The Dynamic Musician Series Blog

Digital DMS now available from "Achieving Excellence.com"

Just a short post this week. I'm pleased to announce that Achieving Excellence.com is now also distributing the "DMS" lessons digitally as well as hard copy. Achieving Excellence has been doing a great job selling the hard copies so I'm happy they'll also sell the digital versions. AE also caries many interesting publications on the Feldenkrais Method® as well as other topics like hypnosis and NLP.

So, have a look "around."

All the best,

John Tarr

Ways to Improve Breathing

While looking through the latest copy of the International Trombone Association Journal, I noticed a website listing for Will Kimball, who is Associate Professor of Trombone at Brigham Young University and a professional alto and tenor trombonist. Among other interesting pages, there are two articles on breathing, which are summaries of scientific research and medical studies. “Respiratory Training” and “10 Ways to Improve Breathing” both caught my eye and I found several points worth mentioning here. I agree with all of the points in the articles but I will discuss just a few here because they relate to my interest in awareness of breathing and the effects posture, pedagogy and self-use can affect how we breathe. To read the articles (which I also recommend), click the link at the end of this text.

 

From “Respiratory Training”

Neural Adaptations: Tzelepis points out that, in addition to changes in the muscles themselves, there are actually neural adaptations to training that make the muscles more efficient. As is commonly known, muscles normally exist in paired sets of agonists and antagonists—one pushes, the other pulls. In relation to the respiratory muscles, Tzelepis observes, “Excessive cocontraction of antagonists may limit full motor unit activation of agonists, especially during complicated and precise tasks.” That is, muscle groups may sometimes incidentally work against each other, limiting their own success. However, he notes, “With training, the amount of cocontraction is usually reduced, thereby allowing greater activation of agonists and greater net force generation.” In other words, the respiratory muscles, like other skeletal muscles, begin working in a more coordinated, efficient fashion after training.

• Granted, the benefit of neural adaptations mentioned here come from using breath resistance training,however such adaptations also occur as a result from doing Feldenkrais lessons. By giving your nervous system a chance to sense co-contraction, say in the movements of breathing, it will eventually find a way to reduce them. Clients in privates sessions and classes often report freer, easier breathing after a Feldenkrais lesson.

Shifting Attention: An important pedagogical concept that has not been discussed up to this point is the fact that many players have plenty of respiratory ability—they may have a relatively large vital capacity and higher than normal lung function measurements—they just fail to use it. Respiratory training is likely to help bring the player’s attention to breathing in general, which alone is likely to improve performance. This is apparently the way Arnold Jacobs, the famous tubist and breathing pedagogue, often used breathing tools: to help bring players’ attention to the importance of breathing for tone production and to help condition them into better breathing habits on their instruments.

• This is exactly what happens in a Feldenkrais lesson, the student begins to shift his/her attention, which allows him/her to sense more accurately how they are breathing. Arnold Jacobs wrote that often students would think they were doing something that they were taught but actually doing something else, which might be contra productive.

From “10 Ways to Improve Breathing”

5) Allow full expansion

Though sometimes a foreign concept to musicians, it is a common piece of workaday knowledge among physiologists that the bellows of the human respiratory system consists of two parts: the diaphragm and the rib cage (Tobin 31; Johnson 256). Using only the diaphragm, as is sometimes advocated by musicians, eliminates approximately one third of the vital capacity (Sebel 28); other studies indicate that this loss could even be higher than a third (Bergofsky). There are clearly many cases in which musicians require a full vital capacity breath, not just two thirds of their vital capacity. Also, since maximum expiratory flow is possible only near total lung capacity and decreases progressively as lung volume decreases, the matter of full expansion obviously affects lung function as well as lung volume (Johnson 263). Movement of the rib cage portion of the bellows occurs mechanically through what physiologists often call the “bucket handle” motion of the rib cage, wherein the rib cage (a series of bucket handles connected at the spine and sternum) moves upward and outward upon inhalation, downward and inward on exhalation. If the rib cage remains fixed (whether in an upward position, downward position, or anywhere along its range of motion), its mechanical purpose is obviously thwarted. That is to say, the rib cage must move up and down, in and out, in order to work as a bellows (Johnson 263). At no point, whether through training, concentration, or superhuman effort, can a person cause the diaphragm (not to mention the lung itself, which is passive and completely without muscle) to simply take over the rib cage’s portion of mechanical movement, whether during inhalation or exhalation.

