The draggin' dragon: some lighthearted tools for serious sitting.

Have you ever suffered from back pain? Hardly a day goes by when I don't encounter someone who is coping with problems in some part of their back--lower back, middle back, upper back or shoulders. It seems almost a sign of these stressful times--after all, most of us are dealing with overloaded schedules, poorly conditioned back and abdominal muscles, slouching postures and a whole host of office and home furniture that may look great but does nothing to support our bodies.

Musicians suffer--especially those who must always sit to play their instruments. Harpists, cellists, pianists, organists ... there is simply no other option for practicing these instruments. In her book Playing (less) Hurt, Janet Horvath says that cellists have the highest rate of back injury (75 percent), followed by harpists (73 percent), pianists (69 percent), double bass players (60 percent) and violinists (37 percent). Looking at these statistics, gathered from the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians surveys, there is an apparent correlation between back injury and instrumentalists who must play with no back support. Horvath gives a great many recommendations regarding chair options, lumbar support cushions and exercises that those with and without back pain would be well-advised to investigate.

As teachers, we have an obligation to do something to change those statistics. The seeds of good alignment while sitting can and should be taught right along with learning to hold or put our hands on our instruments. Even the young flute and violin students who play their lessons while standing are going to have to face the perils of the school folding chairs in band and orchestra. So what will we teach that will help them for a lifetime of music making? Elementary instrumental method books are long on what to do with arms, hands and fingers and short on viable information on the act of sitting. The instructions all seem to boil down to "sit up straight and tall with your feet flat on the floor." The "feet flat on the floor" or other solid support is easy enough to accomplish and woe be to the young student whose teacher does not provide something to support those short legs that cannot yet reach the floor. Imagine attempting to maintain, for any length of time, your own well-aligned position on a tall bar stool with no foot rest. You would undoubtedly resort to leaning elbows or arms on the table to support yourself, probably hunching your back forward into a "C" position at the same time. So much for straight and tall. If you were able to achieve it at all, there would most likely be a tremendous amount of muscular energy expended to keep you there, and you would consider patronizing another establishment--one with foot rests on the stools!

The "straight and tall" is a much more complex issue. I am convinced that if you simply tell a student to sit up straight you are setting him up for muscle tension and subtle discomfort that will eventually become his habit. That habit becomes his kinesthetic memory and, with the chronic muscle tension, comes the possibility for full-blown pain and injury later in life. We all have our own internal "map" of how we look or move, so we may try to fix ourselves without accurate information. A student told to sit up straight will pull himself into what he considers a straight position and then hold himself there. Shoulders may be tight and pulled back and down, the chin may be tucked (military posture), the lower back may be overarched--all in all, a tremendous amount of energy will be expended trying to support his body. In actuality, we want the bones to align so that the skeleton practically supports itself. Then the muscle energy can be released and be used for the purpose of music making. This needs guidance. If you have been fortunate enough to study the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, yoga, t'ai chi or pilates, you might be well-versed enough to talk intelligently about sit bones, pelvis alignment, head and neck relationship and so forth. On the other hand, it would be information overload for your young students and even the teenagers would get that glazed, who-cares, look! It's time to get creative with tools and images that are easily accessible, will stimulate sensation and allow the student to connect to that sensation. Bring on the dragons, penguins and bobblehead dolls. I can assure you that you will capture their attention!

To sit solidly on a bench or chair, the body must be supported by the sit bones, which are the small "rockers" at the bottom of the pelvis. If the lumbar curve at the lower back is over-exaggerated, it throws the support forward, off the sit bones and onto the legs. If the body is slouched, the support is thrown back so that it is actually resting on the tailbone and the back will have a telltale "C" shape. To find the sit bones, I use the penguin "Opus" from the Sunday comic strip Opus by Berkeley Breathed, but any penguin image will get the point across. With his feet firmly attached to the bottom of his fat little body, "Opus" must waddle about from side to side in order to move. Waddling about on the chair or bench in "Opus" fashion immediately lets the student be in touch with her sit bone "feet"--and what silly fun we can have! For keyboard students, it immediately gives them full range of the keyboard without traveling on the bench to reach high and low. The next step is to release any excess muscle tension in the lower back. The image of a dragon (or dinosaur) dragging his tail is a good impression for this--it suggests to the student that the back does not stop at the seat, but rather continues, thus allowing for release and expansion across the lower back. Our "draggin, dragon" uses his resting tail as part of his support--keeping him in mind while playing grounds the student. If a picture is worth a words, then a plush toy is worth even more--especially for very young students.

