Practice Oct. 31, 2006

Time:  120 min.

Today was pretty neat.  I finally got through the entire first etude of Findeisen.

Most importantly, I figured out that playing with my elbow sticking out to the left helps my shifting from normal position to thumb position.  I used to put my elbow more or less behind the neck, but that created an extra movement of bringing my elbow up when I switched to/from thumb position.  Having the arm behind the neck seems to be an inherent problem of the Laborie Endpin setup, but I think this gets around the problem.  I just have to get used to it–it’s so awkward.