What is good posture?
I hear this question almost daily in my practice and music workshops. One way to think about posture is to be upright and straight. But why is this so uncomfortable for so many people? Moshé Feldenkrais, (The Feldenkrais Guild of N. America) who developed the Feldenkais Method defined posture very differently. He said good posture (which he actually called “acture” because posture means something static) meant being able to move backwards, forwards, to the right and left as well as up and down without a preliminary movement. Another way of saying this would be to say one is able to move from his/her center with equal ease in all directions.
What dose this mean for musicians? Well, we can stop telling our students to sit or stand up straight. Instead, we can ask them if they feel differences when shifting more weight on to one foot or the other. We can also ask them how it feels to breathe and hold the instrument (if that is needed)? If you are slouched over and your teacher says, “sit up, that’s not good posture,” you may not agree because sitting up “straight” may not feel so comfortable and you don’t really have any way of knowing what straight means. However, if you are slumped over and you need to look to the left or right, you will have to erect yourself before you can turn to look and that means needing a preparatory movement. Sometimes students can even be too straight or erect. This can usually be heard in the sound quality and the muscles of the back are overworked. So the next time you wonder about your or a student’s posture, feel what it’s like to move in different directions and experiment with the sound quality. It’s even possible to hear a difference in the sound when standing with more weight on one foot as compared to the other foot or in the middle. Give it a try.
Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.
from iTunes
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!
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