My entire life, I’ve struggled with flexibility throughout my body. In piano lessons my teacher would always critique me for my tight wrists, and in viola I would find difficulty with a tight neck and lack of bow control. I realize now that I have greatly mis-mapped my own body, and am hopeful that in recognizing my mistakes I will become a better musician and a more thoughtful performer.

Recently, my viola studio teacher has been trying to correct my bad habit of tightening my neck. When I play, I hold my instrument up by squeezing it between my shoulders and chin. Not only is this incorrect, but it tightens my shoulder and arm muscles, limiting the freedom of my arms to bow and to help with shifting. Long term, this could also cause neck pains and neck injuries. In order to remap this part of my body, I must relax my shoulders, practice with my head entirely off the chin rest, and support my viola with my left hand, primarily between my thumb and pointer finger. I believe this will also loosen my wrists, as the tightness is a by-product of my raised and tightened shoulders.

Another mis-mapping of mine is the way I stand. As the article mentioned is common for many performers, when I play my knees are locked. This is a problem because it means that I have mis-mapped the lumbar region of the body, which I can also see manifest in my inability to take full, deep breaths. This mis-map limits my sound on the instrument: since I cannot properly balance and distribute my weight, I cannot properly rest my weight into the strings. Because of this, my sound is not deep and rich like a viola tone should be. To correct this, I have to focus on my breath and become aware of how my body balances, starting by unlocking my knees.