If rib cage motion is inhibited and only the diaphragm is used during inhalation, the efficiency of the entire respiratory system is compromised. Respiratory physiologists have shown that the respiratory system works best as a whole, not through isolation of individual muscles like the diaphragm (hence the term respiratory system). Studies demonstrate, for example, that respiratory muscles other than the diaphragm do not simply offer mechanical assistance to the diaphragm. Rather, these muscles actually work together and “coordinate so as to optimize diaphragmatic function” (Goldman and Mead) (emphasis added), with “substantial coupling” between the muscles of the rib cage and the diaphragm (Boynton et al.). In other words, the diaphragm does not work as efficiently by itself as it does in combination with the other respiratory muscles. Again, it is a respiratory system, a system that uses many muscles and interlocking movements.

•  (My emphasis)

In my clinics and workshops at more than 20 universities and conservatories around the nation, this has probably been the most common problem among the hundreds of musicians whose vital capacity I have measured: they are afraid to relax and let everything move when they inhale (possibly because they are afraid they might do something wrong). When they do finally relax, take a big breath, and allow everything to expand and do its job naturally without trying to isolate muscles or execute involuntary actions, their vital capacity measurements invariably improve.

 

• This is a big one and something I also discuss in my book, “The Dynamic Musician Series: Dynamic Stability and Breath, Vols. 1 &2.” I won’t say more here because Will has said it all, except that I too encounter many musicians who have learned to keep their chests still.

8) Relax

Tension in either the abdominal muscles or the expiratory muscles of the rib cage (intercostals) during inhalation limits the respiratory system’s ability to expand and contract, thus decreasing lung efficiency and lung volume (Murray 106; Goldman and Mead). Both general tension (e.g., overall tension resulting from performance anxiety or poor practice habits) and local tension (e.g., tension resulting from attempts to hold individual parts of the respiratory system in a fixed position) are clearly counterproductive to ventilation. In addition, surprisingly, studies of professional wind instrumentalists and vocalists have shown that, although performance results are very similar, specific breathing patterns among successful professionals are remarkably varied (Cossette, Sliwinski, and Macklem; Nelson 40; Thomasson and Sundberg; Watson et al.). Research has shown that the specifics of breathing, including the ratio of diaphragm to rib cage use, sequence of muscle recruitment, and the visual external manifestations of breathing, vary significantly according to individual build and body type (Hoit and Hixon; Wade). In other words, our bodies naturally do what is most efficient for their given build. Studies have also demonstrated that, regardless of claims sometimes made to the contrary, professional musicians have very little control over the individual muscles of the respiratory system, particularly the diaphragm (Wade), as well as a very inaccurate physiological awareness of what is actually occurring when they breathe (Watson and Hixon; Wade). Research would seem to indicate that it is more efficient for musicians to simply relax and allow natural forces to take place according to each person’s unique build and body type, rather than exerting unnecessary mental and physical energy trying to change what is largely an involuntary process. Finally, the benefits of yoga on lung function (see studies listed under “Practice deep breaths,” above) are presumably at least partially related to relaxation.

 

• Once again, this also relates to co-contraction but it makes an important point: That breathing is largely an involuntary process and each person breathes differently. As stated in “The DMS” the best way to know if you’re breathing well is: “when sitting or standing feels comfortable, breathing feels free and easy and you are able to produce a tone quality which is appropriate to the musical expression as well as pleasing to the ear.”

 And lastly, this may seem obvious but I often find that very little is known about posture in musical education.

