Developmental Psychology

[Instrumentalist]

Children have a gross sensuality - they enjoy large movements, sudden movements, balancing of the body, exaggerated things. Adults have a far more refined sense. They will, for instance, enjoy the feeling of a bow on a string. Children feel this also but are not 'fired' by it. As such it's a motivation that's not really available to the child. How do we attune to this lack?

[Tony]

Here's an interesting quote:

What has left-wrist suppleness to do with good intonation? Firstly, I make a distinction between correct intonation and sensitive intonation. The former hits the note accurately but may just miss the place on the string that produces vibrations in sympathy with the instrument itself or with surrounding sounds. If you can tune in to these, the sound improves, becoming richer and rounder: this is what I call sensitive intonation. To produce this requires the left hand to be supple enough that the fingertips are extremely sensitive - subliminally - to the vibrations coming back from the string. Incidentally, this feedback also produces endorphins in the player, and once you get a student to feel this you are on the right track. The human has an insatiable appetite for endorphins and will look for more sensations of the kind; thus, gradually, sensitive intonation becomes automatic.

from http://www.theviolincase.com/Newsletter/Jul07.shtml. Does this endorphin response have a developmental aspect?