10 years ago by
A Pianist
I couldn't agree with you more!
OK, so if I agree with you, why are the materials I have released so one-sided?
Because they address a perceived gap in the information that's available. There are lots of other people working on the whole body relationships so essential to good playing; I don't know of anyone other than myself who focuses in on what I focus on. And I think it is needed. I see the positive results with many of my students. I have had the experience of working on the hand's structure and function and watching in amazement as the student's whole body organization improves BECAUSE their hand is no longer exerting a 'black hole' influence on the whole system. I have also seen cases where a pianist cultivated exceptionally fine overall body organization, only to have the hand still be a catastrophe because it didn't know what it was doing!
But what you say is absolutely key and absolutely right: 'No muscle-group (e.g. the important hand-muscles) can work optimally in isolation.' This is of absolute importance, and a fundamental principle of Feldenkrais. In Feldenkrais we often WILL work on a part in isolation, but we always then relate it back to the whole. The work in isolation aims to enrich the kinesthetic sensation of that particular part, in order to free it from parasitic contraction (contractions that serve no movement purpose), and finally to enable that part to work BETTER in conjunction with the rest of the system. If I work on the hand alone and let it remain in isolation, I do that hand a disservice - and I have to admit that I have made that error more than once.
In much of my work, improved hand function DOES lead to improved overall body organization, but this is precisely because the hand and arm are NOT at that point working in isolation. However, I realize that when you & I worked together, I got stuck in my own 'specialty' and that did not help you - at least, not as much as I could have helped you if I had remained a 'pure' Feldenkrais practitioner with you for instance... and for that I apologize. And if you did get help elsewhere, I am really glad!
One more thing: please be aware that my whole 'approach' or 'method' is still very much a work in progress, as are the effects that my investigations have had on my own playing. In fact, over the past several months, I have discovered for myself precisely what you describe: how optimal whole body organization is a necessary ingredient, a support, to optimal hand and arm organization. Lately my improved body organization, especially a radical reorganization of my shoulders and hips, has led to me being able to fulfil my own precepts concerning hand structure and function far more effectively than I ever did earlier on! For instance if I sense that my BODY is generating rhythmic pulse rather than my arm alone, there is a much more vital, profound and virile sense of rhythmic and musical health in what I do.
So I am at this point working on bringing whole body organization more and more into my teaching. But I think this increased attention to the whole body does not invalidate my previous attempts to address the perceived lack in our overall body of knowledge about Technique, by focusing in on the hand and arm. I still feel this was needed and that its validity stands.
Thank you very much for an especially meaningful post.
AFF
