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

By Thomas Mark

The Piano Map

The body map is the representation in the brain that governs movement. But this book is not about mere bodily movement, it is about movement directed to an end--the creation of music at the piano. As we know, how I move my arm depends on how I think of the structure of my arm. How I move my arm at the piano also depends on that, but in addition it depends on how I think my arm and hand interact with the piano to produce music. How we think of the piano affects the way we move at the piano.

The representation of how our body interacts with the piano is what I shall call our "piano map." Like our body map, our piano map can be accurate or inaccurate, adequate or inadequate, conscious or unconscious. Since we move our bodies to play the piano, our piano map has to include our body map; all the information about the body offered in this book is--or should be--part of our piano map. However, a good piano map also requires information about the piano.

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