NO STRAIN = NO PAIN Helping Young Musicians Play Without Discomfort
The way a music student plays an instrument will have repercussions throughout life. Strain and pain don't need to be part of any training program. "Musicians without pain play better, concentrate better, and have better moods."
(PRWEB) November 22, 2003
NO STRAIN = NO PAIN
Helping Young Musicians Play Without Discomfort
Lynn Brice Rosen
This article first appeared in Washington Parent, November 2003.
Playing a musical instrument is one of the joys of growing up. The pleasure of music, the excitement of challenges met, the friendships made in the band or orchestra are among the fondest memories of many. But one of the memories rarely talked about is the discomfort, or pain, of musical training and performing.
Back in the 1960’s, Green Bay Packer football coach, Vince Lombardi, popularized the phrase: “No Pain, No Gain”. That concept may be appropriate for professional football players, but it is not at all useful or accurate for performing arts students who need highly refined movement capabilities all the time. Pain itself is a sign that something has gone wrong. Like the warning lights on your dashboard, pain is a signal to “pull over” and check things out.
Holding a musical instrument can call for movements that become lifelong contortions for some. Violinists, for example, must fold one arm in a particular way in order to hold the violin, while the other arm is folded in a different way for bowing. Their head is tilted to one side, and their eyes must constantly switch focus from the music to the conductor. Musicians don’t regard themselves as ‘musical athletes’, yet playing an instrument involves the entire body just as much as swinging a golf club does. Is your young musician’s entire body conditioned accurately enough to accommodate her musical activities?
Even if your child will never be a soloist with the National Symphony, the way she plays her instrument will have repercussions throughout her life. Responses to strain or pain generally produce maladaptive patterns. Because music making involves movement, any pain-response that brings about holding or ‘freezing’ a body area will make trouble.
Strain and pain donÂ’t need to be part of any training program. The chronic injuries that sideline performers and dash dreams are often the result of a lack of clear information about what the body can and cannot do. Sylvia Alimena, Music Director of the Brass of Peace Scholarship Program for high school students, reports that by the time she was 16 she was in pain all the time. Her trumpet teacher knew about it and was concerned, but he didnÂ’t have a clue about how to help her. Not telling her parents how she felt, she just kept practicing and playing as she always had. Fortunately, when she entered college, she discovered the Alexander Technique and all of its life-changing benefits
The Alexander Technique, a gentle, hands-on system of movement reeducation, can be found in major conservatories and universities throughout the world. Lessons are also available locally through private instructors. The Alexander Technique, like the Feldenkrais Method, deals with how the whole body moves---whether carrying a heavy backpack, playing a musical instrument, or singing. The principles, cueing instructions, and experiences of the Technique provide a lifelong approach to self care.
In each lesson, the teacher provides a guided process of musculoskeletal reorganization. Through a delicate interplay of hands-on contact and verbal cueing students develop and refine awareness of their movements as well as of their reactions. As the quality of their reactions alters, the quality of their movements shifts. They avoid reverting to their habits and change begins taking place on many levels, whether they have come for pain relief or performance enhancement.
“By honoring the way the body functions in training, rehearsing, and performing situations,” says Andrea Higgins, “students can give themselves the possibility of achieving higher levels of technical proficiency and artistry.” A Washington, DC movement educator, Higgins describes movement as “the center of human expression as well as the center of the learning process.” Director of MasterClassesDance, Higgins trains her performing arts students “to work more intelligently and with greater ease.” As her students experience how the human body functions to support and mobilize itself, they are gradually able to apply this information to the kinds of dynamic movement that they perform in classrooms and on stage.
Like students of the Alexander Technique, Higgins’ students discover that hard work can be transformed when inner and outer balance mirror each other. Their changes in musculoskeletal balance, quality of movement, and even of thinking begin to affect outcomes. Rather than trying too hard or “choking” at a critical moment, her students are able to rely on the freedom and power that come from their own balanced wholeness.
