The Feldenkrais Method for Instrumentalists: A Guide to Awareness through Movement

Musicians are athletes who train their bodies, coordinate their reflexes, and train their minds to perfect a balance of strength, skills, and agility. The Feldenkrais Method is a movement-based self-discovery process that aims to reduce the chance of injury and speed up recovery time. The movements are simple, gentle, pleasant, exploratory, and fun, and are usually repeated a number of times to clarify and enhance performance. Samuel H. Nelson and Elizabeth Blades provide a guide to the Feldenkrais Method tailored specifically for instrumentalists, including many Awareness Through Movement activities and case studies/examples specific to different instrument types.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 220 pages
Publication date: 11 January 2024
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Every musician is an athlete, and the Feldenkrais Method is a movement-based self-discovery process that seeks to optimize performance and reduce the risk of injury. Athletes hone their bodies, coordinate their reflexes, and train their minds to perfect a balance of strength, skills, and agility. Complicated, demanding, and repetitive movements often result in unnatural and difficult positions that put instrumentalists at risk of injury. However, when movement and task are coordinated well and freely, the athlete-instrumentalist finds themselves in "the zone" or "the flow," a magical place where art and athleticism meet.

The Feldenkrais Method is a movement-based self-discovery process that aims to reduce the effort required to perform tasks while maximizing efficiency. The movements used in this method are simple, gentle, pleasant, exploratory, and fun, and are usually repeated a number of times to clarify and enhance performance. The focus is always on the "how to" of the movement, not the "how much, how fast, or how hard." Samuel H. Nelson and Elizabeth Blades have written a guide to the Feldenkrais Method tailored specifically for instrumentalists, including many Awareness Through Movement activities and case studies/examples specific to different instrument types.

In conclusion, every musician is an athlete, and the Feldenkrais Method is a movement-based self-discovery process that seeks to optimize performance and reduce the risk of injury. By coordinating movement and task well and freely, instrumentalists can find themselves in "the zone" or "the flow," a magical place where art and athleticism meet. The Feldenkrais Method provides a guide to the "how to" of movement, not the "how much, how fast, or how hard," and is tailored specifically for instrumentalists.

Weight: 463g
Dimension: 254 x 179 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538182598