An instrument with narrow shoulders

Before playing, Yanna Pelser puts the viola on her fingertips for a moment. She is looking for the balance point. She also rests the bow on one finger so that it is in balance. This prevents her from lifting with the left or pushing with the right. And then there’s her body. That must be able to vibrate with the instrument. Then she prevents injuries.

Eleven years ago she took over this viola from her teacher. The instrument has narrow shoulders, making it easy to play high on the neck. The sound mixes nicely, is ideal for chamber music. But she plays jazz more and more and she would like to sound a little louder, a little more solo. In fact, she has been looking for a new one for years. Plus, the short strings don’t fit her fingers well.

However, it was not because of this that she injured her shoulder for a long time. It was her approach to play. During her training she did not give her body the space to get used to new techniques. “I forced so that I could play well to my teacher. It was pushing and pulling. But if that tension lasts too long, mentally and physically, you’ll be blown away.” In her third year of study she could no longer put on the alto, she could no longer raise her left arm. The usual therapies did not help, she had to look for something else.

According to the Resonanzlehre it matters what intention you play with. If you want to sound room-filling, your muscles will conform. “The body is part of the sound. The space already determines the sound to a large extent, then the body and in third place the musical instrument.” She learned to be aware of the sound vibrations that go through her muscles and skeleton. Her injury healed by playing. “My arm has the function not only to carry my instrument, but to transmit all the vibrations of the string to all the muscles in the body. The injured muscles started to vibrate, like a kind of massage.”

As she seeks the balance point of the viola, so she does with her limbs. “If the body is free in all directions, you actually move sound wave accordingly. Sound spreads bullet formation from the source.” She plays with an unusual chin rest that allows the instrument to run in a perpendicular line from her collarbone to her hand, which also makes it easier to find the balance of the instrument.

She thinks she has started to sound more beautiful because of the Resonanzlehre† On the same viola she now sounds fuller and more present. Perhaps the search for the perfect instrument is therefore not so important and that is why she keeps returning to this viola. It plays lightly, it doesn’t have to be “in the string” to sound good. “It has a nutty, woody sound. A little woolly. I also sing while I play and I have not come across any other alto that blends so well with my singing voice.”

Yet she cannot let the search rest, because that fingering could really be better, just like the sharpness of the sound. “Maybe I’ll have one built that’s completely tailored to my body.”