The Art of Practicing - Reading Together - Basic Mechanics

In this chapter, Bruser focuses on the physical mechanics of playing an instrument. Quite a few of her comments stood out to me.

"Fine motor control is impossible when muscles are tense." (loc: 905)

"Do not go faster than you can, and do not force your body to do anything. Your practice time is yours alone. It is a time to let go of pressures and to let your body relax, open up, and make music." (loc: 952)

"Posture is dynamic, not static." (loc: 1122)

"In transferring arm weight from one finger to another (the “walking” movements described earlier for pianists and cellists), we use gravity to move efficiently over the keyboard or fingerboard." (loc: 1602)

"Instead of pushing the strings or keys, you use gravity to make them play, with just enough muscular effort to hold the arm at the most effective angle and control the force of the drop." (loc: 1606)

"Musicians often confuse being emotionally intense with being physically tense." (loc: 1682)


note: I'm reading this book from through my Kindle app, so quotations are shown by the location in the Kindle document.

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