9) Maintain good posture

For various physiological reasons, lung capacity decreases by about 2 percent from standing to sitting, then about 15 percent from sitting to supine (lying on your back) (Campbell and Davis 20). “Semi-supine” posture (reclining or slouching) has been found to be significantly less efficient than sitting (Koulouris et al.). Lung function is also best when standing; both FVC and FEV1 are “slightly but significantly higher” when standing than when sitting (Townsend). This difference in posture is important enough that the American Thoracic Society recommends documenting exactly what posture is used during all breathing measurements (American Thoracic Society “Standardization of Spirometry”). In short, it makes sense to stand if you can while performing; if you cannot stand, sit up straight.

 

• Posture is the main topic of The DMS volume 1.

So this has been a long post and I want to thank Will Kimball for letting me use parts of his articles for this post. To read the full articles go to: http://www.kimballtrombone.com/breathing/

 

If you are interested in trying out some FM lesson for musicians, you can get mini lesson from my DMS podcast and you can order “The Dynamic Musician Series: Dynamic Stability and Breath, Volumes 1 & 2” digitally or in hard copy from the links below.

From iTunes

or direct

Thanks for reading!

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe well!

The Magic Piccolo

I wrote this article "The Magic Piccolo" some time ago but it is good example of how the FM can work to improve performance. I don't know anything about piccolo fingering but I could see that her head position had an effect on her finger dexterity. She couldn't feel this herself so she needed an "outside" view to discover this. If I had just told her to stop doing what she was doing or to move her head back, she would have not had the chance to develop her own internal reference for her head position.

Actually, this is a common occurrence in my private practice in which clients come with interests or problems that lie outside of their awareness. This is not unlike a music lesson in which the student needs a teacher to help him/her realize what she/he is doing and to develop a deeper understanding (awareness) of the issue and find ways to work with it.

Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers as well as "The Dynamic Musician Series: Dynamic Stability and Breath Volumes 1 & 2"

From iTunes
or direct

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me an e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe, sit and stand well!

Sold on the Feldenkrais Method

I ran across a blog tip from MaryBeth Smith, a voice teacher in Houston, TX about the benefits of the FM. Here’s the link: Sold on the Feldenkrais Method

Although this may not seem to directly relate to musicians, it does fact have very much to do with the process of making music. As stated in the article, “...the nervous system is often the forgotten element in physical training:  when we move and train our bodies without awareness, without new stimulus, we wind up reinforcing old patterns. We're driving with the emergency brake on. Corrective resistance exercise, which trains primarily muscle tissue, is the long way around. Feldenkrais targets primarily the brain and nervous system, which is infinitely adaptable and can elicit change almost instantly.”

We could change this to say that the nervous system is often forgotten in music training and that practicing without awareness can reinforce old habits, i.e. mistakes. These mistakes may not take the form of missing notes but in overusing or straining our bodies. This overuse may not be apparent right from the onset, but begin to show its effects later after many years of practicing and performing.

Doing Feldenkrais Method Awareness Through Movement lessons, as also stated, can provide the musician with a great deal of benefit away from the instrument. In this last quote we just need to replace athlete with musician: “I think there's a lot of potential in this kind of work:  not only to heal injury and correct poor function, but also to help us find the equivalent of the athlete's 'zone' of relaxed readiness in everyday life and in athletic activities as well.”

Enjoy the weekend and thanks to MaryBeth Smith for the tip.

And...

Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers as well as "The Dynamic Musician Series: Dynamic Stability and Breath Volumes 1 & 2"

From iTunes
or direct

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me an e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe, sit and stand well!

Playing With Awareness

I was perusing though the forum “Talk Bass”  because I saw that some of my blog referrals were coming from there. First off, I want to thank you for the referrals. The post I read was entitled, “Avoiding Arthritis, Tendonitis, etc.” To summarize, a young, aspiring classical bassist was asking how he could avoid getting tendonitis and arthritis from practicing up to 5 hours a day. There were many good and useful responses to his inquiry. For example, warm up and stretch properly, get exercise and lead a healthy lifestyle. There were also those that suggested 5 hours a day was too much and that he could do other things to learn his craft like listening and studying scores. And of course, make sure he has a good teacher who can help him with these issues. All of this is good advice.

