I recently watched a really impressive presentation by a well- renowned professional musician on the basic mechanics of playing an instrument. The first thing that was mentioned and which we often take for granted as we develop as musicians, was how to pick the instrument up.
If you’re lucky enough to play the piano or bass drum, then that’s not something you need to worry about (!), but for most musicians, picking our instruments up is something that we have to do many times a day as part of our preparation of playing.
As young students, we rely on our teachers to demonstrate how to pick an instrument up with minimum effort, but if left unchecked for long periods, we may unknowingly, start to pick our instruments up in a way that allows unnecessary tension to creep into our bodies and as a result, into the way that we breathe and hold & play our instruments.
The consequence of that, is that our body can start to work less efficiently when we play and unless the excess tension is addressed, it can start to lead to repetitive strain type injuries.
So how does excess tension arise when we pick an instrument up? Well, trying to lift any object can result in movement of the head in a ‘backwards and down’ direction, which may compress the spine and result in tension in the jaw, shoulders, arms, wrists and the rest of the body. If you are repeating that ‘tension creating pattern’ over any length of time, eventually that may take its toll on the finely tuned muscles of for example, the fingers and lips, that need to work in a relaxed way to minimise fatigue when performing.
Of course we can’t keep a continual visual eye on what our heads are doing when we pick an instrument up, but we can become aware of the difference in feeling between picking up an instrument with the head sitting on top of the spine correctly in a ‘forwards and up’ direction as opposed to it dropping ‘backwards and down’. The more that we are aware of that difference, the more likely we are over time, to cultivate better habits when picking up an instrument.
Another way of thinking of this is to imagine a right angle of 90 degrees. Any deviation of angle from that right angle will create an acute or obtuse angle and result in an angle that looks less symmetrical than a right angle. By becoming aware of how the head feels when it is angled differently in relation to the neck, we can gradually find the best head/neck position that allows us to lift an instrument with minimum effort and tension and give us the best chance of being able to play our instruments with greater freedom and potential.