Make violin playing easier

Horst Hildebrandt, Oliver Margulies, Marta Nemcova - If you examine the sources on the centuries-old traditions of violin pedagogy as well as the musicological contributions of recent decades, you will discover the following: There are often only imprecise or contradictory recommendations on individually suitable instrument positions or ergonomic aids (for example chinrests, cushions and shoulder rests).

The existing recommendations could be influenced, among other things, by the individual anatomical requirements of the school founders who formulated the recommendations. It was not until the 1970s that the enormous range of individual anatomical characteristics that are experienced as facilitating or limiting on musical instruments was systematically researched. In 2009, the handbook that was instrumental in this research was handed over to the Zurich University of the Arts by its founder Christoph Wagner and further expanded by the team of authors of this article (www.zzm.ch).

In view of the worrying number of complaints among high string players and the increasing demand for music physiology support for everyday teaching, a research project recently completed at the Zurich University of the Arts and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Ernst Göhner Foundation and the Swiss University Center for Music Physiology (www.shzm.ch) has produced the first scientifically sound results on individually suitable violin positions.

Other cooperation partners were Barbara Köhler (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) and Matthias Nübling (Gesellschaft für Empirische Beratung).

The cross-sectional study Objective Criteria for the Individual Selection of a Physiologically Advantageous Violin Position investigated over a period of several years how instrument position, muscle tension and the feeling of exertion in the left arm are related. Data was also collected on individual biomechanical and muscular hand and arm characteristics.

A preliminary study at the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich with 24 students of different playing and age levels laid the foundation for the subsequent data collection under laboratory conditions with 15 violinists playing a given tone sequence in four standardized violin positions. In addition, comparative data was collected when playing with the usual position and ergonomic set-up. The standardized violin positions were tested without chin rest and shoulder rest in order to enable an objective, comparative analysis and to be able to incorporate playing traditions of historical performance practice.

Initial evaluations of the various phases of the research project show that clear differences can be measured between the various instrument positions in terms of objective muscle activity and subjective feeling of exertion across genders.

Based on the results of the study, a laboratory-independent test procedure was also developed for everyday teaching at all training levels. This procedure has already been presented at a workshop for the European String Teachers' Association ESTA. The results and test procedures presented make it possible to make physiologically sound recommendations regarding ergonomic optimization for playing high string instruments in everyday professional life. They also facilitate the prevention and treatment of activity-specific health problems.

Inspired by the results obtained, a chinrest model was developed in collaboration with the Wittner company under the name of Zurich which, thanks to various height and angle settings, allows adaptation to individual needs and different head positions, even while playing, in order to prevent fatigue. (www.wittner-gmbh.de/neuheiten.html)