Chapter 2 (sample text)

Whole Body Balance

We practice for many years developing a musical imagination, the ability to hear what we want to play. 

We’ve often heard from our teachers, “If you can sing it, you can play it.”  Equally important, but not as often taught, is how to develop a kinesthetic imagination that supports our musical ideas.  Kinesthesia is the sense that tells us about the quality of our movement, the position of our body, and contributes to our perception of balance.  To look at a piece of music, hear it in our mind and imagine kinesthetically how our body would like to feel when playing it, will lead us to healthier music making.  Begin today to be more interested in how your body moves as you play.  Listen kinesthetically in your joints, the articulation spaces between the bones.  (It is interesting to note that the first definition of “joint” in the Collins Robert French-English Dictionary is “articulation.”)

Whole body balance while playing is secured by sensing kinesthetic information, discerning what you perceive, and responding to those perceptions with healthy movement choices.  You will know when you are achieving whole body balance when . . .