To my mind though, what was missing is the idea of playing with awareness. All of the above suggestions (except those saying to make sure he uses proper technique) dealt with the “before and after” of playing. No one asked the question, “How do you feel while playing? To be sure, musicians have a great deal of awareness while playing. They are aware of tempo, pitch, volume, style, musical form, and how they fit into an ensemble amongst other things. But how many of us are more aware of what’s going on outside than what’s going on inside, and of our physical sensations? By physical sensations I mean the feeling of how much pressure, force, and strength are needed to play. Are we using more force than necessary? Are we sensing a connection of our arms, shoulders, and head to our spines, torso, pelvis, and feet? Even if there is a highly developed form of awareness of the body parts that contact the instrument or produce the sound, we often neglect other parts that are just as vital to making music such as the spine, ribs, and pelvis etc.

Some may respond with the question, “Who cares what my pelvis is doing?” or “I can’t think of so many things at once.” Well, what your pelvis is doing may have a large impact on your sound and certainly your comfort. And yes you can become more aware of your body parts farther away from where you contact the instrument. We can all increase our abilities to be aware and include more of ourselves in our self-image, even while playing.

How does one go about this? I’m glad you asked because that’s just what makes the Feldenrkais Method so useful for musicians. By engaging in a process of using movement to develop awareness or “Awareness Through Movement” (or ATM) as it’s called, you learn to better sense more of yourself more of the time. Most of the movements used in ATM are not related to specific tasks so they give us the opportunity to develop awareness without having a goal to achieve or to “succeed.” This newly learned awareness transfers over into playing or singing. If you’re curious, try out some of the DMS podcasts or even the lessons in “The Dynamic Musician Series,” then you’ll see/feel what I mean.
Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.

From

iTunes

or direct:

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me an e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe, sit and stand well!

A Feldenkrais Lesson at the Conservatory of Music

Today's post  is an article I wrote for a newsletter for the "Institute for the Study of Somatic Education."

The article illustrates some important aspects for music teachers and for somatic practitioners working with musicians. If you would like to read more about the Feldenkrais Method, click the link to the "Institute for the Study of Somatic Education" below.

A Feldenkrais lesson at the Conservatory of Music

The Feldenkrais Method is practiced in many settings. This is the story of a Feldenkrais lesson given to a voice student as part of a team-taught master class for singers. Annelise Kohler  - voice teacher at the Conservatory of Music in Bern, Switzerland - and I have been experimenting with this novel format since November of 2006. Each morning and afternoon session begins with Annelise leading the participants through vocal warm-ups. Then, in ensemble, they sing a chorale. Next, I teach a Feldenkrais, Awareness Though Movement (ATM) lesson chosen for its relation to the theme of the vocal exercises and chorale. After the ATM, Annelise once again takes the class through vocal exercises and ensemble singing. This gives the participants the opportunity to integrate what they learned from the ATM lesson into their singing.

Then we begin working with individuals. The student sings an Aria or Lied with accompaniment as if it were a performing situation. The other participants are listening and watching. When finished, Annelise leads the student into a discussion about how they felt and what they’d like to improve. She then critiques the performance from a voice teacher’s perspective and I give feedback from my experience as a Feldenkrais teacher. After discussion about the similarities and differences in our observations with the student, we all three decide what will be the focus for the individual Feldenkrais lesson, or Functional Integration, (FI) that follows.

At this point I begin working with the student in front of the class, giving some explanation of what I’m doing and thinking so the others can follow along.As you will see later, the lesson and my narrative can create surprising results! After working for a short time, usually 15-25 minutes, Annelise has the student sing their piece and compares it to the first performance.

This is the story of one student’s lesson, which turned out to be especially interesting from both musical and Feldenkrais perspectives.

M. is a young man hoping to make a career of singing and teaching. He sang his Lied and did fairly well, but the performance was not very moving, especially considering the piece’s tragic character and potential for dramatic expression. When Annelise asked him what he would like to improve, he said his head and neck felt awkward and uncomfortable. She mentioned that his diction could be clearer and that he needed to better convey the mood or feeling of the Lied he was singing.

