Upper Body and Piano8

© 2018 by Katherine Malyj Santiago, Ph.
D, under the auspices of

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from that use.
“From the perspective of classical surface
anatomy, the hand extends from the wrist to the
fingertips. But under the skin this boundary is just
an abstraction, a pencil line drawn by
mapmakers, giving no clue as to what the hand
is or how it actually works.”
Frank R. Wilson, The Hand: How its Use Shapes the Brain,
Language, and Human Culture
Table of Contents
Like a Crane
1 The Upper Body: Deus ex Machina? 7
2 The Shoulder Girdle and Its 10
Wherefores
3 The Muscles that Attach to the Scapula, and 22
Why You Might Care
Muscles Muscles MUSCLES

4 The Rotator Cuff Group 31
5 Muscle Mugshots 38
6 Two Muscle Caveats 45
7 Owning Your Muscles Meditation 52
The Path to Flow
8 Some Guidance Based on Science 64
9 Coordination 101: Some Biomechanical 71
Insights
10 To Align or Not to Align 77
11 The Almost End 87
Bibliography 92
Illustration credits 95
Like a Crane
Pianist's Guide to the Upper Body 7
The Upper Body: Deus Ex Machina?

The parts of the body you identify as fingers would
appear to begin at the large knuckle ridge of the
hand. Similarly, your hand would appear to be
situated beyond the wrist. But the muscles that
operate the fingers and hand are mostly located
remotely, in the forearm.
The tendons that attach all of these muscles to the
bones of the fingers pass across the wrist. Under the
skin of the forearm it's pretty much all about
operating wrist and fingers. How large might your
hands be if they had to contain all the muscles that
operate your fingers? Probably, most of us prefer
our hands at their current sizes, thank you very
much!
An unglamorous but critical part of using your hands,
at the piano as elsewhere, involves getting them into
the right position to do their job. Three more of the forearm muscles
rotate that limb to help get your hand into the right place for any
task you have in mind. But the job of positioning (and continually
repositioning) the hand does not belong only to the forearm. Your
upper arm, shoulders, and torso share in this job, and arguably we
evolved into bipeds to free up the upper body for this very purpose.
Day in and day out, many parts of your body that are not part of the
visible anatomy of the hand perform jobs for which your fingers and
hands get all the credit. You wake up in the morning, rotate and
stretch your arm to position your hand momentarily above the alarm
clock. Using various muscles that control the arm, you adjust your
hand's position as you feel your way to the dial for turning it off. You
pull your arm back in, rotating your hand into position to brush your
hair out of your face. A little while later you bring a spoonful of
cereal to your mouth and the milk doesn’t spill because your arms
and hands work together with practically unfathomable skill and
carefree ease! All day long, your arms and forearms skillfully
maneuver your hands without your giving their contribution a
moment’s consideration.
As long as all of these truly remarkable coordinations between upper

body and extremities are working without incident, most of us find no
reason to deconstruct them. But if you aren’t satisfied with your piano
playing, then it makes absolutely no sense to practice with your attention
on your visible fingers and those alone. Such practicing is based on an
illusion that the fingers begin at the large knuckle, and by the end of this
little book we hope you will have been dispelled, and powerfully
dispelled, of that illusion.
In theater, the deus ex machina is a machine that whisks actors onto
the stage with extrahuman flair. In literature it is a device, employed
with varying degrees of skill, that solves a seemingly intractable
problem by suddenly introducing a surprise character, or thing, or
situation. And what could this have to do with the piano? Think of your
upper body as your deus ex machina in each of the ways, working
behind the scenes to get your fingers around for results that by right
should be magical. Maybe, you are even ready to appoint it to solve
previously intractable problems. But whether it surprises you or not,
the upper body is somehow involved in playing the piano, doing so
with varying degrees of skill from one person to the next. We are about
to get a sense of how much it is involved, and of what is at stake.
Wherefore the
Shoulder Girdle
Frank R. Wilson tells us that,
“from the perspective of
biomechanical anatomy, the
hand is an integral part of the
entire arm, in effect a specialized
termination of a cranelike
structure suspended from the
neck and the upper chest.” Let’s Your fingers are no more able to maneuver
have a look, then, at this themselves than the hook of this
“cranelike structure,” composed crane is able to accomplish anything
of bones and sinew, that is without the rest of the crane and (for that
responsible for getting your hands matter!) its skilled operator. We'll
into their optimal position for take up that skilled operator later in
every task (including for playing our discussion.
each note of the piano). Then
you'll be better equipped to on many factors that include the

understand the source of any direction of the muscle fibers that
technical problems you might be tug on it. Consider, for example,
having. the rhomboid major muscle,
First, a brief explanation of how attached to the spine on one side
muscles are generally thought to
work. As you likely understand,
bones do not move themselves,
muscles move them by
lengthening and shortening.
Muscle is encased in connective
tissue that morphs into strong,
fibrous tendon, which then
“attaches” to bone. Through the
actions of muscle fibers those
bones are pulled by tendons and
relocated.
Where a bone will move depends
and the lower medial edge (toward the body's central vertical axis)
of the scapula on the other. Imagine its fibers shortening while the
spine is stable. I think you will be able to ascertain that this action
would pull the lower middle edge of the scapula toward the midline
of the back, under the theoretical condition that it is acting on its
own. (Please note—muscles do not push bones, though they can
stretch in concert with other muscles' actions, with gravity, and
under the influence of momentum.)
However, muscles don't generally move bones independently.
According to anatomical theory, the activity of a primary mover
muscle (the agonist) is modulated by other muscles participating in
the task at hand. One or several “antagonist” muscles will
counteract the agonist's efforts for the sake of stability, while others
may throw their abilities in the direction of the desired movement
(synergists). In this fashion, muscles cooperate in “synergies” to
create movement, with your body in theory memorizing the synergy
rather than the component actions. This is arguably the most
prevalent and basic notion of how muscles manage to do their work.
The comparatively nascent discipline of biomechanics variously
criticizes anatomy's basic suppositions about muscle function and

convincingly so, but this simple model is perhaps the best available
place to start when you are forming an awareness of muscle
actions. Think of it as your first set of paints—you start with a few
basic colors and eventually make your way to blending colors from
a much larger set. (In our “primer version” of the upper body you will
notice references to standard anatomical theory with mentions of
caveats here and there.)
Let's now look at the bones involved in making it possible for the
shoulder girdle to be so tremendously mobile, with a range of
movement possibilities unparalleled anywhere else in the body.
Then we'll have a whirlwind tour of the myriad muscles attached to
those bones, so that you can get a sense of how the complex might
either contribute or take away from your piano technique. Finally,
we'll give some thought to the considerable problem of how to
replace coordination patterns that don't really serve you with fresh,
vital ones.
The following shoulder girdle image features three bones. Two of
them (clavicle and scapula), in combination with a second set of

