Chin Rest: Adjustable in all directions
2. Height
1. It’s a long way down to the chin rest for this tall player. Huug before the research, Nov.‘03
2. The chin rest is adjusted to suit his long neck. Huug after the research, June ‘05
We removed the shoulder rest and took a look at the player with his instrument balanced on the collar bone. We could then see if an adjustment in height was necessary. Our goal was not to fill the space completely, but to give the musician a better grip on the instrument with the jaw, leaving plenty of room for the head to move.
Plenty of room to turn the head.
One of the smaller players required a reduction in height of her chin rest. The other ten players had adjustments to increase the height of their chin rests.
1. Willemijn’s chin rest before the research : Even smaller and middle sized players needed a height adjustment.
2. Willemijn’s chin rest at the end of the research.
We selected a chin rest from the five heights available in the Chin Rest Testing Kit, adding corks between violin and chin rest to raise the rest further as needed. The use of our testing kit meant that we had a wider range of heights to choose from, and could make adjustments as fine as one millimetre. In this way we could adjust the chin rest height to respect the balance of the head on the spine, decreasing muscle tension in the neck, jaw and throat and improving basic balance. Height adjustments were made gradually in most cases, which gave the musicians time to ease up on the pressure they were used to exerting on the chin rest.
