A third factor
In my last post, I mentioned two essential factors of speed, which are relaxation and alignment.
In this post, I’ll bring in a third factor which is trajectory.
Proper alignment is critical in good playing – you have to make sure that the different elements in your your body are balanced with one another.
But positioning is only half the picture.
You’ll have to also make sure that these elements do not interfere with each other when they move.
This applies especially to the right hand.
You’ll have to make sure that when you move your thumb, that it does not interfere with the fingers and vice versa.
The best way to achieve this is play the thumb in circular motion (mirroring the circular motion in the fingers) when you play. Instead of pushing your thumb towards the fingers, move it outwards and back in a circular motion. (To do this, you’ll have to position your hand so that it’s balanced and centered and not tilted one way or another.)
This ensures that movement in your thumb does not interfere with the fingers. In fact, it’ll complement them. The thumb and fingers will work together as a unit rather than fight with one another.
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that good playing is mostly a result of good optimal conditions in your body.
If you have good conditions in your body, good technique will happen naturally to you.
But if the conditions are not there, you can practice all you want and still not achieve that good technique.
These three factors – relaxation (or looseness and lightness in the body), good alignment and a smooth and conflict-free trajectory are crucial to creating those conditions for speed and for good technique to happen to you.