Body Mapping for Flutists: What Every Flute Player Needs to Know About the Body

by Lea Pearson (contributor)

Body Mapping for Flutists promotes injury prevention and enhanced performance through increased awareness of body mechanics. Certified Andover Educator and flutist Lea Pearson offers students and teachers easy to understand solutions to common body alignment problems.The illustrations throughout also help you formulate your own body map.With Body Mapping for Flutists, you will Practical exercises -Proper balance when sitting or standing-Correct arm position and movements-Free and supported breathing-Anatomical explanations for how the body works-How to train your kinesthetic sense-The importance of efficient movement for musicians-Practical exercises

Genres: Music

109 pages, Spiral-bound

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Nannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting arthritis on top of my other autoimmune conditions has made it extremely difficult to continue playing flute, so a friend recommended I look into the Alexander Technique and check out this book. I have been desperate to be able to play with anything resembling even half my past ease, so I got this book as soon as I could.

Though, to my disappointment, this doesn’t mention chronic pain anywhere (“if you’re feeling pain, it’s because of incorrect body mapping” is a bit unhelpful -- would have loved even a little note about how to tell the difference between pain caused by an incorrect body map and literally anything else), this book is a wonderful resource and starting point.

It goes into a brief introduction to the different muscles and bones in the body, something I never considered before (but … why don’t we learn this before getting into serious playing?). The guide also shows specific exercises that will help you find correct posture, hand position, and embouchure, among others. It’s geared toward teachers, but I think it’s very useful to any flute player wanting to improve. The language and concepts are never too “academic” and are easily understandable. They’re just a little different than what (at least) I was used to and what I learned, so they will take a bit of time and effort to be put into use. But I’m very excited to start.

I also appreciate the fact that “helpers” like plugs and thumb supports are encouraged (there’s a lot of unnecessary snobbery about these things). The extra references and website links at the back are also helpful and exciting, and I plan to look into those as soon as possible.

I probably sound like an advertisement, but this book has given me some hope when before I had very little.

[Brent Woo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating exercise workbook meant to introduce the musician to the relevant parts of the body, and also provide tips on how to identify and stretch certain muscles and joints. It's basically a brief, fun anatomy textbook. It has detailed and simplified diagrams of relevant bones and muscles. It has valuable practice exercises (as in: get up and stretch!) to identify certain muscles and movements, and to improve playing positions and to learn how to make healthy movements. It's written very conversationally and meets its goals well: it gets you thinking about the parts of the body recruited in playing music. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical of the idea of "body mapping" as it sounded kind of pseudo-science, but the term just refers to "kinesthetic awareness of your body". Get to know how standing works, how holding the flute works, how breathing works. Trevor Wye in his wonderful practice books issues the edict: "never sit while practicing" but does not explain why. This book does explain what you compromise by sitting. And what in the world does "breath support" actually mean, and how do you do it, besides some vague "push the diaphragm" advice? What the heck is the diaphragm? Can you point at it, or describe how it's shaped? Would you bet on it? This book answers those questions. (I was wrong on all counts.)

Fantastic resource. Not only should every flutist read it, I think it should be included in general wellness knowledge, since everyone could benefit from knowing more about how the body is put together. The text is written as if you're a flute teacher, but older (teen+) students would benefit from reading this directly just as much. I'm actually a pianist, so I'll pick up the companion What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body, and I look forward to learning even more about this poor, embattled body, so that I can treat it right.

[Caleigh O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not for everyone, of course, but I learned a LOT!!

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently became interested in the Alexander Technique, so a flute instructor friend loaned this workbook to me. It includes many tips and exercises for improving awareness of your body and identifying areas of tension as they specifically relate to musicians. I won't be able to retain all this knowledge, but it was a good overview that should help me in my playing and daily life.