How is it that some make music with great ease, while most have to make a lot of effort, are tense and are far from efficiency, despite good playing technique?
The body always implements your wishes.
If you want to drink a glass of water, your body will coordinate to stand up, then walk to the cupboard to get a glass, pour in water, lead the glass to your mouth, and start drinking motions…
In order for this complex coordination work to work, the brain resorts to “maps“ of the body. William Conable has therefore also called this principle BodyMapping.
For efficient movement it is crucial that the maps are correct: if, for example, you are travelling with a city map that does not show that a certain road on your way is currently closed because construction work is taking place there, then you cannot choose the quickest route, as the information available to you is not up-to-date – and therefore wrong.
If you now have an (unconscious) misconception of how a particular music-making movement anatomically functions, then that movement is performed on the basis of that misconception:
- If you think you have to “breathe diaphragmatically“, your body will try to implement this wrong idea.
- If you think that breath support is used to regulate pitch, your body will try to implement this wrong idea.
- If you think you have to “hold yourself up“, then this wrong idea will lead to tension and stiffness.
Consequently, a solution would be to become aware of these maps and adapt them to reality:
[dark_box]If the idea of a movement is congruent with how that movement actually works, then the movement will be efficient and easy.[/dark_box]