What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body: The Practical Application of Body Mapping & the Alexander Technique to Making Music

Rating:
Summary: Indispensable Text for Music Teachers and Other Performers
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for learning about the body
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Nice idea, so-so execution
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for learning about the body
Review: 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.