these two bones on the other side of the body, constitute the girdle
proper. The shoulder girdle positions the humerus, which positions
the forearm, which positions the hand.
The way this structure is designed might have you intimidated by its
remarkable complexity. For now, though, our purpose is not for you
to become a healing professional, but rather for you as a pianist to
become more aware of your upper body as that crane that gets
your hands and fingers around. Your attempts to become a better
pianist can then be influenced by accurate rather than inaccurate
body awareness.
The humerus moves from the place that most of us would identify
as the shoulder, as you likely assume. But how we get it into the
various positions that we would like it implicates the entire shoulder
girdle. We created this list to help you understand why that is.
1. The part of the scapula known as the glenoid fossa forms a
ball-and-socket joint with the humerus (glenohumeral joint).
This joint is extremely loose and mobile—more so than any
other in the body.

2. The scapula does not form the usual bone-to-bone joint with
the thoracic skeleton and is very mobile in its ideal state.
However, it is home to various muscular attachments that
do indeed connect it to the ribs, spine, and skull. The
represented muscles, along with others that attach to the
scapula, perform a wide variety of movements of varying
degrees of force. Virtually all of these have ramifications for
the humerus (which engages the forearm...) because of the
multiple ways the scapula and humerus are connected.
3. The scapula forms a second “false” joint (the acromio-
clavicular joint), this time with the clavicle. Only ligaments
connect the two bones at this joint and it is generally not
very mobile. The clavicle, which is the only long horizontal
bone in the body, acts as a strut that keeps this joint from
collapsing inward. This is one reason that the humerus is, in
an ideal state, so free and mobile.
4. The clavicle, rather than sitting entirely forward of the
scapula as many of us may imagine, crosses above it as it

approaches the shoulder joint. At the coracoid process, the
two most powerful ligaments in the upper body suspend the
scapula from this strut. In well-aligned people, the scapula is
presumably free to rest in suspension when various
muscles aren't active.
5. The clavicle forms a joint with the manubrium of the
breastbone (sternoclavicular joint), and no muscles act on
this joint, either, to flex, extend, rotate, etc., either bone.
Actions of the scapula create potential for movement at this
joint, which is flexible. There are also muscles that attach to
your breastbone, and to the clavicle itself, that have the
capacity to affect the position of the clavicle, which is of
course connected to the scapula.
6. Though the muscles whose tendons insert into the scapula
are credited by functional anatomy with doing practically all
of the work of moving the shoulder girdle (which positions
the humerus, which...), we can't discount muscles in the
frontal thorax or even of the arm itself. The shoulder girdle

doesn't work in isolation any more than do the fingers.
So, you see, the shoulder girdle appears to have been assigned the
job of getting the humerus, along with all more remote parts of the
arm, where we would like them. It has other jobs too but the case
that this is its primary job in our species is pretty easily made.
The list in grey also describes a girdle that is ever so loosely
attached to the thoracic skeleton, creating a framework for easy and
unencumbered movement of the arms from one place to the next.
However, the girdle is also thoroughly connected to the greater
structures of the trunk, with many muscles involved. The
thoroughness of this connection shows that looseness is not a
given, and that overactive torso muscles can easily gum up the
shoulder girdle's works.
Many muscles work in concert to manipulate the shoulder girdle
(which moves the humerus...). Twenty one, in fact!—and your body
undoubtedly has some kind of subconscious idea of what to do with
each of these muscles, and with every other muscle attached to the
The ligaments of the
shoulder girdle
Unlike tendons,
which attach muscle
to bone, ligaments
attach bone to bone.
Ligaments create
powerful but also
highly mobile
connections among
the scapula, clavicle,
and humerus. (Note
the two side-by-side,
vertical ligaments
[coraco-clavicular
ligaments] that
suspend the scapula
from the clavicle.)
shoulder girdle, as you play. The following chart organizes those

muscles into categories useful for people trying to gain some insight
into how it is that arms move, just in case they might like to create
some change within their bodies. Don't worry, no need to memorize
these unless that would help you become more aware of what is
happening in your own body when you play.
Five Categories of Muscles at the Shoulder Girdle

From Scapula From Clavicle Attached to Clavicle Attached to Scapula From Elsewhere in
to Humerus to Humerus but not to Humerus but not to Humerus Back to Humerus
Rotator Cuff: Pectoralis Major Trapezius (upper) Trapezius (mid and Latissimus Dorsi
Supraspinatus (clavicular head) Subclavius lower)
Infraspinatus Deltoid (anterior) Sternohyoid Pectoralis minor*
Teres Minor Sternocleidomastoid Serratus Anterior
Subscapularus Rhomboids (major *attached to coracoid
and minor) process of scapula
and Biceps Brachii* rather than in the
Triceps (long head) back. This is actually
Teres Major Levator Scapulae an entirely different
Deltoid (lateral Omohyoid situation, as you can
and posterior) see from the image!
Coracobrachialis*
This chart leaves out many details, but it will form a “skeleton” (ha
ha) for attaching useful information. These muscles work together in
versatile movement patterns to move our three highly
interconnected bones—scapula, clavicle, humerus--with great
subtlety. Most people don't give all of their activity a single thought
unless pathology interferes, and hopefully this won't happen to you!
But you can be sure that behind all the activities of your fingers,
hands, and forearms, your body has formed some kind of idea of
how the shoulder girdle should be of service.
Now we would like to focus the attention of

you pianists on a mindblowing piece of
anatomical information!
The Scapula
And Why You Should Even Care
*
The scapula forms that ball-and-socket joint with the
humerus, and the scapula is attached to an awe-
inspiring sixteen different muscles! Some of those
muscles extend into areas far from the shoulder girdle.
Seven of them are also attached to the humerus!
What do each of these muscles responsible for moving the upper limbs
in practically any way we can think of, do? This is an intensely difficult
question currently being pursued across disciplines. Anatomists have
come up with categories of movement that are a framework for
*scapula, posterior view

scientists in search of answers. Their elegant categories are based

on abstracted movement types created relative to a particular
upright standing posture called “anatomical position.”
Traditionally, anatomy offers two categories of movement at the

shoulder girdle, separated into a) movements of the humerus at the
shoulder joint, and b) movements of the scapula itself. Using
terminologies of movement they devised (and that the illustration
captions reflect), scientists have attempted to understand potential