Annelise asked what I had to offer and I said, “I would like to take a look at how his head is sitting on his spine.” I had him lie on a mat on the floor and sat down by his head. I noticed that his head was slightly tilted to the left and his left shoulder was closer to the left ear than his right shoulder was to the right ear and saw similar signs of this pattern in his chest, pelvis, and legs. I mentioned this to the observers and that I suspected that it wouldn’t be very comfortable for him to have his head in the visual, objective middle. To check my hypothesis, I gently lifted his head and moved it the slight amount needed so it would look as if his head was centered over his body. He reported that this indeed felt uncomfortable, so I put his head back to where he had spontaneously chosen to place it when lying down. I told him and the group that it was actually fine for him to have his head where if felt most comfortable. If he held his head in the objective “middle,” he would be in a less neutral position and actually had less freedom to move his head in most directions. For M. this was a revelation. He recounted that he had been instructed by other voice teachers to have his head centered in order to sing well but never felt comfortable when striving to do so.

I continued using my hands and voice to demonstrate how the curve of his spine, the height of his shoulders and position of his pelvis all played a role in how his head was positioned. My focus for the lesson was for him to be better able to more completely and accurately sense his own degree of comfort in various positions. Additionally, it was important for him to understand that the feeling of comfort in his head and neck was directly related to the organization of his spine, shoulders and pelvis and that just changing his head’s position alone would not make singing any easier. I did not try to teach him how to hold his head in the anatomical middle place or to correct him in any other way.

When he got up from the floor, he took a few moments to find the place where his head felt most comfortable.

And then he sang again.

 

This time is was entirely different. His voice and diction were much better than the first run. All present reported being moved and touched by his performance. And all this because M. felt he could have his head where it felt most comfortable and was better able to sense that in the moment! Continuing, M. experimented with “centering” his head and realized that prior to the lesson, he was actually overcompensating and bending it to the right because he had no way of knowing what the middle was supposed to feel like.

After the formal end of his lesson and at the beginning of the lunch break, I observed him putting his bag over his left shoulder. I suggested that he experiment with hanging it over the other shoulder for variation and as a way to learn more about his own sense of position. He said he had tried this before but it had always slid off. During this short interchange, he realized as well that talking on the telephone, which he did a great deal in his day job also contributed to his head position. Coming back from the lunch break, M. reported that it had become easier to carry the bag on his right shoulder.

I mentioned earlier that engaging the other people in the room with the lesson had a surprising effect. During M.’s second performance of his Lied, I noticed that his accompanist also played with more fluency and expression. I mentioned this to the class, and the accompanist agreed. She reported that she had felt quite involved my discussion of M.’s pattern and in watching us while observing herself during the lesson I gave him. It seemed that she also learned something significant about her own way of finding comfort in her head and neck, about being better able to sense herself as well during M.’s performance.

 

This session demonstrates several important aspects of the Feldenkrais Method in working with musicians and non-musicians alike. For example how a person’s “middle” as seen from the outside can be experienced very differently as perceived by the person from the “inside.” Furthermore, it shows that someone who has only been taught to strive for a position that they do not know through their own senses and how that position relates to other parts of their body will have difficulty both in finding that position, and from the errors in their attempts to “correct” the position.

 

The lesson also illustrates a related principle: the importance of respecting each person’s habits and organization as they are found. This is true for performers who need to rely on their habits as well as anyone else. In M.’s case, having a teacher tell him to “center” his head was - at best - useless information. In fact it led to other problems in his singing. He became uncomfortable from over compensating because he had no internal reference when trying to find his middle. Interestingly and very significantly, our work together of “supporting his found pattern” as we say in the Feldenkrais Method, led to him making some positive changes in his standing organization after the lesson – some automatically, and all of them by himself “from the inside.” These kinds of changes are much more likely to grow into preferred patterns of use adopted automatically and without struggle.

 

We are still left with the questions: What caused his diction to improve without having worked with his tongue and jaw, for example? What enabled him to become more expressive and dramatic? Why were the listeners so deeply moved by the second performance?

