and as long as we're aware of it, you can always kind of come back to center, but naturally things are going to happen that make it, with our lifestyle, we're sitting all the time.

Um, you know, a lot of us are typing all day and that just is really bad for, for posture. So it takes a lot of conscious effort be able to bring it to the rest of your life and then apply it to, to violin. 

Rachael: And then some other practice techniques that I was thinking of are a bit more basic.

So like these are going to apply more for somebody who is earlier on in their journey. But these are great non instrument practice techniques. So, um, I think most people are familiar with just like holding a pencil, the practice bow hold. Yeah. Sometimes I'll encourage my younger students to, like, brush their teeth, like they're holding their bow with their tooth, hold their toothbrush like they hold their bow.

Um, or practicing different rhythm things, cause insta keeping a steady beat. My favorite thing is to, like, walk around the room to the beat, but then clap the rhythm. Patterns that way, um, basically any way that you can interact with music, whether that's through reading the music, performing the music, doing the rhythms, singing the pitches, um, without your instrument is going to just amplify your violin experience.

Julia: Yeah, it's fun too because it doesn't really feel like you're like practicing, practicing, but you really are. And I find, especially with rhythm, and this could be like a whole other, a whole other conversation for another day because, a lot of violinists, , naturally struggle with rhythm.

But it's, that's really one of those things that's like 80 percent in your head. And if you can Sing the rhythm correctly and kind of as you're as you're saying clap and walk around, it's gonna fix it on the violin almost instantly unless there's really like a shift or something that's slowing you down. These are these are really really good techniques that I hope a lot of you guys will try and I'm sure that you're, you're, you're working on already. As many things that you can come up, can come up with away from the violin is gonna not only increase your practice time because you can fit it in throughout the day when you're waiting in line to, you know, check out at the grocery store, or maybe even when you're driving home.

, you're making smarter use of your time. 

Rachael: I was just, it was like a little light bulb because you had mentioned before about not having hours, you can't practice for hours because of your injury.

And I was thinking how, , this is like, we don't have time to like dive into this now, but there's just so many little nuggets we've been talking about. Yeah, for sure. But that. Really, in reality, like, your brain can't comprehend all that, and you really should be practicing in little, like, chunks. Yeah. But, just throwing that out there.

Julia: 100%. Yeah. Little and often. It's kind of like studying, like, I remember when you're a student, like, it's kind of glorified to just sit in the library and, like, read for four hours, but realistically, after the first 25 minutes, like, everything else you're doing, I mean, maybe there's some stuff that you're going to remember, but it's just so much more productive to take breaks and maybe study for two hours instead, but come to it focused and, and calm and not stressed out.

Same for violin.

I think there was so much that we covered here. So I hope that you guys are taking notes and that, um, you'll find some, some practical things to apply in your own practice. Perhaps there are things that you're relating to as well. And, you know, I'd be interested in hearing if there are anything is that listeners are doing, uh, in their own practice that we haven't covered, that they find are, is helping them with, with practice, and tension and all these really important things that are the issues , very unique to adult learners on violin.

 Rachel, can you tell us a little bit more about if people want to see more from you, where can they find you online? 

Rachael: Yeah, so I, um, created the Adult Violin Academy courses, so I have two different courses in there depending on your level and ability. So if you wanted to learn more about that, you can, um, check out my website, which is RachelRidge.

com, which I know she'll be linking that. And I also am on social media on Instagram, which is Rachel. Ridge, or I have a Facebook group where we, I have a lot of adult learners that from multiple different levels that post about their progress and kind of a good, really fun community to join, and it's just called the Adult Violin Academy.

Instagram and Facebook are the primary places where you can reach out and just come hang out. 

Julia: Cool. And is your Facebook group open to anyone? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Oh, awesome. And do people share like recordings or general questions? 

Rachael: , kind of a mix of everything. Most of it has been questions at this point. A couple people share recordings, um, but mostly it's just I also use it to kind of like pick people's brains and try to understand like, how can I best help them, I put a lot of like polls up recently. Um, people will ask like recommendations for stuff. Yeah. 

Julia: Awesome. Well, that sounds like it would be a great place of, um, well, getting in touch with you, but just also like meeting other adult violinist because as we said, we know there's a lot of you because we get, messages from people all over the world, probably for you too,, learning violin, but in your circles, a lot of people don't know necessarily other people who are playing the violin or beginners as adults and it can, can feel a little lonely sometimes.

So I will link all of those, for any of you guys who are interested in joining and thank you so much, Rachel, for coming on and,, sharing all your knowledge. I think that people are going to find this really helpful. 

And thank you for listening. I will be back in two weeks with a, another interview episode, and I hope you'll tune in then. And in the meantime, happy practicing. And I'll catch you guys at the next one.