responsibilities of each muscle posited to be involved in each of the
movement types and their combinations.
In real life, of course, neither location a nor b works in a vacuum
unaffected by what the other does (or, frankly, by what happens in
adjoining bodily locations). The two are completely interconnected,
and for one to remain stationary while the other moves, stabilizing
muscles will have to get involved. It then becomes reasonable for
pianists to ask if that is good and necessary for their playing.
In real life, furthermore, we don’t generally move in only one plane
for any length of time. We combine movements in fluid continuums
in which muscles contract and release according to learned timings.
How much of the current scientific theory about the inner workings
behind such complicated matters would actually be useful for
pianists (and piano teachers, too)? For the purpose of this ebook,
enough for you to gain more certainty in two areas.
First, almost all of us would benefit from some
essential clarification about basic body structures.
That way, we have a solid foundation for fixing

something that isn’t working.
Pianists are people who look for solutions to technical problems,
first and foremost, by referring to their own understandings of their
bodies (however subconscious those are). When those
understandings are mistaken--with the misunderstanding of where
the fingers begin a case in point--solutions can be evasive.
Furthermore, unlike movement professionals who understand the
caveats of anatomical movement abstractions they work with,
pianists (and their teachers) might not even be aware of
problematical “movement abstractions” that may very well be
feeding technical problems.
Perhaps you are thinking “Jeez, all I want is to make music!--Who
cares what I believe about my body? It simply works according to
the rules governing its construction.” This highly debatable, my-
body-is-just-a-machine idea practically wafts through the ether and
is worthy of a level of attention beyond the scope of this pianists’
book. Let’s just say for now that accurate body awareness matters
greatly if you would like to change the way your body coordinates
itself--and to do that you will absolutely have to address your
misunderstandings, with a teacher or otherwise. May the
understanding that our two adjoining municipalities of the upper
body are practically incapable of working independently of one
another (as the very categories, a and b, imply in their role as a
basis for understanding) be the first of many helpful corrections.
This brings us straight to that second useful understanding a
pianist might gain from science. People need to be motivated to
pursue any kind of change. They need to feel convinced their efforts
will produce the hoped-for result. You might feel enthusiastic about
optimizing the contribution of your upper body to playing, based on
your mind's understanding of its role in aiding the fingers--but if you
don’t know what to do with that new information you are unlikely to
benefit from it.
Science, thankfully, has much to say about how
we relearn that is highly encouraging as well as
critical to understand, if you want to neurologically
rewire yourself for playing.

Relax, it won't be necessary for you pianists to deeply understand
the latest science of what muscles do (though if your curiosity leads
in that direction, there is probably some kind of good that will come
of it!). I will present only enough science to foster awareness, and a
basis for self-direction--which you need whether you work with a
teacher or not. The next section will serve improved awareness,
and the final section improved self-direction and motivation.
Moving on to that complex of muscles provided us to operate the

humerus, which....
Muscles, Muscles, MUSCLES!
Having given the previously lowly scapula a well-deserved homage, let's

move on to an illustrated guide of all those muscles that emanate from or
insert into the magnificent shoulder girdle structure. These are the muscles
that guide your hands into position as you play the piano and, for that
matter, as you do all the other things you ask of them. For that purpose, we
now provide an illustration and a brief commentary (as space in this non-
encyclopedic presentation warrants) for each of the muscles listed in the
chart on p. 20.
You may be relieved to know that there will be little need to study
these for intellectual understanding. That's because that level of
understanding is unlikely to change your muscles' behaviors.
Rather, we present this descriptive information to lay the
groundwork for a truly useful exercise: that of mapping each of
these muscles into your own body using a meditation designed to
influence your subconscious movement scripts.
Do make an effort to leave this section with a general appreciation
that all of these muscles are accustomed to working together to
continuously reposition your fingers, and that they can do this well
or poorly. Think of them as office workers. They can work in a way
that is rife with obstruction, irritating to each other, and gets hardly
anything done, or they can toss that little ball of a task around with
the skill of a champion sports team!
We will go into extra detail with the rotator cuff muscles to give
you a little bit of a sense of how rich the workings of muscles in
general are. Chapter 6 will offer a visual catalog of the other
muscles mentioned on p. 20 for you to explore as your curiosity

leads, in other sources.
The Rotator Cuff

The socket of the glenohumeral joint, as you can see from the
illustration on p. 14, is extremely shallow. If not for stabilizing
muscles the humerus would easily pop out of its socket. The
primary job of the four rotator cuff muscles, according to widely
accepted theory, is to see to it that this doesn’t happen.
Like muscles in general they are each capable of doing other kinds
of work as well. Like all of your muscles, they have learned over the
course of your lifetime to work in muscular synergies as agonists,
antagonists and synergists to help create movements of varying
kinds and degrees.
Each arises from the scapula on one side to insert into the humerus
on the other. Here they are!
Supraspinatus
This muscle has its “origin” along the upper medial
(toward the vertical central axis of the body) border
of the shoulder blade, and its “insertion” in the
humerus. According to prevailing theories of
functional anatomy this is to say that the muscle will
tend to move the humerus (bone where the insertion
is) rather than the scapula, but biomechanists are
demonstrating that this theory reflects an oversimplified idea of how muscles
actually work together.
Along with the other muscles of the rotator cuff group, this one's main job is to
keep the humerus snugly against the scapula while other muscles engage in
work that could dislocate that joint. The supraspinatus is also capable of lif-
ting and keeping your arm to the side of your body (“abducting” it) about 15%
of possible range of motion. Pianists who try to keep their fingers parallel with
the keys as they get farther from the core would need either the deltoid or the
supraspinatus to accomplish that abduction. This can quickly get uncom-
fortable and a good approach to technique will provide work-arounds.
Infraspinatus
As you can see, the infraspinatus
attaches a bit lower on the scapula than
did the supraspinatus. This muscle might
rotate the humerus outwardly (laterally)
in addition to snuggling the humerus
against the glenoid fossa for stability
while other muscles do their thing. Either
use will influence your angle of forearm
rotation relative to the keyboard. The
infraspinatus can also rotate the scapula
itself if the arm is fixed through the
stabilizing actions of other muscles.
Here's an interesting fun fact about the infraspinatus. In addition to arising out
of the scapula, it arises out of the fascia (a type of connective tissue) that
separates it from teres major and minor. Systems of fascia run through the
entire body and deeply interconnect muscles through tricks such as this.
Fascia can themselves be overly tight due to habit or injury, and
biomechanists think they form a significant factor of muscle use.
Teres Minor
This third rotator cuff muscle might seem like a
junior version of the infraspinatus. In fact, the
two frequently work together, and in some
people's bodies present the variation that they
are partially fused. But, as it is attached at a
different location on the scapula, and as it
inserts in a slightly different place on the
humeral head, and as its fibers run in a different
direction (plus a few other differences that I will
skip), teres minor also performs some rather different functions. For example,
it is accustomed to joining up with parts of the deltoid. Together, these two
move the shoulder joint away from the vertical midline of the body (as you
might sometimes need to do to get your hand to the extreme registers of the
piano.
Remember that lengthening and shortening always happens along the length
of the fiber. The direction of the muscle fibers provides your best clue of a
muscle's possible actions.
Subscapularus
As you can see in the animation, this last of
the rotator cuff muscles attaches to the
underside of the scapula (hence its name).
Like the infraspinatus, this muscle broadens
toward the medial edge. From there its fibers
converge into the insertion in the humerus at
a range of angles. As with various other
muscles, your body can choose to contract a
subset of these fibers or all of them, depending
on the desired movement and the way the
muscle fibers are grouped into motor units.* It can also choose to fire
motor neurons at different (and ever-changing) rates.
Depending on a variety of factors, when the fibers of this muscle shorten it
can rotate the humerus inward (medially), and it can stabilize the humerus
while muscles like the deltoid and biceps perform their various jobs. How
much and at what angle would be contingent on how many fibers are active,
and what other muscles are participating in that work, as well as a range of
other factors that biomechanists are starting to discover.
*A motor unit is a motor neuron plus the muscle fibers on which it acts. Individual muscles
can have from just a few to several hundred motor units.
The rotator cuff's contribution toward stabilizing the upper body is

