Understanding the Musician’s Performing Body is a topic that warrants more discussion space into the music students’ training. The goal of this blog or web page is to start a repository of students’ papers on topics related to the musician’s body, and its healthy and optimal use. The page will be active on a regular basis during specific periods where students are available to manage it (when graduate seminars on related topics are offered by the instructor). Its interactive section seeks to create a discussion board on these important topics with the music community and to break barriers between researchers and practitioners. Through the term, students have acquired knowledge on the anatomy, physiology and mechanics of the body as it relates to music performance. They became familiar with some of the existing literature on the topic. One way to make things evolve is through knowledge transfer. Through this page, students will present their work on various issues related to the body during music playing and hope to communicate and exchange with their peers who have common interests. This page is an active work-in-progress page. It will evolve over the years.
This page is the outcomes of seminars on Understanding the Performing Body offered at McGill University, Schulich School of Music since 2015. The instructor of this course is Isabelle Cossette. She is the administrator of this site. The posts have been done by the graduate students enrolled in these seminars.
Authors and articles
Stressed?
- Jenny Park
- Ruoxi Zhao
- Feras Reda – Rethinking stress: Mindsets matters
- Dabin Zoey Yang – What is stress to musicians?
- Ying Zheng – Overcoming Music Performance Anxiety – Practical Significance in Music Education
- Pinchas Antal – How am I suppose to perform while feeling stressed?
- Sebastian Gonzales Mora –Beta blockers: The performance pills
- Julia Laporte Bomfim – Go with the flow!
- Naomi Schrank – The many moods of a musician
- Georgia Vögeli – Learning self love for our playing
- Jean-Nicolas Trottier – Stress and jazz improvisation
- Alexander Freund – OMMMm…Meditation? Why?…How?
- Jason Biel – Sleep and stress – an unstoppable wheel
- Naomi Dumas – Eat well. Play well!
- Émilie Fortin – Deal with it!
- Marina Thibeault – The art of Zen music playing
- Suh Hyeamin – Don’t worry, breathe happy!
- Brian Rice – Take it or leave it! Anxiety in performance situations
Brainstorm!
- Tsubasa Muramatsu
- Matthew Chan – Learn smart, teach smart! An exploration of motor skill learning in music performance training
- Jonathan Devey – The science on learning: 6 strategies for more effective practicing
- Skylar Jordan – Don’t be SAD! A look into the effects of seasonal affective disorder on musicians
- Caroline Yergeau – Performing from memory: How to make it less stressful?
- Kyle Jones – Dopamine and Rewarding Yourself
- Christopher Keach – Enhanced Learning and Retention Through Combined Practice
- Ariadne Lih – All minds can make music: Understanding depression
- Félix Dupont-Foisy – Mind over matter: The power of imagination in music
- Zainen Suzuki – Music and memory
- Margaret di Castro – Help! My hands have brain cramps?! Could I have focal dystonia?
- Daniel Karrasch – Music research in the psychedelic Renaissance
- Claire Motyer – Injured? Or is it all in your head?
- Ryan Gallagher – Focal dystonia in the hands: A symptom and solution guide
- Francisco L. Reyes Peguero – Take the brain train
- Is an image worth a thousand notes? – Kirsten Leblanc
- The brain game: practice strategies – MacKenzie Stone
- Whole sense – Nathan Murphy
- Will a drink help me think? – Gabriele Thielmann
- Music neuroscience, what do you think? Kelly Craig
- Know your instrument: The simplicity of extended techniques – Noam Bierstone
No pain no gain
- Brittany Barry
- Nathan Emans
- Raphael Salonga
- Theodore Lysyk
- Caroline Guo – Principles of piano playing I wish I knew before music university (backed by science!)
- Renaud Boucher-Browning – Strengthening and stretching for string bassists
- Florence Rousseau – Tune up!
- Samuel Shreves – Musculoskeletal problems among orchestral musicians, exercise, and recovery
- Angela Chen – Optimal posture for violists
- Kenneth Kwan – Injuries of an alternate athlete
- Hannah MacLean – The search for ease: Violin set-up guide
- Jared Tehse – Our hands are not transformers
- Magdalena VonEccher – Practicing and playing-related injuries in pianists: Is there a link?
- Anna Dickey – Is my embouchure just tired or is it something more serious?
- Sarah Campbell – Do you feel pain when you play?
- Jean-François Hamel – Musicians, how do you keep your hands singing?
- Steven Cowan – Guidelines for teachers: Specific injury prevention methods
- Zhenni Li – My hand/wrist seems injured? Is it De Quervain? What should I do?
Could you repeat please?
- Samuel Dmyterko
- Jesse Luimes – The deaf musician: an oxymoron?
Life changes…
- Bronwyn Schuman – I’m pregnant. How will this affect my ability to play the piano?
- Jacqueline Woodley – Hormonal?
Out of breath?
- Ziyue Piao – Neck tension in singing? Learn about muscle tension dysphonia (MTD)
- Hannah Darroch – Breathing myths debunked
- Damon Davies – VPI – The big leak
- Kristy Tucker – Can the way you breathe make smarter?
Image credit: 3 Rockin’ Musicians, after Pablo Picasso, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, CC BY 2.0
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