Customer Reviews

What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Barbara Conable, renowned Alexander teacher, has written a clear, concise text about the body for musicians, but actors and other types of performers will also find it valuable. The book's tone is humorous and encouraging, and the anatomical information is easily understandable. Ben Conable created the excellent illlustrations. I have successfully used this book in my voice studio. The response from my voice students is always "A-ha! NOW I understand!" And this is the premise of Body Mapping explained in this book: we move according to how we THINK we are constructed, not how we actually ARE constructed. By correcting our Body Maps, we then understand how we actually ARE constructed. Correcting our Body Map is easily and quickly achieved with this book, and then our movement as we perform and our perception of our movement become free and fluid, yet also lively and vibrant.

I bought this book thinking it would at least have some explanations. But no, it just is a picture book showing pictures of the different skeletal structures in the body. Buy this book ONLY if it is required for a class that you are taking on this where a teacher is there to fill in the explanations as it is USELESS without them.

If you are a pianist who wants to self-study body mapping to prevent injury and improve your playing, take a look at the far better "What every Pianist needs to know about the body" by Thomas Mark (ISBN 1579992064) as it has very detailed descriptions on the movements that you should use and should not use (and also includes pretty much the same pictures as this book does)!

I'm a serious amateur musician (singer), so I know that understanding the body and learning how to use it properly is crucial to making good music. I thought this book would teach me how to better use my body through consideration of its various parts and relationships. I was wrong. Too many of the one-page sections start and end with simplistic lead-ins and ferverinos like these: "You can learn to have a pressure-free front" or "You can learn to organize your torso around your core" and end with "You have a pressure-free front? Gloat! and "If you already, just naturally, organize around your core, huzza!" In between these statements are anatomical diagrams but nothing that tells the reader/student HOW to develop a pressure-free front or to organize the torso around the core. And so on. From the reviews this book apparently satisfies the needs of some, and that's great. But if you're a serious musician looking not only to understand the way the body should work but also tips, advice, or exercises about HOW to use your body, you'll need to look elsewhere. I am.

This book is an excellent resource for music teachers who recognize the need for sharing accurate information about the body with their students. It is intended as a workbook. The pages follow a certain presentational order but each can be taken alone as a "project" to be worked on during a lesson or a practice session, depending on the student's (and teacher's!) needs. I have succesfully used the book as a text in my college-level classes, and with musicians one-on-one, ranging from the professional musician to the 5-year-old beginning piano student. That is the beauty of the book: it's text and illustrations readily convey important information to any musician.

Although the book is directed towards musicians, the information would be useful to any performing artist or person seeking information about anatomy and its practical application to movement.

This book is very cartoony and seems almost like a handout you might get at a seminar or a class. It is not necassarily bad, but it doesn't really give you detailed explanations on what you should do. It is more of an illustrated tour of various Alexander concepts. I am still searching for a good Alexander book, but I haven't found one yet so I can't recommend one, but there must be a better one out there, so try a different book.

Unlike many of the other reviewers, I have found this book to be an excellent introduction to body mapping and the Alexander Technique. I think the operative word is "introduction." This should not be thought of as an in-depth study of body mapping; for that, one should refer to Conable's book "How to use the Alexander technique." As both a professional singer and a voice instructor, I have found this simple book to be very useful. It is a helpful tool to introduce students to the very concept of body mapping (something that most people know nothing about...by the way, it's the study of the proper way to hold one's self and use one's body based on an accurate concept of one's physiology). It is also a helpful tool for someone who is familiar with body mapping to check yourself. If you want an in-depth study, this is not the book to use, but it is excellent to use in conjunction with other texts, especially a simple anatomy book. And, as to the cartoon-like drawings, they make it simple, and simple is a good way to start!

There is most definitely some illuminating information presented here, but it could have been done in a more organized manner. Using visuals is a smart approach, but the design of this book is annoying.

It would have been easier to digest had there been some set guidelines to the layout, but there don't appear to be. Some pages have many different font sizes in bold or italic or both, etc. Some are all capitals. Then there are visuals next to the text, behind the text, overlapping in any which way. It makes it frustrating to read.

If you want the same information, you might try a different book by Barbara Conable called "How to Learn the Alexander Technique." I am only half-way through "How to Learn...", but it seems to present much of the Body Mapping information with a more useful, though less prominent, visual component. Perhaps an simple anatomy book in conjunction with the "How to Learn..." book would be a better approach.

This book is one of many texts being examined in my "Vocal Pedagogy" class at university. None of the students I've talked to about it found it terribly useful. But who knows, you may. Definitely examine a copy before buying one.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. The organization is very circular which makes perfect sense for integrating the concepts of Alexander technique and Body Mapping. Also, the illustrations are incredibly helpful and the messages are all very positive. Highly recommend!