clearly indispensable, and your body will certainly not forget to do
an adequate amount of that automatically unless you are suffering
from some abnormality. In a perfect use of the subconscious, auto-
pilot faculty that runs this process, this stabilization would be
minimal for the task at hand. In general, though, when people begin
learning a skill requiring a great deal of fine motor coordination like
playing the piano, writing, embroidering, etc., they overstabilize their
arms to give their fingers the opportunity to focus, aim, coordinate,
etc.. Pianists-in-training will often tighten at the shoulders, elbows,
wrists, etc. until through experience they come to understand which
muscles don't really need to be tight. (Unhelpful instruction based
on erroneous ideas of how the body is constructed can get in the
way of maturing coordinations, and they can also create ironclad
misunderstandings that later require attention).
If you feel something tight relating to your shoulder girdle, you don't
necessarily need to know exactly which muscle is tight. You do
need to become aware of the problem area as well as possible

reasons for the tightness if you are to stop working against yourself.
Stabilizing in the upper body, while an indispensable

and necessary aspect of muscular coordination, is
best used in pinches when you play the piano. If you
feel tight in your upper body you are probably
overusing certain muscles (contracting too many
fibers and/or contracting for too long).
-TaubmanTechniqueDemystified
It's time for . . .

Muscle Mugshots: the Pianist's Quick
and Dirty Catalog of the Remaining
Shoulder Girdle Muscles
As we continue, see if you can imagine each of these muscles in your own
body.
Three More Muscles

Connecting the Scapula to
the Humerus
The Deltoid (right), as you can see from this
illustration, has three “heads,” each originating
from a different place. This muscle can be
obviously problematical for pianists when it
freezes the arm into an abducted position. You
will need to look for opportunities to relax it.
< Coracobrachialis
basically flexes the arm
at the shoulder—but
you don't want to
freeze in a flexed
position!
Teres Major >
can contribute to
forward hunching at
the shoulder.
Two More Muscles that Attach to

the Scapula (at the Coracoid
Process) but not to the Humerus:
Biceps Brachii bypasses the humerus altogether to
insert into the radius (the forearm bone that does the
actual rotating). It is the primary supinator of the
forearm, attached directly to the coracoid process!
Hmm.... seems like that in itself makes a great case
for minding your shoulder girdle.
Unlike any other muscle we have looked at so

far, Pectoralis Minor is considered to be
inserted into the scapula rather than originating
there. This implies that its primary job is (in
theory) to draw the scapula downwards and
toward the anterior thorax.
These two muscles attach to the scapula at the

coracoid process (along with the coracobrach-
ialis). That's a whole lot different from attaching on the wing-shaped part!
Six More Muscles that

Attach to the Scapula (in the
back) but not the Humerus
Of all the muscles in this category only Triceps Brachii
(lower left) and Omohyoid (not pictured) don't insert into
the scapula. Triceps inserts into the ulna (forearm) to
(primarily) work the elbow, while omohyoid works the
hyoid. The other four at least partly arise from the spine
and function in significant ways to position the scapula.
Serratus Anterior >
Trapezius >
Rhomboids Major
and Minor (major
pictured on p.11).
Levator Scapulae
(not pictured) also
originates from the
cervical spine to
elevate the scapula.
Two Muscles that Attach the Clavicle to the

Humerus
The first of these is the Deltoid, illustrated on p 39. The anterior
head of the deltoid attaches to the clavicle, as you might be able to
imagine from that illustration. This brings us to the lavish Pectoralis
Major, one of those superficial (closest to the skin) muscles that
body builders like to work into a state of
glory. Pec major has multiple attachments
in addition to the one at the clavicle. It
attaches at the sternum, rib cartilages, and
to a bit of fibrous tissue known as the
aponeurosis of the abdominal external
oblique muscle. Anatomists refer to two
heads: the clavicular and the sternal. All
of their fibers converge to form a flat, five-
centimeter long tendon that inserts into the
humerus (to position the forearm, which...)
Four More Muscles that Attach

to the Clavicle, but not the
Humerus.
The upper fibers of the Trapezius, pictured on p.
41, insert into the clavicle.
Subclavius >
The subclavius is also

considered to insert into the
clavicle. Both the
< Sternohyoid and the
Sternocleidomastoid >
arise from the clavicle as
well as one or two other
places. As you might
surmise, both of these last
two muscles help control
the head.
Com'on, just one more! Here's number 21.
Attached to the Humerus from

Neither the Clavicle nor the
Scapula is the largest muscle of the
back, the Latissimus Dorsi. The lat's fibers
all coalesce at the humerus to perform
various functions: the lat adducts, extends,
and internally rotates the arm.
Characteristics of this muscle point toward
useful insights for pianists looking to
increase their skill. First, a great deal of
variation has been observed in the way this muscle originates and inserts,
and such variations possibly contribute to differences in technique among
great pianists. Second, the lat arises, in part, very low in the back and is
capable of supporting acts of great strength—but does it take strength to play
the piano? Third, it has various fascial origins, and fasciae link together in
bodywide networks whereby each part influences the whole. When fasciae
tighten, muscles have to work harder. Is there some quality of your own
fascia that may be fighting you as you try to get around the piano?
Two Muscle Caveats

