APRIL 2021 S
tones are stacked, captured in time and space by an artist who considers the wind, the light, the season, the camera angle. Artistry that
begins with balance.
Te rock sculpture balances as a whole. You can not simply remove the rocks one at a time. If the top rock is removed, the entire stack will fall. Each piece has a connectedness with every other piece, and a connection with the ground. Te forces of gravity and of nature are having a dynamic interplay. Te present tense is used purposefully. Te dynamic interplay is present and continues as long as the structure stands.
Many musicians have found this same concept of dynamic balance to have a profound impact on their music and their lives. Approaching music from a place of balance requires, like the stones, that each part of the body works together. Te balance of the body must be dynamic, not static.
However, for us, movement is the goal. Our bodies are designed to move. Our dynamic balance is a place from which movement in any direction is easiest. Our place of balance is one which we will leave and return to over and over again. Our dynamic balance will beget beautiful movement. Beautiful movement creates beautiful music.
As musicians, we must think of ourselves as movers. In fact, we would do well to consider our movements as seriously as we consider the function of music in the liturgy. Why? Because we cannot create music without movement. Musicians, in fact, move for a living.
Giving attention to our movement will have a profound effect on our music in every way.
Tere are many practices that can guide you to balance in your body and the freedom and ease of movement that will result. One of them is Body Mapping. Body Mapping is based on the scientific understanding that our movement is governed by our body maps. Neuroscience tells us that our brains contain many maps of our bodies. To put it simply, these maps are the way we think about ourselves, including our size, our structure, and our function. If we have an incorrect or incomplete perception of our make-up, called a mismapping, it will affect our movement. Science tells us that an effective way to improve a movement is to correct the body map that governs it.
We correct our faulty maps by changing our perception of ourselves. Tis is done by discovering the truth about our anatomy and integrating it into our awareness. In addition, we use our kinesthetic sense to become aware of our movement. As we correct and refine our body maps, movement improves.
Licensed Body Mapping Educators teach that the body dynamically balances around six fundamental places as shown on the image known as our balance mascot (Figure 2).
One: Balance of the head on top of the spine at the AO joint.
Notice that the spine meets the bottom of the skull at the skull’s center. Two condyles at the base of the skull, the occiput, meet the two facets of the top vertebra, the atlas. Tere is a gliding motion at this joint which, when balanced, gives you an easy nodding “yes” gesture. Find that balance place in the center, by pointing to it right between your ears, and notice how easy the nodding movement is. You can experience a mismapping of this joint by imagining its being at the back of the skull. You may sense tension in the neck as you attempt to nod your head with this inaccurate body map. Stay aware of this place of balance as you look at your music, your computer, or phone screen. Staying aware of this joint can often help free tension in the neck and related tension in the upper back and arm structure. Resonance will improve and arms will move more freely when the head is well-balanced.
Two: Balance over the lumbar spine
Te lumbar vertebrae are the five largest and lowest. It is important to map the structure of a vertebra as having two halves, a back half (the bony part we can feel) which houses our nervous system, and the front half (the part with the discs) which bears and delivers weight. Te lumbar vertebrae deliver the weight of our torso and anything we are carrying through our middles down the front half of our spine. Mapping this place of balance can often take a great deal of pressure off the lower back. Imagine a mismapping by walking as if you thought all of your weight was delivered down your back. Compare that with the truth of letting the
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