As musicians, we spend a lot of time working on small, precise movements. If something isn’t working, I notice that our attention can narrow to the part that seems to be doing the work: the fingers, the bowing arm, the lips. We might spend a lot of time trying to improve what happens there, without noticing how the rest of us is involved.

No part moves alone

How the lips move depends on what’s allowed to help in the face, inside the mouth, the jaw, and areas further afield. The fingers need the support of the wrists, elbows and shoulders, and through the shoulder girdle, connections into the spine.

They’re not alone. No part of us moves on its own. And yet, how often do we make them more alone? In the same way every conductor needs an orchestra, every physical movement, however small, needs collaboration with other areas of us: some direct, some indirect.

Include more, do less

And how can you bring this into practice? How could you spread the effort, to include more, but do less? Where do you isolate unnecessarily? Where does the movement travel easily?

What happens when you return to playing?

How can you take the concepts of the lesson into your own practice? Exploring these connections gives you more resources when there’s a difficulty, beyond just the “problematic” area. It helps you look for the bigger pattern that the isolated movement is part of, whether you’re aware of it or not. It gives you somewhere else to look, and something else to try.

Let’s see if you can develop a clearer sense of how you’re using yourself as a whole.