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.
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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!
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