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| MaryJean Allen | ||||||
| Certified Andover Educator | ||||||
| Your body
map is a personal understanding of your body's structure. According to Andover
Educator Lea Pearson, "if you move in a way that is consistent with
the way the body is designed, you will perform your activities easily. If
you try to move in a way that is different from how the body is meant to
function, your movement will be done with difficulty."
The most important reason for studying Body Mapping is this: our body map governs our quality of movement. As musicians, we know that learning how to move is essential, since the quality of our movement determines the quality of our sound. If our body map is accurate and refined, our movement will be fluid and free, balanced and expressive. However, if our body map contains errors or omissions, we will move in a way that is consistent with our body map. Our movements will then be awkward, which often can produce injury. Fortunately, our body maps can be refined at any age, no matter how long our "old" body maps have been in use. Your body map contains three aspects: structure, function, and size. Think about your body map of your wind pipe and your esophagus (food tube). What is the structure, function, and size of each? Imagine that you have the following body map: you believe your food tube, with its powerful muscles, is in front of the wind pipe, and thus, you believe you should use your food tube muscles and your surrounding neck muscles to take in air. Perhaps you have also been told you are a "noisy" breather, and you've noticed during practice and performance your throat feels dry. Let's correct and refine that body map. First, your wind pipe is in front of your food tube. Second, your food tube and wind pipe are not alike in structure and function. The exterior of your wind pipe is mostly cartilage, the interior mostly mucus membrane. Although your food tube is wholly muscle, you don't need this muscle to take in air. In fact, you don't need to use any exterior or interior neck muscles to take in air. Now that you've corrected your body map, take in a breath. Your breath intake will be much easier and quieter, since you are no longer tightening your neck muscles. Congratulations! You have corrected and refined one of your body maps. Your corrected body map has changed your quality of movement: your breathing feels more free, since you have eliminated unnecessary tension.
Read about the founder and president of Andover Educators: Read about the founder of Body Mapping:
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"I learned so much about a more relaxed and healthy posture. My choir teacher told us to stretch our backs and add an 'extra inch.' Now I understand why this always felt uncomfortable. I feel relieved that there's an easier way to sing."
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