Many times young children need only these several images to feel solidly supported and tension-free while sitting. When they become unbalanced, a gentle hand on the back as a reminder is all that is needed to once again bring them into alignment. For older students who have developed the unfortunate habit of over-arching in the lower back, other sensory retraining might be in order. Since their idea of upright includes the over-arching and tension, bringing them into balance will cause them to feel as if they are slouching or even leaning back. A long poster mailing tube and a mirror are wonderful tools to bring about a new awareness.

Earlier I mentioned the statistical correlation between back injuries and instrumentalists who must play with no back support. I find that the tube, when placed upright and held firmly against the player's spine, is just wide and solid enough to provide a temporary safe support--almost like a skinny chair back to release against. The mirror, of course, is to allow the student to get an accurate visual reference that he indeed has an upright alignment and is not leaning back at an angle. Contact with the tube should take place between the shoulder blades and around the tailbone, with the teacher providing manual support in those areas. It takes some time for the student to release all the back muscles and rest against the tube. Releasing the muscles in the lower back will actually allow the pelvis to move, and it must move for the lumbar curve to become natural, not exaggerated. Once that has been accomplished, the student can begin to play his instrument while maintaining contact with the tube. As soon as the connection between playing the instrument and resting against the tube has been firmly established, the tube can be removed and replaced at different intervals until the new alignment becomes the alignment of choice.

The poster tube and mirror can also be helpful for the chronic sloucher. In this case, the student needs to retrain the internal muscles that will keep him upright, and the tube will help support the skeletal frame while the abdominal and back muscles are becoming more conditioned. The sequence of training can be the same as for the student who overarches the lower back. Again, it should be the release of muscles that allows the body to find a new alignment, not pulling the body into a new position, layering muscle tension on top of muscle tension.

When approaching the instrument from this new alignment, the student should be encouraged to experiment with bringing the instrument to her, rather than reaching for the instrument. That may seem obvious, but the norm for many is the opposite, so it bears repeating. As the student positions the instrument, have her maintain the sense that the shoulders rest easily on top of the ribcage and do as little as possible to put the instrument into playing position. A new alignment will change everything about playing the instrument. When muscle tension is released it feels like we have no control. Allow the student to give it time and her body will adapt to the new alignment and find its way around the instrument more effortlessly. In the case of keyboardists, the upright alignment may cause the keys to be too far away, in which case bench adjustment must be made. Accommodation can also be made by angling the body forward by folding from the hip joints. Care must be taken that those same problem muscles in the lower back do not revert to habit and grab when folding forward.

The final piece of the sitting puzzle is the balance of the head--be a bobblehead! Those ubiquitous bobblehead dolls are wonderful teaching tools. A bobblehead allows a student to clearly see that the balance point of the head is up in the head--actually at the intersection of lines drawn between the ears and straight back from just below the bridge of the nose. Allowing the student to gently bobble his own head, moving from high up in the head, he can readily find his own "sweet spot"--the point where the head is in dynamic balance and creates no extra drag on the muscles. The head itself weighs about 12 pounds; an out of balance head exerts approximately three times its weight against the muscles. That weight pulling against the muscles is enough to misalign the entire back. The Alexander Technique considers head and neck alignment crucial to the rest of the body. Those familiar with Alexander's work will find his principles at work behind the toys and tools mentioned.

Encouraging proper alignment and balance when sitting takes consistent attention during lessons. Even if something feels better, old habits want to creep back. Muscle tension and holding patterns are stubborn and we tend to identify more with muscle tension than with ease of movement. Throughout it all I avoid the word "posture"; to me the word has static connotations, as if we are positioning and holding. The words "alignment" and "balance" create images of freedom and movement. The French philosopher Simone Well said "To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul." Perhaps the stability that comes from being rooted on the bench or chair will allow our students the possibility of creating music that will touch the soul.

Pianist Jacqueline Herbein, NCTM, is an active soloist. ensemble performer, teacher and clinician in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As an outgrowth of her intensive study in both the physiology of piano technique and the Alexander Technique, Herbein presents workshops entitled The Physically Perceptive Pianist.