Embodied Musician

Thinking about how I coordinate my arms with the rest of my body in practicing & other activities is a constant source of exploration & discovery.

If you’re like me, you may notice a habit of sending your shoulders back when your arms move forward or up in space. When I do this with my flute, it almost looks like “good” posture because so many people play this way, with an arched, extended back.

What might not be as obvious is that in sending just my shoulders back, I create an imbalance in my torso that causes me to push my hips forward to stay vertical . Interfering with our torsos is a sure fire way to restrict breathing - & performers & humans simply don’t have time for that!

Next time you lift your arms, with or without your flute/phone/coffee/etc:

🙋Slow the movement down & see if you can invite your whole back, from pelvis through shoulders, to provide gentle counterbalance.

🙋Check in with your breathing so you can notice any moment when your breath becomes more restricted - a great clue you’re losing the coordination of your back.

🙋Think about your whole arm participating in the move, from sterno-clavicular joints to fingertips, so that you don’t get stuck in your shoulders.

🙋Let energy & support for arm movement come up from the floor through your feet, legs, sitting bones, & back.

🙋And, let your head bobble easily on your free neck!

What happens when you practice the flute (or any other everyday activity) with clear coordination between your arms & back?

AT at IMC!

As a flutist I definitely get into the habit of thinking about arms & hands extending only as far as I need to go for playing position, sometimes getting stuck there which hampers finger movements & breathing.

Here are 4 ideas I like for reprogramming my habit & enjoying my whole wingspan:

🪽 Map the big joints of your arm. You know where your wrist, elbow, & shoulder are - but where does your arm connect to the rest of your skeleton? Your sterno-clavicular joint (the juncture between sternum & collar bone)!

🪽 It’s easy to get caught up in moving arms primarily using shoulders. But what is movement like if you let your fingertips lead the movement, enjoying the length of your arm all the way from your sternum?

🪽 Returning to the kelp forest from last week, how do you move differently if you allow your whole arm structure to float up as if buoyed by water?

🪽 And, last but not least, let’s connect arms into our sense of whole self - letting arms be supported from below by feet connecting to the floor to allow the floor to send an energy up through the top of your head & out to the tips of your fingers, balancing & rebalancing no matter where your arms are in space.

How does your practicing change when you expand your awareness of your arms?

Stay tuned tomorrow for a reel describing one of my favorite whole self movements - starfish!

Some bonus inspiration for your balanced standing - in addition to exploring my sense of whole self in the kelp forest, I've been having fun adding the image of a flame to my practicing repertoire.

It’s easy for flutists & other performers to get stuck in position: you bring your flute up to play & you lock in until the end of your practice session.

This happens to me when I forget about myself & get over focused on the task at hand. Over time this approach can lead to shortness of breath, discomfort, & potential injury.

My favorite game to counteract this tendency to stiffen, prioritize balance in 3D, & put together all the AT ideas we’ve been playing with this summer is kelp forest (shout out to ).

🪸 Imagine you’re under water. Let your feet/roots connect to the ground so that the ground can send you up towards the sun.

🪸 Allow yourself to sway gently with the movement of the waves, noticing your weight shifting over your feet. Let there be free movement at your ankles, knees, & hip joints.

🪸 Notice that upward flow traveling along your spine up toward the top of your head (still connecting to the ground).

🪸 Let your head bobble & balance on your a-o joint (& notice your feet).

🪸 Allow your arms to float up like the fronds of a kelp plant, responding to the movement of the currents (& keep connecting with your feet).

🪸 You can imagine the waves getting stronger & taking you into bigger movements. You can allow the currents to calm, gradually reducing movement until only you might notice the subtle balance & rebalance possible in all directions from moment to moment.

Notice if standing feels different when it’s more about balance & less about position or holding a “right” posture when you practice & move through your day.

Stay tuned for an upcoming reel taking you through a quick kelp forest reset - coming soon!

In tandem with getting to know your sitting bones, I wanted to give a shout out to your hardworking hip joints!

It's easy to be unclear about where hip joints are & why we need them for optimal practicing & performing. But the ability to move & balance freely on your hip joints is crucial for flute players & anyone interest in breathing.

Here are a few thoughts to jump start your hip joint explorations:

🪈 Your hip joints are located in the middle of your thigh at the crease between your leg & torso - they may be a bit lower & further toward your center than you thought. Give your leg a wiggle & see what it's like to move at that spot.

🪈 If you habitually tighten or brace your hip joints to sit, stand, or support your instrument, you're probably affecting your ability to breathe freely.

