VIDEO REVIEWS
The exercises shown in this video are for UNINJURED people. Please make sure that you consult your doctor before performing any of the movements shown!
Dr. Norris believes that since many professional musicians don't like exercising, schools and conservatories need to have exercise programs to make students develop habits of exercising.
In his video he introduces exercises for warm up, stretching, strengthening, lower back, and non-impact aerobics. He uses "therabend", an elastic band for some of these movements. He also shows instrument specific exercises for pianist, cellists, violinists, double bass players, flutists, oboe players, guitarists, harpists, and horn players.
Richard Norris strongly suggests that one should always warm up before stretching!
I strongly encourage readers to watch this video as it's full of practical exercises that can be performed at home, in practice rooms, and hotel rooms, and they are very helpful for musicians before practicing and recitals! A copy of this tape can be easily obtained from many different libraries.
In this video you will see Dorothy Taubman in action working with piano players and helping them correct their technique. She states that "no two problems are identical and yet principles are identical".
Some of her personal beliefs about technique are:
- Hand (fingers) and arm must work together in the same direction
- When playing octaves fast one should let gravity take the arm down
- Instead of lifting the fourth finger by itself one should lift all fingers and drop them individually.
The following contains quotes from Barbara Lister-Sink's video "Freeing the Caged Bird".
Piano technique involves the whole body not just the arms and hands. Hallmark of the well coordinated piano technique is:
- Optimal Skeletal Alignment: It's very important that the body is supported by the spine. Appropriate spinal support makes you have ease and power on the keyboard. Otherwise you make other muscles work when they are not meant to support the body.
- Take frequent brakes to refresh muscles: It's one way to eliminate chronic muscle tension.
Basic steps to eliminate chronic muscle tension are:
- Regain awareness of the tensed muscle
- Regain conscious control of the tensed muscle
- Learn and apply the principle and sensation of efficient muscle use.
To read more about Barbara-Lister Sink's method and watch part of her video, you can visit http://www.freeingthecagedbird.com. Dedicated to injury preventive keyboard technique, this site features the internationally acclaimed, award-winning video "Freeing the Caged Bird" and information about pianist Barbara Lister-Sink's method of retraining injured keyboardists.
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