The big picture of muscles would indeed not be complete without
addressing these three issues posed by the latissimus dorsi.
Muscular variation
Externally, it goes without saying that people's bodies are all
different. The same is true on the inside, with muscles and their
attachments. To name just a few examples in the upper body,
fibrous “slips” that the lats send out can variously join up with the
tendon of the pec major, coracobrachialis, or the fascia of the
biceps, the latter muscle being the prime supinator of the forearm.
Furthermore, the lat's upper tendon often inserts into the uppermost
tendon of the triceps.
In some people the subclavius inserts into a different bone
altogether: into the coracoid process of the scapula rather than the
clavicle, likely changing its use significantly. Then, to state a few
examples of a more general nature, certain muscles are known to
be fused in some subjects (for example, teres minor and
infraspinatus). Similarly, muscles with multiple heads can have

considerable variation in the degree of separation between heads.
Though it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to set up a
study of this, presumably the many physiological variations among
people, potentially occurring throughout the body, will be partially
responsible for differences in technique. A teacher watching you
play would have no idea of the ways that your body might work
differently than most, leaving a large
place for internal guidance or A person's muscular system
wisdom in creating a technical contains many redundancies,
system within your own body (even meaning different means to
after specific technical instructions). accomplish the same movement
goals. If it's not able to accomplish
So you see, the musculoskeletal something through one means it
system is not a one-size-fits-all deal. will find another. Indeed, the
I mention that anomalies are rather question of how we manage to get
common not because those our bodies to do anything at all
anomalies are going to restrict your given all of these “degrees of
possibilities (see sidebar), but to freedom” has been vexing
scientists for some time!
help inspire you to look inward no
less than outward for solutions to technical problems. There could

be aspects to your body no one knows about that are influencing its
movement choices.
Fascia
For a long time, muscle fascia was considered to be
just the white “saran wrap” around your muscles. In
fact, when I was in medical school, we were instructed
to remove the fascia from cadavers so we could study
“the important stuff” underneath. This is how most
doctors, massage therapists, yoga instructors and
other movement specialists have been taught to view
the human body. As it turns out, this is a huge mistake!
- Dr. Christiane Northrup
Now this is truly a fascinating statement. Anatomists had, over

many centuries, constructed a theory (mostly based on what they
could learn by dissecting cadavers) of movement in which
“concentric action” (muscle contraction) is central. Later explorers of
the body, among them medical students like Northrup was in the
seventies, have been told they should disregard anything in the

body that conflicted with this idea. However, at this particular
juncture of scientific history imaging technologies are proving this
theory naive to the point of being incorrect!
Unfortunately it appears that our most esteemed authorities on the
human body have unwittingly contributed to our incorrect sense of
how it works. (To be fair, the topic of muscular use is wickedly
complicated and steps along the way to our current understanding
are sometimes no less brilliant for being incorrect. Our current
understanding itself will perhaps appear quite backward to future
scientists, too....) Let's step a bit further toward correcting this
sense for the sake of creating the best use of your own body at the
piano.
What is fascia? Fascia is a type of connective tissue that forms a
compartment for muscle structures composed of bundled muscle
fibers (cells). Individual muscle fibers, then bundles of muscle
fibers, are similarly encased in connective tissue. Collectively these
connective tissues, all made from

differing combinations of gels,
water, and fibers, morph into
tendons (a type of connective
tissue that is heavier on fiber),
which morph into bone tissue*
(which is heaviest on fiber). Note
that bone tissue, also, is
constructed from the same
Fascia wraps organs, blood substances--so the idea that
vessels, nerve fibers, bones tendon “attaches” to bone is a bit
themselves. Distinctions among all
misleading. Perhaps it is more
the types of connective tissue can
be medically useful but in another accurate to say that tendon
sense artificial because all of them becomes bone!
are composed of fiber, gels, and Tendons can arise from places
water. It is the proportions among other than bone. They can
the three that differ.
*A movement to question distinguishing so
strictly between hard and soft tissue is
gaining traction. See Myers, first citation.
actually arise in part from fascia (as happens with

three of the rotator cuff muscles). Bizarrely
enough, they can even arise in part from the
fascia that compartmentalizes their own muscles
(e.g., infraspinatus variation)! On their insertion
ends, they can radiate into fascia of other muscle
compartments (e.g., triceps and biceps), or give
rise to thick bands of connective tissue that work
to protect blood vessels and nerves (e.g.,
biceps). Fascia has also been observed to
seamlessly flow from one muscle to form a
different variety of connective tissue that encases
groups of muscles (as, for example, tissue
encasing the trapezius flows into the fascia that
encircles the neck). These described phenomena
are all versions of the idea that the various types
of connective tissue morph from one to the next
in ways that can vary from one body to the next.
Fascia works with muscles, pulling on the tendons of contracting

muscles and releasing with the fibers of the antagonist muscles
they encase. But fascia also has a mind of its own, tightening
independently of muscles. Why would it do this? It would as a result
of injury, and it would as a factor of age. As people get older, their
fascia tends to lose flexibility, and sometimes extremely so. Fascia
of one muscle can also get stuck to fascia of another, making it
difficult for those muscles to glide one across the other for fluid
movement.
Biomechanists have been studying ways in which forces generated
in one muscle spread throughout the body as a result of all this
interconnectedness. In fact, your entire body is in a state of action
and reaction when you play, if only as a result of qualities of fascia.
Though the science behind this is beyond the scope of this short
treatise, keep this in mind: Muscles are much more interconnected
than we Westerners, who can sometimes overly value the results of
exercises in dividing and categorizing, have realized. The upper
body muscles influence those of the extremities and vice versa, at
least because of the way fascia interconnect them.
Problems with fascia can often be solved through stretching,

massage, targeted icing, and other means that your trusted healing
professional might suggest for you. It seems highly unlikely, though,
that a type of tissue found in every square inch of your body
wouldn't have an effect on the quality of your movement at the
piano (as well as in general) if it has become hard and inflexible.
Tightness in one area of your body can have a surprising impact on
your flexibility and ease of motion in another.
Before we discuss the topic of strength in piano playing, let's do the
Owning your Muscles Meditation

