parts in movement, through the attentive use of the senses, particularly that of the often-neglected kinesthetic sense. For example, Body Mapping students learn about the hand by studying images of the bone and muscle structure. They pal- pate (touch and feel) their own hands to locate those structures themselves. They wiggle their fingers, bend them, and spread them with the structures in mind to see how they function. This exploration may yield remarkable results. Pianists may discover that they have “mapped” their finger bones as going from their tips to the web of the palm, when they in fact end at the wrist bones. Remapping the fingers correctly, along with their connection to the entire arm and then the trunk, can result in a wider, more comfortable hand span.
There is particular emphasis on the neglected kinesthetic sense, that of movement and position, in Body Mapping. Just as the visual receptors are located in the eyes, and those for touch are embedded in skin, the proprioceptive receptors for the kinesthetic sense exist in muscles and joints. These give feedback on the position, trajectory, and speed of the body in space. The kinesthetic sense is tremendously important to hu- man development--in fact, according to Piaget and other de- velopmental psychologists, it is one of the first ways we learn anything. However, according to Conable (2000), because we ordinarily do not name it as one of our senses, it becomes lost to our awareness.
The Body Mapping student uses her senses in order to cul- tivate inclusive awareness. Inclusive awareness takes in the whole of the environment, both external and internal, while allowing the student to move his or her focus around that en- vironment. It is different from concentration, which implies isolated attention to some element of that environment. Musi- cians often concentrate on one aspect of their playing, which can be very tension-producing, and actually counterproduc- tive. For example, a trombonist concentrating on formation of his embouchure may lose touch with his balance over his sits bones, which affects his breathing. It is analogous to a bicyclist who concentrates on her pedal technique and loses touch with the potholes in the road and falls in! Developing inclusive awareness is critical to discovering and improving one’s body maps. The practice is somewhat similar to medita- tion; it involves sitting or lying in a relaxed state, breathing, and becoming conscious of all internal and external sensory input.
Accessing the six places of balance in the body is fundamental in Body Mapping. They are key to alignment and mobility, and enable musicians to stand, sit, and make music with ease and efficiency. Briefly, the six places are: (1) The Atlanto-Occipital (AO) joint, at the intersection of the skull and the top of the spine. It is located half- way between the ears, and halfway between the top front teeth and the back of the head, truly at a central point. Many people actually map this joint at the back of the head, which then requires the muscles in the front of the
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neck to work harder to keep the weight of the head from falling forward. (2) The upper arm structure, specifically, the collarbones and the shoulder blades. These are joined at the tips of the shoulders, and should be aligned under the AO joint, neither in front nor in back of it. (3) The lumbar spine, where the back curves in toward the navel. The lumbar vertebrae are the largest in the body and are meant to support the upper body. Slump- ing on the back of a chair causes the weight of the trunk to be forward of these vertebrae, while “military pos- ture” throws the head, arms and torso behind them.. (4) The hip joints, which are attached to the outside of the pelvis, for standing; for sitting, the sits bones, or rockers, which form the lower part of the pelvis. When in alignment, they deliver weight of the body to the floor or to the chair with little feeling of effort. (5) The knee joints, which are slightly below and behind the kneecaps. To be in alignment, the knees should be neither locked (throwing the pelvis forward), nor bent, but simply softened, so that the line of balance passes just behind the kneecap, and weight can be delivered to the feet. (6) The feet at the front of the ankle, right above the arch. When the feet and knees are aligned with the torso above, weight is delivered to the floor through the entire foot--both front and back. Many students experience a luxurious sense of both grounding and springy mobility when they are truly balanced.
Beyond the six places of balance, Body Mapping students explore detailed anatomy in movement of the arms, legs, spine, and structures of breathing, always in connection to the whole body. Even those that have considerable knowledge of the body often discover mis-mappings that they can cor- rect, sometimes immediately. A common one is the “waist,” often mapped just above the belly button. But there is no such anatomical structure. Therefore, when we “bend over at the waist” to touch our toes, there is nothing but the spine to ac- complish this, and the spine is not built to do this. However, if we remap ourselves to “bend over at our hip joints” to touch our toes, we get closer to them, because the hips are where that movement is designed to occur.
Applications of Body Mapping to the
Music Classroom or Rehearsal Since William Conable and Barbara Conable designed Body Mapping specifically for musicians, it is not difficult to ap- ply in classrooms and rehearsals. Interested teachers should start by taking the course themselves in order to model the concepts, but following are ways that teachers can begin to establish a secure somatic foundation for music instruction:
1. Teach from a perspective that includes the entire self- -not just the immediate music-producing parts. Shifting to this embodied thinking means considering the whole
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