Embodied Piano Technique (Gala Introductory Session)

This session is open to pianists & piano teachers of all levels, instrumentalists and vocalists. The principles of Embodied Performance apply to other instruments and the voice in ways similar to their application at the keyboard. If you are a musician who loves Feldenkrais and is interested in acquiring more strategies on applying it in practice, this session is for you. We will be springboarding from the work of the great Paul Pui Wo Lee whose weekly class immediately precedes this session.

Topics to be covered:

• Initiating movements of the periphery from the core
  o Voice: lumbar spine and abdomen to vocal cords
  o Winds: lumbar spine and abdomen to lips
  o Strings: pelvis to bowing and fingering arms
  o Keyboards: the pelvic moving arch structure to the hand’s moving arch structure
• Mapping physical gestures onto musical phrase shapes
• Discovering how movement patterns that are healthier are also more musical
• Developing ways of tricking the brain into letting go of holding patterns: we need structural integrity but that structure must always be in movement.
  o Exaggerated movements to reset the movement template
  o Surprise the brain by not extending a pattern – then extending it unexpectedly
  o “Standing without standing”
  o Lying down to stand better

The structure of the session will be as follows:

• Short introductory talk
• Alan leads the group in an Awareness Through Musical Movement (ATMM) lesson exploring skeletal-structural organisations special to musical performance.
• In a series of spot-check lessons, random participants will be asked to play a phrase or two, then try out a Feldenkrais-style strategy that gives new insights into the neuromotor underpinnings of the playing action presented.
• Individual group members will be invited to work with Alan on specific problematical aspects of their playing – have your questions ready!
• Closing discussion, Q & A