If you felt at all impatient with this exercise of running through all
those muscles, perhaps it is because you cleverly intuited that
intellectual knowledge of them, in and of itself, is not going to help
you play the piano better. We did in this process, however, offer you
ample support for the metaphor of the upper body as a crane that
continuously repositions your hands for the task at hand. That is
arguably the primary evolutionary job of this structure, at the piano

as elsewhere. Therefore it seems strange not to pay attention to the
quality of its contribution if you are a pianist, no?--and anatomy
provides the language for speaking about it.
The crane, however, requires an operator, and that operator is
ultimately a set of scripts committed to memory on a subconscious
level. To change the way you play you will quite likely need to
change those. The type of awareness that will allow you to do that
goes deeper than intellectual knowledge, taking time and the right
quality of attention to cultivate.
To help you begin to create this awareness we now present a
meditation (or reflective exercise if you prefer) that's not about
changing anything just yet, but simply about replacing any naive
subconscious understanding that the visible fingers play the piano
with a richer, more naturally fertile one. If you don't like the idea of
doing a meditation (or for that matter a reflective exercise), please
feel free to skip this part. However, do palpate the bones and, for
the parts you can't palpate, imagine their positions in your body.
Imagine tendons morphing into their nooks and crannies. Imagine

the joints, and their locations in your own body. Try moving your
scapula with the shoulder joint simply coming along. Try moving
your shoulder with your scapula fixed. Try stuff and see what you
get. (If you do all of this carefully, undistracted by random thoughts,
you may very well change the balance among the different
brainwaves to approximate the kind of awareness that
characterizes meditation—I'm just sayin'!) When you're done skip
ahead to part III.
To meditate is to enter a state characterized by the presence of
different brain waves than you have in normal waking
consciousness. Our particular meditation is based on one
developed by Joe Dispenza. Dispenza writes of his own beginners'
meditation,
The cerebellum plays a role in proprioception (awareness of
how our bodies are positioned in space). So in this induction,
as you rest your awareness on different parts of your body in
space and the space around your body in space, you’re using
your cerebellum to perform this function. And since the
cerebellum is the seat of the subconscious mind, as you

place your consciousness on where your body is oriented in
space, you access your subconscious and bypass the
thinking brain (Dispenza, p. 233).
Besides being tailor-made for our project because of its orientation

toward proprioceptive awareness, I think Dispenza's approach will
help you get into the ideal brain state more quickly if you aren’t
used to meditating. Sound like it's worth a try?
You're still here, good. But before we start, there is something
extremely important about this process that you must understand.
Do not, under any circumstances, try to fix anything about your
body during this meditation. Trying to change the way you carry
your upper body could really backfire for reasons we will touch upon
in the next section. Your goal is simply to expand your awareness of
your own upper body, as it currently is. If you find yourself tensing
during the meditation, simply stop and possibly prepare yourself to
try another day while assuring yourself that you won't be trying to
change anything.
I suggest that you make a recording for yourself based on the

following outline. Talk really slowly, it's not a race. Leave plenty of
pauses in between phrases and sentences, wherever you feel it
would help you settle into a state of awareness of your inner body.
There is nothing sacrosanct about the outline. You can use it
exactly as it is and you can embellish it in any way you like.
Ultimately, this is an exercise in correcting unhelpful perceptions
about yourself with respect to playing the piano—so create a
meditation based on the outline that you feel will help you do that.
When you have your recording, have a look at the bone illustrations
scattered throughout this book: scapula, clavicle, and humerus.
Take them in. Palpate the bones. The following illustration of the left
scapula is specifically used in the meditation script at “*,” so be
ready with it. Then read the script and make sure you will
understand what is asked of you.
Now you are ready to find a place where you can sit comfortably
without being distracted. Relax, wear comfortable clothing, maybe
burn some incense—whatever it takes to have a nice time and get
Left scapula, lateral view →
the scapula actually has many more named parts than are
given in this illustration, just so you know. Aren't you glad you
won't need to recite them for anyone? For people less
fortunate, though, the names generally follow rhyme and
reason.
you out of a stressful mindset. You are inviting a

premise for a new understanding of yourself, a
step toward actualizing your vision of yourself as a
wonderful pianist!
The Meditation Script
Close your eyes. Feel your head as a volume. Can you become aware
of this volume in space. Can you be aware of the vastness of this
space. [Tip: if any thought pushes aside this awareness of your head
as a volume in space, see if you can become the observer of that
thought and let it float away. You can also explode it, not because you
are rejecting the part of you the thought reflects but because this is
your time to do this meditation without interference.]
Now become aware of your shoulder as a volume. Can you become
aware of the humerus as a volume in space. Can you move to your
other humerus. And notice the way it occupies space, all the way
down its shaft. Sense its nooks and crannies where tendons morph
into bone. Each in its own special place. All perfectly capable of
working together with complete ease. A mapmaker created the illusion
that they are separate but they are not.
Imagine the image* of the left shoulder joint. Rotate it so it becomes
your own left shoulder. Be aware of it in space. Become aware of the
coracoid process toward the front. The acromion process toward the
back.
Run your fingers along the top side of your clavicle. Up a slight slope
to meet the acromion. Find the joint. No hurry. Sense it in space. Find
the coracoid process further to the front. It sits a little lower. You are
too amazing to be in a hurry. Move your scapula up and down and let
your shoulder joint move. Move your scapula back and forth and let it
move. The two processes nestling the humerus. The clavicle a strut
that spreads the scapula away from the center of the body, at the
acromion. All of this to create perfect freedom and mobility for the
humerus.
Two ligaments are there to suspend the scapula from the clavicle. Can
you become aware of the clavicle crossing above the scapula.
How large is the scapula on your left side. On your right. The space in
between. They are made for your perfect freedom. It is okay if this
part of you is not free right now, you have a will to invest in freeing it
when you are ready.
Can you become aware of tendons, morphing into the coracoid
process. All their muscles get your hands where you need them. A
perfect team. Can you be aware of the space they occupy?
The scapula has a spine. Palpate the spine if you can. Can you
become aware of tendons attaching to the spine of the scapula.
Tendons pulled by muscles. Muscles that help get your hands where
you need them.
Abduct your arm a tiny bit, let it--just--flop back down. Flex your arm a
tiny bit, let it flop back down. Extend your arm toward the back a tiny
little bit, let it flop back. Always flopping back down at the end, learning
how to release.
The shoulder blade has a larger hollow on its backside. Three
tendons attach at the edge closest to the spine. Each one connects to
a muscle. The muscles are a team. Working according to their
understanding. They can release when they are not needed, until the
next time. They just need to know that's their job.
Two muscles attach on the underside of your scapula. One on top of
the other. Can you become aware of them and the space they occupy.
Be aware of your back, a volume in space. Many muscles here serve
your hands, to get them where you need them. Some big powerful
muscles. They can tune into your wish. They are not in competition
with other muscles. If they are doing too much, that's their education.
They are there to make their best contribution to the team. They can
act, then rest. Act, then rest. Act, then rest. . .
The greatest realization you could have as a result of this exercise

