Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Body Mapping

Reading a very good book "What every pianist needs to know about the body" by Thomas Mark, which I'd recommend warmly to every pianist and teacher. But there is one thing not right, I think: "The concept of the body map and the power of Body Mapping in improving movement and curing injury among musicians were the joint discovery of Barbara and William Conable" (Preface, p X).
I believe many people discovered the concept of body mapping before then.
Moshe Feldenkrais, to name but one, in his 1964 article Aspects d'une technique:l'expression corporelle, translated into English in 1988 as Bodily Expressions by Thomas Hanna, editor of Somatics magazine [and quoted in full in the book: Embodied Wisdom: Collected Papers of Moshe Feldenkrais, publ. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 2010].
"The behaviour of human beings is firmly based on the self-image they have made for themselves. Accordingly, if one wishes to change one's behaviour, it will be necessary to change this image. What is a self-image? It is a body image; namely, it is the shape and relationship of the bodily parts, which means the spatial and temporal relationships, as well as the kinesthetic feelings..."
Yehudi Menuhin was an enthusiastic advocate of Feldenkrais, but admittedly the teachings are not specifically for musicians, who will need to apply them to their individual instrument.
An earlier book (1903), specifically for musicians is Artistic Piano Playing as taught by Ludwig Deppe, by Elisabeth Caland. Page 29 of the 1903 edition refers to "a mental map of the entire route from brain to finger tips". 
The edition I bought is printed by amazon.co.uk - yes, printed by amazon. You can decide for yourself whether the presentation is competent, or not. There is no vol. 2, btw.





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