On Posture

How do you think of posture? For many people, it’s a thing. Good posture or bad. People with good posture have their shoulders back, and head up. Bad posture is associated with slouching. Good is a perfect ratio between the head, neck and shoulders. Something to get, to have, to keep. Shoulders and head not … More On Posture

Musicians’ Fingers and Thumbs

Human’s opposable thumbs are thought to have developed c.2 million years ago during the Homo Habilis time of our evolution. They may have been used for food gathering, and most certainly contributed to the development and use of tools.  Our Chimpanzee cousins have opposable toes as well as thumbs, which makes them much better at … More Musicians’ Fingers and Thumbs

Discovering easy shoulders

Some clients I wish I had recorded as they speak. There’s something about being at the beginning of a learning process that makes our thoughts fresh, and our way of describing what’s happening easy to understand to other beginners to our learning process. ‘Mary’ has been coming for assistance with shoulder pain. She felt something … More Discovering easy shoulders

How easily does your back move?

If we think about the spine, there are 3 main planes of movement: flexion and extension, (arching-rounding), side-bending, and twisting. I’d like to focus a little about twisting. Twisting is where our power comes from. As upright mammals without massive muscles in our jaws (think crocodiles) or paws- who’d want to be swiped by a … More How easily does your back move?

Learn or be instructed?

Habits are created to automate our lives, to make it easier to do more. Whether that’s tying our shoelaces, or running up and down a scale. We need automation for when we need to play or move fast.  Which in itself isn’t a problem. However, it becomes problematic when we create difficulties through layers of … More Learn or be instructed?

Rethinking Posture

One of my class members today mentioned her bad posture in passing.  I didn’t have enough time to talk about it in the way I wanted during the class, so I’m writing about it now instead, What do you think about your posture? Often people tell me they have “bad posture” in lessons. I usually … More Rethinking Posture