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Feldenkrais Reflective

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Practicing the Feldenkrais method during the previous semester has been effective for expanding my awareness towards the parts of my body which I use readily and heavily rely upon for my daily functioning, as well as those parts which I have unconsciously learnt to neglect over time.

As a musician, much of what I do from day to day is related to my body; how I hold my body in a certain space, how natural and efficient my breathing is, and my head and shoulder position, are all integral parts of my performance practice, and so I found the practice highly valuable.

In the course of the lessons, I discovered that the shape that I allow my body to adopt to, can significantly effect my art of trumpet playing, as well as influencing things like self image and the way in which I “carry myself” whenever I move my body.
 
From my beginning lesson, I found that as we began the preparatory exercise and I laid relaxed on my back as directed by Fran, I was able to pull my attention away from the exterior noises and movements, and able to focus on internal things in my body. Simply lying on the floor, I discovered that my body favoured particular sides for supporting itself, and that my spine felt somewhat curved, possibly caused from sitting hunchbacked whilst using the computer frequently. Further, I noticed that the position my legs wanted to naturally remain in didn’t feel equidistant in comparison to my spine.
 
Later on, one of my colleagues also pointed out to me that my head and neck weren’t always straight, but rather stuck out forwards, as like a giraffe! Just not as extreme.Giraffe
 
Upon research I discovered that tilting the head down would secure the Adam’s apple at its lowest point therefore allowing the throat to be the most open which is perfect for trumpet playing. However, allowing my head to move forward would cause tension in the neck muscles, so I set out to make a few changes with how I arranged my body, beginning with carrying my head in a new way.
 
Over the course of the semester, I began to take the movements and my new found awareness from Feldenkrais into my everyday life, allowing my hips to swing more when I walked, and I established an overall sense of feeling more grounded. I believe this helped my head to remain fixed in a relaxed setting, which contributed in minimizing the tension in my neck when playing, and therefore took strain out of the sound that I eventually would make out of my instrument.
 
There is a general consensus among trumpeters that the more relaxed a person’s body is, especially along there torso, the easier the technical aspects of the instrument will become for the player. At the beginning of the Feldenkrais elective, I personally aimed to find a completely comfortable and intrinsic way of holding my body, one which is so natural that it takes little thought to initiate. It was my hope that this would reduce tension in my playing, and bring ease into everything I do. Much of the Awareness through Movement method was designed by Moshe Feldenkrais to allow students to understand or discover movements that are either innate from infancy but had been forgotten, or new ways of using body parts to execute a certain movement.
 
Through using exercises in class, I found that things about my body began to change over the semester. By the last lesson, my legs, which at first had seemed to be quite out of place so to speak, were now beginning to feel more aligned with my spine. Furthermore, learning to become looser at the knees and more grounded whilst playing, enabled me to diminish any tension in my neck and helped me to take a consistently fuller and more natural breath. Especially directly after a session of Feldenkrais, I felt enabled to move more freely with my body, ready to react to any sudden situation. At times, I also felt more proud, perhaps purely because of a psychological reason, or simply by my muscles working together in a new way to support my body with greater strength.
 
TrumpetIn reflection I view my experience with the Feldenkrais method as a highly valuable one, in which, predominantly I used it to understand to greater extent things about my own body. By tuning into my body, I discovered bad ‘body habits’ I had adopted of the years, even through my trumpet playing, which were subsequently restricting my effectiveness in my creative field as well as affecting my self image. In the art of performing, I need to have presence on stage to engage any audience with the story of the music, and now I appreciate the importance of body in achieving this. Using Feldenkrais, I was able to undo some of the bad habits with how I held my body that had projected a negative image, into one that is now a confident, yet also relaxed stance. And by feeling grounded with more weight at the toes and freer hips, even in a performance can give the audience a sense that I am ready to react to anything in the music, which keeps them captivated.
 
(author withheld)