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

By Thomas Mark

Supporting and Delivering Weight

When we stand or sit upright we are supported by the bony structure of our bodies. In holding us upright the structural parts of the body play a dual role: they support the parts above them, from which they receive weight, and they deliver weight to the parts (or the ground) below them. Since supporting and delivering weight is what the structure is designed for, uprightness is not something we need to bring about consciously. It is not something we do, it happens because of the way we are built. The weight-bearing and weight-delivering capacity of the bony structure is what makes mechanical advantage possible.

The head, for example, when in balance, delivers weight precisely and evenly to the top vertebra of the spine, which is designed to receive it. If the head is off balance, it will deliver weight unevenly, to the wrong place, or in the wrong direction, obliging various muscles to work in compensation. If imbalance becomes chronic, the muscular compensation becomes chronic also, restricting freedom of movement and, perhaps, creating other serious problems.

All too often, habits of chronic muscular tension make us unaware of the way our bony structure supports us. When we learn to sit and stand in balance, we can release some of that muscular effort. We can attend to and experience the support supplied from the ground and up through our bony structure as a dynamic upward force, a sort of "buoyancy." Cultivating this kind of balance makes movement easier and improves piano playing. A different way of putting the point is this: when we learn to rely on the bony structure and the automatic postural adjustments to hold us up (instead of thinking we need to use muscular work), tension can be released and we are free to approach piano playing from a position of mechanical advantage.

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