 

My answers are that the organization in the neck and shoulders can have an influence on the freedom and fluidity of the jaw muscles and more importantly, he could sing from his own neutral organization and move in various directions from there. By moving I mean physically as well as emotionally although those two are not really separate from one another. Additionally, being more aware of, and accepting his own organization, he was better able communicate with (sense) himself and thus with the audience as well. This form communication is the essence of music making.

Special thanks to Paul Rubin for helping to edit the article! Here's the link to his website:

The Institute for the Study of Somatic Education (ISSE) provides training for Certification as a Teacher/Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method in the Europe and the United States. Paul Rubin and Julie Casson Rubin, the Educational Directors, were trained by Dr. Feldenkrais. Their website posts some interesting articles - including a few rare ones - on the Method. 

If you are interested in trying out some FM lesson for musicians, you can get mini lesson from my DMS podcast and you can order “The Dynamic Musician Series: Dynamic Stability and Breath, Volumes 1 & 2” digitally or in hard copy from the links below.

Thanks for reading!

Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.

From iTunes

or direct

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe well!

A Surgeon's Point of View

The painful musician’s hand from the point of view of the surgeon

&

Caution against deciding to have surgery too early

Last Saturday I attended the general assembly meeting for the Swiss Society for Music Medicine (SMM). Before the meeting, they sponsored the two above titled lectures from Drs. Gontran Sennwald Bern (orthopedist and hand surgeon) and Brigitte Sennwald Bern (psychologist and psychiatrist). Their lectures were actually combined into one, with each presenting their points of view using 3 case studies of musicians with hand pain as examples. The most interesting part for me was hearing from Dr. Gontron Sennwald Bern about how he felt many of the pains musicians feel can actually be more related to psychological factors rather than anatomical factors.

In the first two cases, the surgeon couldn’t find any reason to operate and referred the patients to his psychologist wife who was able to help the patients clear up some psychological problems that ended up being the cause of their pain. The third had already had an operation, which failed to produce any results. As with the first two, she was able to alleviate the pain through psychotherapy. Of course they were not suggesting that all pain can be cured with therapy but I found this point of view to be very enlightening, especially because it was coming from the mouth of a surgeon. He went on to describe how every surgery will have some limiting affects on the flexibility of the hand, so surgery must be a last resort. He also stated that any surgical procedure will have affects on the nervous system that may also need to be dealt with. Apparently even the common carpal tunnel syndrome operation is not so harmless as many seem to think.

Many of us know this already, but in my practice I often encounter similar situations. People present pain and nothing (even other therapies) seems to help. For many somatic practitioners this is nothing new but I find many musicians who don’t seem to be able to make this connection. As an example, a musician might feel he’s never really good enough and that he needs to practice as much as possible even when his hand (or any other part of his body) is painful. He may be able to do this for years and years but as time goes by, he’s slowly damaging his hand. At some point, the pain begins to interfere with his playing and he seeks the advice of a physician. He might be diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome from playing too much and undergoes an operation to correct it. Let’s say the OP is perfect and he is pain free. What possibly still hasn’t been changed is his feeling of not being good enough and that he must practice even if it hurts. Sure, the excessive playing caused the carpal tunnel syndrome, but what caused him to practice so excessively? There’s the point at which he would need to examine his practice habits and hopefully his feelings about himself and his playing. Now this is a very rudimentary example and real cases are much more complex than this but I think it may show a how there is a connection between the psychological and the somatic.

I’ll leave you to ponder this and would be interested to hear from other practitioners and musicians on what you think about this issue.

Thanks for reading!

Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.

From iTunes

or direct

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe well!

 

Away from the Instrument

After a long hiatus, I’m back writing again. Many thanks to all those who have been reading and listening to the podcasts even though nothing has been happening, at least not visibly.

