Posture & Sound

A couple of months ago I heard a quote from an orchestra musician who said, “I would rather play in pain than waste valuable practice time doing Feldenkrais to improve my pain.” I’ll bet that we’ve all heard or even thought something like this before (I know I did when my teacher recommended reading about the Alexander Technique back in college). The tendency to think that doing something with, or away from the instrument, which will help our physical well-being would be better spent "practicing" is deeply rooted in our musical education.

Now compare this with a blog entry from young bassist Jason Heath, who writes,

“Of the four previously mentioned issues, I believe that posture has the most effect on sound. The taller that we make ourselves, the bigger our sound can become. In one of my posts on sounds, I talked about creating a bigger lever with our bodies by drawing our sound from the floor. Opening up our abdominals adds at least 3 inches to our sitting height and those three inches can have an enormous impact on our sound. The taller we sit (or stand) the bigger, bassier, and more vibrant our sound can be.” Go to Jason Heath's Double Bass blog

I think most of us will agree that posture has some affect on the quality of sound; otherwise we wouldn’t admonish our students to sit or stand up straight. In addition to sound quality, posture can have an influence on the health of our joints, muscles, and tendons etc. so posture could possibly play a role in the longevity and success of a career.

This seems so obvious that I sometimes still wonder why the study and understanding of posture is not as highly regarded as the study of music theory? It would be unthinkable to graduate a student from a music school without at least a basic understanding of theory, so why should it be thinkable to graduate students without a basic understanding of their own bodies?

Perhaps because:
Many teachers don’t know how to communicate the relationship of posture and its affect on health and sound to the students.

Many teachers don’t know how to deal with the issue of posture because it wasn’t part of their education. Along this line we could argue that it may be too much to ask of a music teacher to also be knowledgeable in this field as well.

Young students’ bodies are often resilient enough to withstand the wear and tear from hours of practicing in less than ideal positions so they don’t feel the need to do so.

And finally, the competition is so stiff that we feel that every minute available for practicing must be spent with the instrument.

Interestingly enough, Arnold Jacobs recommended practicing certain breathing skills away from the instrument because the habits can be so strong when playing that the only way to establish new ones is without the instrument. Now there’s something to think about and I’ll write more about Jacobs in a future blog

Thanks for reading!

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

From iTunes

or direct download

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!

Comments

[Jason Heath]

Thanks for mentioning my post! Very cool blog--I will be sure to check out your podcast as well. The orchestra player quote you opened the post with in unfortunately a common attitude among musicians, and I hope that more folks continue to turn to Feldenkrais for better posture and to improve their playing experience. I'll look forward to your upcoming post on Arnold Jacobs (I've got his book on my shelf and frequently refer to it, despite being a string player).