One of the equalization which I hear from people- is between musicians and athletes...
Its true, there are some imaginary lines between the two professions, but I find it important to explain why this comparison is dangerous:
Athletes and musicians need to work and practice allot, a lot, on a daily basis to improve their
mental and physical abilities.. Both have to understand how to treat their body and how to make it work with full awareness. The difference lies in the way that our body reacts under the power of stressful and powerful movements...
To build up a muscle tissue, you need to make enough afford to actually destroy parts from the muscle, so it will renew it self to be stronger - "no pain, no gain"... And this method is being used by athletes. while in playing, we do use our muscle, but we also can hurt the tendons which can't be renew like the muscle tissue... and wont get stronger by overuse it!
"If our hands feel weak- a frequent symptom of injury -we think the answer is to do strengthening exercises. In fact this may only make the problem worse. If a structure is injured, working it harder will not promote healing. Some (very few) comparisons of piano playing with sports may be useful, but for the most part the sports analogy is misleading and harmful."
Saturday, December 26, 2009
We are not Athletes!
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7 comments:
Hi, Ori,
I've been waiting for someone else to comment; alas...
My experiences tell me that, actually, these matters are highly comparable, and it's only that we, piano-teachers got so used to seeing this activity as innocent, little finger-moving, all being 'natural,' that we can't get our minds to change this perspective, even despite huge amount of data on neuromuscular disorders that this activity causes in 9 of each 10 hopefuls (2006 data).
And we stick to old perspective only because we see no involvement of big bones, big muscles or big muscle groups. The fact is that there are hundreds of smaller muscles, bones, tendons, etc. involved, and that makes it no less an athletic endeavour than e.g. high jump.
As long as piano-playing maintains this attitude, we are going to be plagued by disorders.
Like some sport and classical ballet coaching did, we also must look for better ways of organizing the physical part of playing.
Hi Paúl!
Is been a while :)
I loved want you wrote! And I do agree with you… piano teachers and institutes should approach a new perspective on piano teaching… no doubt, about it.
My point in this article was that this gentle mechanism that we use for playing is much more delicate. So by comparing playing with sport we can forget the fact that we don’t build up muscles here… and if the arm is hurting it's not a good sign of building up muscles! :)
Buy the way… can you send me this article from 2006?
OK, Ori, let me clarify my (our?) standing.
"...this gentle mechanism that we use for playing is much more delicate."
Yes, but the only difference is that we don't share with sportsmen their broken bones or ruptured tendons, or muscle-building. On the other hand... our using the bodies in playing shares much with ballet-dancing (which is a totally athletic endeavour) - including the fact that medicine clasifies the disorders suffered in both these disciplines in exactly the same category...
So, the answer is *no* - and *yes*: it's not an athletic activity in the same sense as e.g. rugby, but it is an athletic activity, cause it uses a significant part of our physique, - quite intensely to that.
> can you send me this article from 2006?
I can send you only an abstract; will do it soon.
Hello again, Ori,
Here you are:
History of Playing-related Pain in 330 University Freshman Music Students, by Alice G. Brandfonbrener. From: Medical Problems of Performing Artists: Volume 24 Number 1: Page 30 (March 2009)
http://www.sciandmed.com/mppa/journalviewer.
aspx?issue=1179&article=1777
A huge question this research implies is how many pupils had to quit piano due to pain *before* they could reach college.
Hi Paúl!
First, I would like to thank you for this article! Every kind of information like this It's a treasure. If you know about other interesting articles, such as this, I would be glad to read them…
About our earlier talk.. I think we quite agree about it... :)
Anyway, can you send me your e-mail address?
Hello, Ori,
"If you know about other interesting articles, such as this, I would be glad to read them…"
Just google "Medical Problems of Performing Artists" and there will be plenty to catch on from previous issues.
"...can you send me your e-mail address?"
OK; to what address, though?
to my address:
orintaly@gmail.com
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