A common idea for us as musicians, organising different parts to move together. We’re excellent at dividing attention between our instruments, sound and musical colleagues. Yet we’re often less practised at applying that to ourselves.
The Symphony of your Leg
The complexity of the movements of the legs need all four areas to work together. Your ankle and knee are simple hinge joints, and your hip and foot allow more 360° movements at either end of the leg.
Feldenkrais spends a lot of time both with detailed work and broader strokes. Shifting attention from one to the other. Over time I’ve found that’s a transferable skill: improving my ability both to focus on musical detail, and widen listening to include more.
Efficient movement enables more direct musical expression.
Many of the people who come to classes report a similar shift. in freedom of rhythm, more ability of hear clarity of lines, with less effort. It’s not only physical, even if we use the kinaesthetic “door” to explore learning. Efficiency of your movement creates more directness between intention and musical expression. A lesson on the legs might not sound like it’s immediately relevant to music making. And yet, most of the musicians in my classes find changes in their experience of making music after each class.
Each lesson breaks down complex movement patterns into component parts. You’ll aim to improve the quality before rebuilding the patterns. It’s not a new idea of course. It’s what we’re doing in much of our practice. But we rarely take the time to do this for our physical selves.
Transform how you move, feel and live 