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Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
Do you know which muscles move the right arm on the up-bow or down-bow? On the up-bow, the biceps and the chest (pectoral) muscle with the front of the shoulder (deltoid) muscle push the bow across the string. The triceps and the back (latissimus dorsi) muscle with the back of the shoulder (deltoid) muscle pull the bow on the down-bow.
It is very important for you to understand that these large torso muscles do most of the work to move the bow. It also means that you need to accept that these muscles are very precise in what you ask of them, or you are conflicted. What the arm and torso do is similar, whether you are using an overhand bow or a German style bow. I want to generalize the principles we’ll be looking at to both of these techniques.
You may now view your hands as precise and the larger upper body musculature as imprecise, which means you “live” in their hands. If so, then you may experience your hands as moving your arms, not your arms and torso as moving your hands. The musculature of the torso and the shoulders moves the arms and hands, which means the torso places the hands where they need to be to be accurate. There are two things we teach as Alexander Technique teachers, when it comes to activities like playing a musical instrument that require refined movement.
We make it very clear to the double bass player which muscles are doing what, and we teach the performer how to get out of the way of these muscles, so that playing the bass is as effortless and dynamic as possible.
So, I want to make you aware that your chest, back, arm, and shoulder muscles move the bow, but experience it as the hand leading an energized arm in bowing. (An Alexander Technique “trick” is to experience bowing as if the hand moves the arm, even though you know in reality that the arm and torso muscles move the hand. When you experience the hand leading a very alive and available arm, you get this very dynamic arm that is doing the minimum muscularly to move the bow.)
When you, the double bassist, are making sounds, the bow is in motion. When the bow is in motion, the whole right arm and right shoulder are in motion. As obvious as this is, it is critical to bring it to consciousness. Why? Because playing the double bass cannot be described in terms of static positions. (One can describe playing the piano and guitar in static positions, because on both of these instruments the performer can play a note and not be in motion, and the sound continues.)
When I ask you to fully experience what happens in the right arm as you play, it may be the first time in your performing life that you are experiencing/sensing the arm, hand, and shoulder instead of telling them what to do. So, as you move the bow back and forth across the string, I ask you to feel what the whole arm is doing. I ask you to realize for the first time that all of your joints are continuously changing shape when the bow is in motion making music and to feel this.
