Feldenkrais: Touchy-Feely Or Scientific?

Some people feel that paying attention to the physical is a distraction, a form of masturbation to avoid really dedicating yourself to artistic expression. Yet others have found that it has really opened up a world of new sensitivity. Moshe Feldenkrais himself felt that sensitivity to the body is actually a wonderful stimulation to the brain, returning us to a mode of learning closer to what we had as babies. Any thoughts and experiences about this out there?

Tactile and kinesthetic feedback seems to be a very important part especially for the expert player or virtuoso. Also, for multimodal sensory engagement with the instrument and musical kinesthetic engagement. Interesting comparisons can be drawn with dancers and the musical embodiment of music by pianists. I think there is much room for discussio on the merits of using the motor cortex as much as possible with respect to music production. Any thoughts?

I have just finished reading several chapters of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" by Oliver Sacks. He describes a patient who had lost her proprioceptive sense, whereby her motor cortex controls all the inner workings of her muscular activity. She described the experience as not having a SELF. Our sense of self is intimately linked to our sense of our own bodies, but this is so everyday that for the most part we remain completely unaware of it. Thus I am finding that as I develop the sense of what we are doing physically as we play, surprisingly enough this process doesn't sterilize musicianship but brings my students (and myself as well!) to a much richer and more powerful sense of self-expression.

More info about feldenkrais and tai chi in piano playing can be found at

On the same note, it would be very interesting to know, if those who are very "talented" (and of course musical too..) from the beginning and have a career as a pianist traits similar to those, who conciously have to (or want to) develop body-awareness in piano-playing ! But this seems, to me, an almost impossible thing to measure from the 'outside'... and descriptions of peoples own perceptions are... well.. very subjective. How can a sensory experience during movement be objectively and accurately described ? It's like the problem of explaining the color red to a (from birth on) blind person. Take a look at Arthur Rubinstein's playing. Did he 'sense' his efficient, elegant and powerful movements or was he unaware of it ? I have seen celebrated pianists, showing few or none of Rubinstein's trademarks... but do they move 'well' inpite of ?

How come they do that without investigating their body mechanics?I think they have exelent teachers who helped them to become aware of that aspect. Than i would add, will of steel and lot of practice. It's like a kid who is starting to talk, when they are young they simply learn it somehow,but when they want to learn a foreign language at the age of 25, it goes ok, but harder. Why, we all know why! The same thing is with sensory experience, if we had someone to show it to us, or just to look after someone who does it, we would have done the same thing. Great pianist are aware of what are they doing , i am sure. Great pianists always worked with great pianists who again passed the knowledge to them. When i asked prof. Alan something like this:"Why does Prof. Kemal Gekich play so great, where did he learn that, how???" And his answer was that he had a great teacher in his youth and that he looked after her and that's how he did it.

Here's my two cents.... Although I can't define myself a pianist as yet,but from my past experiences as a guitarist who learned technically demanding pieces like 'The flight of the bumble bee', I don't believe that any good (or great) performer is exempt from 'feeling' his technique acutely. I think that it might be true that some people 'find' certain techniques where they seem to 'lock into' very naturally. They didn't seem to spend 60 years on it,it seems very natural. Whether or not it was learned consciously or natural,it would be difficult for me to believe that the performer does not feel it acutely. Maybe he does not rationalize on it a lot,but he still feels it. As an ex-guitarist,it has happened to me for very fast playing (easy,very sharp sixteenth-notes at over 190 bpm.....at least on guitar,that's very fast,lol ) It was a 'natural' technique that I am still not able to rationalize fully to this day. I could not use that technique 'on command' . It seemed to come and go on it's own. Eventually,because of it's 'non-commandable' use,I deemed it unreliable,and I worked on a 'reserve technique' that I used whenever the 'other' one didn't seem to want to appear on that particular day! This special,unconscious technique, caused,at very high speeds, to lock the right wrist and hand (called the 'picking hand' ) into a PERFECT position,and it caused,by direct consequence, the left hand (the fingering hand) into a PERFECT coordination. I could almost play anything. I felt very powerful and free whenever this 'mysterious' technique appeared. When this happen,I believe that the performer should really try to memorize everythying about it. In my case,however,I was not able to. I could not work it out consciously. It was crazy. Whenever this technique appeared,I barely needed to play a new,difficult passage two or three times,that I would already perform at high speed,with a precision, with an intensity, that left even me with an open mouth. I could not believe it. Anyways, my worked-out 'reseve' technique was good,but not quite as good as the other one. Of course,I am pretty sure I did some conscious practicing on the 'mysterious' technique too,but very little. Crazy. In the end,the 'mysterious' technique was too unreliable because of it's random appeareance,so I had to work more on my other technique. Crazy. Of course,I am talking about only about effortless,mere speed and a sharp attack. I am sure there's a lot more about technique,than that. I am not comparing quasi-virtuoso guitar playing with virtuoso piano playing,though.....to me virtuoso piano playing is far superior! But this 'double world' thing is interesting. From my point of view,we often look at someone doing something amazing,and we wonder 'was he just born like that' ? I personally think this is a bit of a trap. The problem is,we did not witness this person while he was starting,developing,and perfecting his art. Take Bruce Lee. His impressive skill in everything that involved using the body as an expression of natural combat,seems 'natural',but people would be surprised to know how much dedication he invested to develop continually his skills. It seems all apparently natural,when you watch him doing his amazing performances in these old movies. But he continually stressed to develop what he called 'body feel', that is,constant awareness of the body. Then this awareness becomes second nature,after endless dedication. Was it different for someone like Mozart or Paganini? Probably not....everyone knows that Mozart had a very strict father who would not even feed him if he didn't practice the piano first. 'Body feel'.....a very interesting concept!

A FASCINATING story - I love it! 20 years ago there were moments when I played great, and 15 years ago as well. Working with Kemal brought me to that level. But similar to you, I could not do it consistently. Moshe Feldenkrais said, "If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want." This means in practical terms that if you "knew what you were doing" you could recreate that special technique at will. That is why, 20 years after I met Kemal, I am STILL in a process of perfection, refinement of and reacquaintance with the things he taught me. I want to be able to recreate them at will - to know what I am doing. For me this involves sensing with more and more precision and richness. It means doing Feldenkrais ("learning how to learn") in order to hone my ability to sense ever finer levels of touch discrimination. Horowitz could sense if a keyboard was not absolutely regular, even if one key was only 1/1000th of an inch higher! Rubinstein said that he needed to sense the vibration of the instrument being transmitted to him through his fingers - this is "feeling the music" in the most practical sense! I believe the greats have exceptional ability to sense, ... Compliments of the Season! AFF