is that your body is tremendously resourceful. (If you failed to
become completely awestruck by your own body after this
meditation, just spend some time reading a biomechanics
textbook.) If it is your will to marshal its resources for playing the
piano, that is truly your right and prerogative, and may you stop
listening to any voices that tell you otherwise! So that this
realization may have an opportunity to sink down and be
transformative, I recommend that you either do this meditation more
than once, or find some alternative way of deeply absorbing this
information.
If you wish, you can enrich the meditation over time by attaching
muscles to the tendons of this first version. To increase the
accuracy of your self-perception, though, you will have to use
sources outside of this ebook that offer more illustrations, as well as
more detailed information about muscular “attachments.” (In spite of
its sometimes cringeworthy misinformation I don’t think you will go
terribly wrong using Wikipedia for basic descriptive anatomical
information.) You could also imagine shortening the fibers of each of
the muscles, then feel or imagine the outcome within your own
body.
Enjoy this process of increasing your awareness of all these parts
that you would like to have working together as single-minded
intelligence, positioning and repositioning your hands at the piano
with the greatest of ease. If you don't fall into a state of rapturous
self-admiration as a result of your reflections, I don't know what to
tell you....
A Path to Flow
We pride ourselves on our conscious mind, yet

due to our unconsciously learned habits most
of us have far less choice than we believe.
- Missy Vineyard
Psychologists have identified a quality of human enterprise that

they have fittingly named “flow.” To play the piano with flow is to
play with the wind behind your sails, with joy and a sense that you
are balanced on the wave of your human potential. The shoulder
girdle, too, has ideal contributions to make toward flow in any
activity that involves the hands. When its muscles engage in truly
necessary ways while steering clear of misinformed ones absorbed
from various sources, a pianist becomes more capable of flow.
If you have decided you'd like to see your upper body participating
in a flow of effortless playing instead of whatever it's been doing,
you face a challenge to be sure. This is because your body is all
caught up in its idea of what each and every muscle of the shoulder
girdle should be doing when you play, and you are likely to be
unconscious of its concept. The subconscious mind is by some
calculations 40,000 times greater than your conscious mind
(Lipton), and has a repertoire of sneaky ways of getting your
conscious mind to buzz off when you are contemplating change.
But don't be put off!--because it is your human inheritance to be
able to wrestle with your patterns of mind and win, without it even
taking an outlandish amount of time if you proceed with a good
plan. Neuroscientific evidence backs this statement: people do
manage to succeed in changing themselves in areas where they
are highly motivated, and if that area is piano for you right now, you
have nothing to fear but fear itself.
If your heart tugs at you to pursue a dream of playing beautifully,
consider for a moment that perhaps it is calling to you to evolve
your consciousness. To gain the ability to consciously transform
your subconscious, in whatever undertaking, is to take a large
evolutionary step with many consequences. Perhaps you, with your
piano in tow, find yourself beckoned by a frontier beyond the dull
security of things as they are. That is the frontier where tables are
turned, with you molding the contents and discontents of the
subconscious rather than letting it run your life.
To reliably transform your piano technique you
will have to create and recreate a new set of
motor memories with the intention of mapping

those into sound--according to an intelligent
scheme.
-TaubmanTechniqueDemystified
So you would like to replace tired muscular synergies with new vital
ones, and combine them with your musical passions to create
flow? Get ready to pull out a beautiful rainbow of fine internal
resources. Besides cultivating awareness of the body parts
involved (as in the meditation), you will require determination
greater than that of the subconscious mind to retain the habits to
which it is accustomed. You will need a solid plan where your
larger cognitive goal is broken down into discrete parts so that
new neural pathways can be built without confusion. An
overwhelmed subconscious will simply stick with what it already
knows. Sorry, but it's true. (Our school has worked for years on a
very effective plan. Please check it out if you feel so inclined.)
To overcome deeply held habits you will ...paying close attention is

also need a sense of purposeful essential to long-term plastic
intention, and for that it will help if you change....While you can learn
are convinced, both rationally and when you divide your
intuitively, of your course of action. This attention, divided attention
e-book's discourse on muscles was doesn't lead to abiding
meant to foster these resources by change in your brain maps.
convincing you that the upper body plays - Dr. Norman Doidge
a huge role in playing, whether you are
aware of that or not. You will also have to apply your attention to
highly specific sensations. You will need to register a mental
snapshot of any new sensation clearly enough to stick in your
memory, so that you can practice recreating it over and over until it
becomes automatic. This will probably involve a different style of
practicing than that to which you are accustomed.
As you work to stay on course, watch out! Because if you practice
replicating old sensations, the new ones will likely lose the battle
over pricey “cortical real estate.” To make it possible for those new,
highly specific sensations to gain ground in long-term memory, it will
be important to minimize interference Unlearning and weakening

from old movement patterns, which connections between neurons is
will take any opportunity to claim just as plastic a process, and just
squatting rights. as important, as learning and
strengthening them. .. evidence
Last, I don't think that these wonderfulsuggests that unlearning existing
resources will gain a toehold without memories is necessary to make
self-compassion. When you don't room for new memories in our
have compassion for yourself, it is networks.
-Dr. Norman Doidge
difficult if not impossible to occupy the
present moment, that place that
patience inhabits. And make no mistake, the game of
reprogramming your internal movement scripts is a game of
patience. If you can't wait to be in that moment in time where you've
surpassed your current self, it will be very hard to summon the bevy
of resources whose bedrock is patience.
To tie this all together, to change your playing you will have to
create and recreate a new set of sensory-motor memories that you
are also striving to associate with sounds and sound qualities. By
reproducing the desirable sensations

Practicing a new skill,
through practice, you cause neurons to
under the right conditions,
repeatedly fire and wire together to form can change hundreds of
new muscular behaviors. You will need to millions and possibly
reinforce those new patterns until they are billions of the connections
strong enough to buy out the reluctant between the nerve cells in
former owners of the involved cortical real our brain maps.
estate. Furthermore, for the process to - Dr. Norman Doidge
work you need to create a series of
sufficiently sharp mental images of coordinations that you will then
practice into long-term memory. If you practice replicating
something that is fuzzy and confused, you could very well be
wasting your time. Garbage in, garbage out, as programmers say!
So, if you've hit a brick wall with your playing and you're determined
to get past it, you can definitely be successful but it's important that
you understand how human beings manage such things. Please,
work on forming a new understanding of what it means to practice
efficiently. Changing the way you move is actually an act of
profound creativity in and of itself, and for that kind of creativity you
will require all those amazing

Emotions affect muscles and
resources we've been discussing. For your nervous system's ability
an adult wishing to move beyond to control them--not to
automatic movement behaviors, they mention your capacity for
are the path to flow. attention. Though we are not
psychologists and don't do
So as to focus your sense of intention
psychological work, as
with respect to the upper body, let's generalists we maintain that
look to the burgeoning field of it's advantageous for you to be
biomechanics research for some aware of the big picture,
insight and inspiration. which includes the emotions.
Coordination 001
How the muscle actions and body segment

motions are timed in a human movement is
usually referred to as coordination.

