JAVS Spring 2017

Health and Wellness

This is Not a Toy: An Introduction to the JAVS Health and Wellness Column Jessica Ray King

a tailored technical approach. 2 Even further, the lack of a rigid tradition fosters a positive environment of experimentation in order to best develop the technical and musical proficiency of viola players. The purpose of the Health and Wellness section of the JAVS then is to identify fundamental components of a potential system to aid violists in practicing, playing, and performing at the highest level without pain or anxiety, and to facilitate long, healthy careers. This article serves as a model for content in order to solicit future contributors and/or suggestions. High-level playing is comprised of both technical and musical excellence, and supported by literature, there are foundational components that foster high level viola playing, including: wellness, deliberate and meditative practice, and specified technical development. Even further, following a tailored wellness regime and conducting focused, positive practice sessions aids violists in developing a core, solid technique that leads to expressive, emotional performances. Wellness may be thought of as both physical and mental wellness. However, treating the two as one and the same—physio-emotional wellness, if you will—aids in identifying the factors that facilitate high-level playing. The benefits of wellness include reduced or eliminated pain or fatigue, prevention of injury, increased stamina, improved posture, greater musculoskeletal control, relieved anxiety, a clear and focused flow state, and a positive mindset/outlook. Pain associated with musculoskeletal disorders is notoriously prevalent in violists. Seven variables of the viola’s construction are potentially hazardous regarding physical strain: body length, string length, shoulder

The viola is a bastardized instrument: historically, physically, and acoustically. William Primrose himself lamented that the viola is an instrument without a tradition—a tradition of standard repertoire, playing technique, and virtuosic performing. To complicate matters further, the viola is played at the shoulder though it is on average fifteen percent larger than the violin, 1 is tuned a fifth lower, sharing the same intervals as the cello, and is proportionally and acoustically imperfect. The cumbersome physical properties of the viola increase the likelihood of sustaining playing injuries; the imperfect acoustical properties render pure sound production nearly impossible. These challenges call for solutions and support such that the viola requires a specialized approach. The days of thinking of the viola as “a big violin” and an instrument reserved for failed violinists are long gone. The viola is an instrument of rich, dark sonorities that requires intelligent and deliberate practice and application of

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 2017

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