For todayÂ’s young musicians, these experiences can make a significant difference on the concert stage as well as in the classroom. The music training from your own youth isnÂ’t enough for 21st - century students. Music Educators know all too well that musical demands are greater now than they were even 20 years ago. Music of all types is played faster and most students encounter a greater range of composers than previous generations did. All of this takes place at the same time that young people have more complicated academic demands, busier social schedules, more volunteer hours, and bigger geographic areas to be covered in carpools. There is simply more to be done, and itÂ’s all got to be done more quickly.
How can you know whether your child is training or playing in pain? Besides asking your child, check with her teacher or conductor. An experienced teacher will know when a student is playing with unnecessary emotional tension or inefficient muscular effort. While parents may hear complaints about sore backs and necks, teachers are more likely to have heard comments about painful jaws, restricted wrist movements, or “clicking” shoulder joints.
Take time to sit with your child while looking at a simple skeletal sketch. This will give you the opportunity to determine the accuracy of her Body Map. Does the child with the sore neck and shoulders really know where her upper arm bone (humerus) meets the shoulder blade (scapula)? If she thinks that humerus and scapula are one piece, or that the scapula is responsible for raising her arm, sheÂ’s going to be moving her arms in an incorrect and highly inefficient manner. Whether she holds a violin or clarinet, this mistaken use can eventually cause pain in her neck, shoulders, or even lower back. Accurate realignment itself can make a significant difference to many students.
Notice whether your child sits “up straight” during music lessons and concerts but slouches the rest of the time. While occasional slouching may not be destructive, when it becomes a habitual movement pattern, red-warning lights should be flashing to every adult in the area. Go back to that skeletal sketch and notice the small, round bones at the bottom of the pelvis. We humans are designed to sit on them. When we do, we can sit effortlessly in a balanced and poised manner whether we are reading, writing, or playing a musical instrument. When we don’t sit balanced on those bones, we are literally training ourselves to function without the significant muscular support that comes from the torso. The torso provides support for arms. Children who can will themselves to sit “up straight” on command, but lack the torso’s muscular support to sustain this uprightness over time, will increasingly experience soft-tissue strain, leading to eventual pain. When playing music, relying on will power rather than true musculoskeletal support is like running your car on ‘empty’. You won’t get far before having problems.
Discuss what kind of practice routine your child has. Find out what her tactics are for learning a new piece of music or working through a difficult passage. You don’t want her to spend time and energy “practicing her mistakes”. Scott Tennant, of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ), advocates separating the work on difficult passages from the rest of playing time. When he’s got a tough piece to work on, he copies the entire piece of music, highlights the difficult passages, cuts out those difficult sections and tapes them together. He then restricts himself to no more than 20 minutes of work on these sections. When that part of his practice is finished he’s free to move to the “bonus”, playing freely and joyfully for the next 100 minutes. Your child may not yet be ready for two hour practice sessions, but Steve’s approach can be adapted for any level of student ability.
If your child has already had an injury that forced her to stop playing for a period of time, be sure to get clearance from her doctor or physical therapist before she returns to her instrument. Then have her consult with her teacher for help in building a rehab training schedule that will include gentle physical warm-ups and a gradual, progressive increase in practice time. Many fine books include information about “mental practice” and guided imagery for musicians of all categories. By including this component from the beginning of recovery time, musicianship can grow and frustration can diminish even during down times.
A referral from your primary care physician is necessary when music medicine is called for. In most cases, though, movement reeducation will be the appropriate choice, providing the biggest benefits to your child’s comfort in the near and long term. Lessons in the Alexander Technique or the Feldenkrais Method will provide the bridge between the intellect and the body---a bridge to creativity, to strain free ease, to the “play” in playing music. These are the very “tools” a musical athlete can rely on forever.
Brass of Peace’s Alimena happily reports that “Musicians without pain play better, concentrate better, and have better moods.” Aren’t these the results you’d rather have in your house?
Lynn Brice Rosen is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique and a member of the American Society of the Alexander Technique. A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Utah, she has been professionally involved in movement education for over 30 years. In January 2004, she and Andrea Higgins will begin offering a specially designed series for young performing arts students who are already training in pain. She can be reached at group@art-in-movement. com.
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