In the past months, I’ve been hearing from other musicians and even Feldenkrais colleagues, that in order for the FM (Feldenkrais Method) to be useful for musicians, it must be more directly applied to the actual playing of an instrument, or to singing. As I wrote in a previous blog, I had heard that some would even say that doing something like Feldenkrais (or any other somatic practice) is a waste of time, even if the practicing causes pain. This certainly may be true for some but I do encounter musicians who have other sentiments. I must admit, when I was in undergraduate school, I thought music theory was a waste of time because it took  away from practicing. Fortunately, I have seen the benefits of having studied music theory and wish I’d paid more attention in music history, but I digress.

 

Back to the original question: does the study of movement and somatic awareness need to be directly related to playing or singing to be useful in enhancing performance? The answer I came up with is, yes and no, depending on the individual. As mentioned before, there are those who feel that the FM is a waste of time and others who seem to benefit from it. I even know of a piano teacher, named Alan Fraser, who has produced a video on piano technique using ideas from the FM but chose not to call it such because he knew that the mention of the FM might scare away potential customers. I’ve only watched the video on his website but find his ideas very interesting. Richard Corbeil’s “Vocal Integration with the Feldenkrais Method®” (see blog) is another example of a nice blend between the FM and music pedagogy. I have been developing lessons for brass players combining elements of Awareness Through Movement lesson and playing that seem to be quite useful.

 

However, I have been chewing on the question: What benefits can the FM have for musicians when it’s not directly applied to singing or playing i.e. done away from the instrument? Through this reflection, I’ve come up with a list of ideas.

 

1.            Developing a broader sense of awareness, for one’s self, his/her surroundings, and fellow musicians. One example,  a voice teacher told me she heard the piano more clearly after a Feldenkrais lesson that focused on a freer turning in her neck.

 

2.            Cultivating the sense of well-being. This applies to most of the people who come to my group classes. They say that the weekly lessons help them to feel better, more relaxed etc., during the week. This kind of benefit has obvious implications for a person’s life with and away from the instrument.

 

3.            Supporting recovery from the stress and strain of practice and performance. Taking the time to do something, again, away from the instrument, which is enjoyable can have positive effects on the body’s ability to recover and regenerate. This is something athletes know and use extensively.

 

4.         And speaking of athletes, most train in other ways away from their specific sport. Most every athlete does some kind of strength training and many include coordination and balance exercises, and mental visualization into their training regimens.

 

This list is not complete and I’m curious to hear from other musicians as how they do or do not find useful ways to enhance their performance away from the instrument. If you are interested in trying out some FM lesson for musicians, you can get mini lesson from my DMS podcast and you can order “The Dynamic Musician Series: Dynamic Stability and Breath, Volumes 1 & 2” digitally or in hard copy from the links below and to the right.

 Thanks for reading!

Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.

From iTunes

or direct

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe well!

Richard Corbeil's website

Dear Scott,

I googled Richard Corbeil and got this address for his CD's:

 http://www.feldenkraisinseattle.com/vocalCD.html

I tried it and it worked for me. Let me know how it goes.

All the best,

John Tarr

The Wisdom of Arnold Jacobs

When I was studying in high school and later at the University, I often heard the name “Arnold Jabobs” mentioned with an air of reverence. Back then, I couldn’t really imagine why. Later, after my Feldenkrais Method® training and while searching for more information on breathing, I read Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind by Brian Fredericksen and more recently, Teaching Brass by Kristian Steenstrup (both available from WindSong Press Limited). I was immediately struck by the wisdom of Jacobs’ teaching and also realized where much of the brass pedagogy I have learned from other teachers and players had originated. The information presented in these books is so useful that I continue to refer back to them periodically for information on breathing while playing a brass instrument.

One of Jacobs’ ideas that resonated with the teaching of Moshé Feldenkrais is that breathing is so complex that you can study and analyze it but not really successfully consciously manipulate it.

