pianomap : Excerpts from the book: "What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the Body"

By Thomas Mark

The Back

Although the muscles usually thought of as "back muscles" are located on the back, with regard to function they are arm muscles. Similar remarks apply to the chest muscles. These also are really arm muscles. That is, they move the arms even though they are situated on the chest. Having so many arm muscles on our backs and chests makes perfect sense when we bear two principles in mind. First, if the articulation of the bones at a joint permits many kinds of motion, many muscles will be needed to bring about the different motions. The shoulder joint is an exceptionally mobile joint, consequently many muscles are required to move the upper arm in all its myriad ways. Second, in order to move a bone, a muscle must cross over a joint and attach to the bone it is moving. That means that the muscles that move the upper arm must be situated on our backs and chests. They extend across the shoulder joint to attach to the humerus. In addition to the muscles that move the humerus, there are other muscles, also situated on the back and chest, that move the collarbone and shoulder blade. Those structures, like the humerus, can move in many ways, and their varied movements require many muscles.

A person who stands and sits in balance is supported in an upright position by the spine, which receives assistance in bending, in departing from and returning to balance, from the deep postural muscles of the back. That leaves the superficial muscles free to move the arms, which is their proper function. But this arrangement of different muscles doing their appropriate tasks can be compromised, particularly by downward pull or the misuse that is brought about and encouraged by the Posture Myths. Pushing "shoulders back," thrusting the "chest out" and doing the other things demanded by the Posture Myths--all these are accomplished with arm muscles that have been co-opted in the name of "posture." Back-oriented sitting, a common habit among pianists, involves constant tension of the arm muscles. Sometimes it leads to back, shoulder, and arm pain (also common among pianists). But whether there is pain or not, the arms obviously cannot move freely at the piano if there is underlying tension. If a person sits in a back-oriented way, free movement will be compromised and the playing will not be as good as it could be.

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