🪈 This may seem obvious, but your hip joints are the top of your leg, which also means they're near the bottom of your torso (which continues a little bit lower to the bottom of your sitting bones). Knowing where your hip joints are can clarify how long your torso is & help you have more space for breathing.

🪈 There are lots of places you can bend & move from in your torso - people often bend at the waist, for example. But your hip joints, along with your knees & ankles, are optimally designed to help you move through space without disrupting all the business happening up above - again, helping maximize breathing efficiency.

So, the next time you're practicing, sitting or standing, take a moment to enjoy your hip joint mobility - what does more hip joint awareness do for you?

Balance is one of my favorite terms to describe & explore how we can organize ourselves in everyday activities like sitting.

When we allow ourselves to be supported by the surfaces we're connecting with, we unlock our balance & movement potential.

Sitting bones are such a great example because they're shaped to allow you to rock & roll on the seat of the chair with ease.

From a mindset of balance, we can make big gestures, like pivoting forward or coming to standing, with less unnecessary effort.

Even delicate movements, like breathing or wiggling a finger, become more optimally organized when supported by our whole balancing structure.

So play with your balance - on your sitting bones, over your feet, between your head & spine - & find out how your approach to practicing might change!

Let's check in about chairs this week.

For much of my practicing life, I've avoided chairs as I found standing to produce better results with less discomfort. Plus, many chairs seem to be designed with stacking in mind instead of sitting.

Since sitting is inevitable for a performer who loves ensemble music, enter Alexander Technique!

Chairs, with all their variety, provide a wonderful & practical opportunity to work on yourself in activity - the activity of sitting.

🪑 If possible, sit on a chair with a firm seat so you can receive accurate feedback about your connection to the surface & the support it provides.

🪑 Get clear about what part of your skeleton rests on the seat - your sitting bones. Wiggle your bottom on the chair to feel those bony connections.

🪑 Your sitting bones are the bottom of your torso, so letting your sitting bones connect to the chair & inviting the chair to connect back (down to go up) may help you support the length of your spine with less unnecessary effort - not to mention supporting all the critical systems housed in your torso (hello, breathing!).

🪑 Your sitting bones are rounded on the bottom - perfect for accommodating movement as you sit. Rock & roll!

🪑 With your sitting bones resting on the seat, feet releasing to the floor, & your head balancing high up on your a-o joint, how might your sitting & your performing change?

In my practicing this week I'll be highlighting my sitting bones in my awareness & working on myself as both a sitter & a flute player to achieve maximum musical sitting potential!

Keep me posted if you're working on a sitting conundrum.

If we let go of a habit (a tightened neck, for example), what kind of performer could we become?

Exploring my head-spine relationship is an ongoing project in practicing & life.

When I was a young flutist, I fell into the habit of pulling my head & neck to the left to accommodate the length of the flute & it took me a long time, a repetitive strain injury, & an introduction to the Alexander Technique to realize I needed to reexamine how I organize my head & spine when I play.

Most wind players have heard (& taught): don't go to the instrument; let the instrument come to you.

How can we do this without bracing, stiffening, or trying to get it right?

🪈 Find your atlanto-occipital joint between your ears at the level of the tip of your nose. This is the joint between your skull & spine - maybe a little higher or further forward than you'd expect.

🪈 Your 3D head is beautifully imbalanced on the top of your spine - more weight forward than back - making it easy to gently nod, swivel, & move latterly without much or any interference from your neck.

🪈 Your neck (aka the top of your spine) is 3D, too - which I find easy to forget. It's very useful to remember that the front of your neck is as high as the back & sides - meaning the front of your neck rises higher than your mouth! 🤯

🪈 So, if we move embouchure-first to the flute, we lose the support from the top of our spine AND compromise the top of our respiratory tract. Who has time for more effort with less breath?

In my practice this week, I'm finding my feet to have support from the floor, so I can allow my whole 3D neck/spine to have length, so I can explore my head balancing easily on my a-o joint, breathe, & let my arms, etc, make the necessary adjustments to bring the flute (or any object 🎷🎺🎻☕🍝🍜📸📱) toward my face.

Hope you have fruitful & unexpected explorations with your head-spine relationship!

What a great summary of the Alexander Technique approach!

I'm rereading Pedro's book, Indirect Procedures, this summer - which I highly recommend to musicians, performers, & others interested in AT.

I'm also revisiting the Ibert Concerto & will be taking this advice to heart in my practicing!