Moshé Feldenkrais said:

“How does one arrange for his breathing to be well organized? It is very difficult. I am generally against breathing exercises in the commonly accepted notion of breathing exercises where I would be teaching someone that they must breathe like this or like that. (I)f you tell someone how he needs to breathe, (t)he instructions usually destroy his breathing.” And continues: “To our delight, inherent in the structure of the human body there is something that permits humans to learn this easily. Something permits humans to improve their breathing constantly without undergoing special difficulties.” (From Alexander Yanai lesson number 17, Breathing)

On page 80 of Teaching Brass, Arnold Jacobs is quoted as saying:

“So often the students come to my studio and they try to push sideways. The way to get a pseudo-breath is to take the diaphragm and lock it in the high position. The diaphragm is high in the middle and it is attached to the ribs and it goes down so the fibers actually are running somewhat downward. They are attached to the ribs and the finally to the lumbar region of the spine. When it contracts it actually, if you lock it high by tension in the abdomen under, as it shortens, it pulls the ribs sideways. But then the diaphragm does not go down, As a result it is not an inspiratory activity at all. It changes the shape (of the thorax?) and this is maybe what the teacher asks for, but it does not give you the air and this causes lots of trouble.”

Although Jacobs’s ideas were specific to making music, both men to my mind arrived at similar conclusions: That is, that conscious manipulation of breathing can cause the student to do things that are actually counter-productive. As a teacher, if you tell a student how to breathe, she/he could possibly interpret your instructions very differently than you intend. This may lead to the question: “If I’m not supposed to instruct my students how to breathe, how can they learn to play an instrument?” This is a valid question and one that needs much further discussion.

On page 164 of Awareness Through Movement, Dr. Feldenkrais adds to the discussion:

“Our breathing system is complicated. We breathe in different ways when we are asleep, running, singing, or swimming. The only thing all forms of breathing have in common is that when we inhale air enters the lungs and when we exhale it is expelled, because the entire system is so constructed as to increase the volume of the lungs for breathing in, and to reduce it for breathing out. This increase in volume can be produced by a movement of the chest in front, behind, or at the sides, or by an up and down movement of the diaphragm. In general, only a part of this system is used, and that not to its fullest extent. All the possible forms of breathing are used simultaneously when breathing must be speeded up, as after rapid and prolonged running.”

Here is one possible answer.

Mr. Jacobs said:

“My approach to music is expressed as Song and Wind, This is very important to communicate a musical message to the audience. This approach is one of simplicity as the structure and function of the human being is very complex, but we function in a simple manner. When we bring it to the art form it becomes very simple.... Song, to me involves about 85 percent of the intellectual concentration of playing and instrument, based on what you want the audience to hear.... The lips cannot vibrate without wind. ...When we combine Song and Wind, the musical message, song, is the principal element comprising 85 percent of the consciousness. The remaining 15 percent is the application of the breath, wind to fuel the vibration of the lips.” (From Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind, p. 139)

From my understanding of this quote and much of the information from his teachings, Jacobs wanted students to concentrate on the musical outcome and not on the mechanics of how to breathe.

I’ll add one last quote from Dr. Feldenkrais regarding breathing:

“The human skeleton is so constructed that it is almost impossible to organize breathing properly without also satisfactorily placing the skeleton with respect to gravity. The reorganization of breathing alone succeeds only to the degree that we succeed indirectly in improving the organization of the skeletal muscles for better standing and better movement.” (Awareness Through Movement, p. 38)

To wrap up this long post, I feel it is necessary to include posture in the breathing equation, but if you’ve read my previous posts, this is nothing new. For musicians, as Arnold Jacobs says, the desired musical outcome determines how we breathe. I have encountered so many different explanations of breathing (some that really make no sense what so ever) that I really think it necessary to work on the sound, posture and how the student feels when he/she breathes. Of course we can use exercises to enhance breathing, but such exercises must be ones that stimulate the nervous system to find a better way to breathe and not let the conscious thinking interfere. This is why many of the Jacobs exercises are away from the instrument and also why the Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lessons can have such a profound affect on breathing.

For now I leave it at that and list the ISBN numbers of the three books.

Feldenkrais, Dr. Moshé, Awareness Through Movement ISBN 0-06-250322-7

Frederiksen, Brian, Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind, ISBN 0-965-24890-9

Steenstrup, Kristian, Teaching Brass, ISBN 978-87-988393-3-0

Thanks for reading!

Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.

From iTunes

or directly

If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe well!