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!
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