Quote:
Cliff Judge wrote:
Interesting...I was originally taught that the neck hand should be on the side of the neck, so the fingers could dig into the nerve cluster behind the jaw on an uncompliant uke. And that uke's head should be brough to about your shoulder, or at least towards if they don't bend all the way. All seems fine on paper, but I've never been very good at it.
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Many variations are possible, so without actually seeing what you do I'd rather not speculate too much.
I will say that my experience with that nerve cluster is that it requires a great deal of accuracy to do more than make uke grumpy. Applying more pressure in the wrong spot not only won't work, but is likely to give uke something to fight back against: always a bad idea. OTOH, having a soft "neck" hand gives you lots of options, including that one.
None of my teachers have put much emphasis on the "head-to-shoulder" aspect. I think disruption of uke's alignment matters more than exact relative positions, which will depend on body type anyway.
Katherine