– Biomechanics textbook
It was still the nineteen twenties when Otto Ortmann constructed
his ingenious mechanical apparatuses with which he accumulated
data about how the most virtuosic pianists use their bodies. He
theorized from this data, and from innumerable conversations with
colleagues at the medical school adjoining the conservatory where
he taught, that the most highly coordinated players exquisitely time
muscular contractions and releases to play well without getting
fatigued. And—well darn!--isn't that just what biomechanists, with all
kinds of imaging technologies and cleverly designed study results
now at their disposal, are saying about the nature of motor skill in
general?
It is a basic biomechanical principle that high-force tasks require
activating multiple muscles simultaneously to get the benefit of their
accumulated effort, as well as the stability necessary for balance.
On the other hand, for low-force tasks that are more about
accuracy and speed, sequential muscular activation is key. Where

does piano playing fall in the continuum between high- and low-
force tasks? If you consider that it takes a pile of ten to fifteen
nickels to depress a single piano key, you will see that the force
requirements for playing are very small. Piano playing is a skill that
requires a lot of finesse and very little strength.
To play the piano in a coordinated fashion, one muscle must pass
the responsibility for a motor task to the next at just the right
moment, while you hopefully maintain qualities of posture and
alignment that allow all other body segments to remain as
uninvolved as possible. To do otherwise is to misuse one's body (as
the Alexander School would put it), and misuse carries a price tag
that you may be familiar with! The muscles available to participate
extend into the torso and beyond, especially when you consider that
fascia routinely transfers force even into distant body parts.
Muscles normally act in short bursts to
produce torques that are precisely
coordinated to Dorothy Taubman was influenced by Ortmann's

work when she began to come up with her
complement the particular approach to “coordinate (pronounced
'co-ordinet') playing.” Though in this author's
effects of torques years of being instructed in this technique she
never once heard the phrase “timing of muscle
created by forces at actions” or an equivalent, the importance of this
concept was expressed, she currently thinks, by
the joints. the mandate to relax certain muscle groups.
Those muscles being told to relax are highly
unlikely to remain relaxed throughout playing!
– same biomechanics When they are being used appropriately the
exertion is so minimal and well timed that they
textbook don't trigger the teacher's radar, and with a good
sense of intention that can be the ticket to a new
The image and principle of stage of improved timing. Of course students then
short bursts is very useful for sometimes play with too much relaxation and the
instruction has to move in the opposite direction.
filling in the holes of an For such refined coordinations as the piano
otherwise detailed learning requires, it isn't a surprise that there has to be a
plan. Though the principle isn't certain amount of back and forth.
a be-all-and-end-all for (In our opinion, it is advantageous to specifically
technical development, I don't talk about timings so that students can clarify
movement intentions.)
Each muscle involved in a coordination

spends time in the “on” position and the
“off” position. For playing the piano, it is
best for most to be in the off position at any
given moment, and that means you need to
learn to release if that isn't already part of
your movement vocabulary.
When muscular fibers are in the “on”
position, it's also best, for playing the piano,
that the “dial” of each muscle's potential be
turned minimally, like the graphic indicates.
Just bear in mind that the body sometimes has
to understand the components of a coordination with large movements before it
can make its way to equivalent but tiny ones. (Recall the path from working
with finger paints to using a fine Windsor and Newton detail brush....)
think you can have fine technique without awareness of it.

Biomechanists also tell us that high-accuracy, low-strength tasks
(like playing the piano) call for less range of motion from any of the
participating levers (as the traditional Taubman approach conveys
well). For example, it is very easy (as long as your upper body isn't
frozen) for your upper arm to bring your pinky toward a note it
needs to play while keeping the hand and arm “straight with each
other,” but it really strains involved muscles to twist at the wrist in
order to reach that key. The latter muscles have inadequate range
of motion for that purpose. Choosing the right lever for the right
task, moment by moment, is a significant part of the extraordinary
technique equation.
Now you know, hopefully beyond a doubt, that the upper body is
going to play some role or other in playing the piano. If you are
unhappy with your technique you now know that it would probably
be a good idea to give the upper body careful consideration, even if
an otherwise wonderful teacher left you with the impression that it
didn't require your attention by never mentioning it. We have also
submitted for your consideration that, whatever the upper body
happens to be doing that gets in the way of your technique, you can
fix it with that rainbow of excellent personal resources just waiting to
be trained on something you care about deeply: accurate body
awareness, determination, a worthwhile game plan that breaks the
relearning process down as much as possible, purposeful intention,

conviction, attention to internal sensations, minimal interference
from previously learned muscle patterns, and self-compassion.
To Align or Not to Align

The shoulder girdle, as you now know, is made to be very loosely
connected to the thorax. Ideally it practically floats as it transports
your arms and hands here and there, quickly or slowly, with no
feeling of encumbrance whatsoever. Good vertical alignment of the
upper body will make this floating shoulder girdle possible, creating
considerable advantages for you as a pianist (as the Alexander
Technique school teaches). Why would that be?
Here's a partial answer. Remember how muscles get work done by
lengthening and shortening? That's how they shift the bones to
which their tendons attach. The moment some muscle fiber or fibers
change length, some bone moves, unless some other muscle steps
in to stabilize that bone by applying an equal torque (after
accounting for gravity and other natural forces that you are
hopefully allowing to do as much work for you as possible). Your
muscles across the board perform many stabilizing functions but
hopefully not in excess for the task at hand, because that wastes
energy and sets the muscles up for exhaustion. (Some “anti-gravity
muscles” at the body's core work to keep us upright, but we're
generally not talking about those here, nor about the thing known as
“normal muscle tone.”)
Now let's apply this idea to your body's general alignment. When
you stand or sit in a way that is not consonant with the construction
of your body, muscles that wouldn't ideally be engaged are. Once
one muscle is straining to counteract the effects of the
misalignments, others start jumping in to countermand the
imbalance that's been created, just so you can remain upright. After
a while you get used to the feeling of strain and develop a new
sense of normal. (Sometimes a person's sense of normal has
become so far off that professional assistance becomes necessary.)
The muscles that have jumped in no longer jump back out.
Multiple muscles can get recruited for this game and the complex
creates a braking force (think riding a bike uphill with the brakes on)
that will fight your piano playing. It will fight your ability to aim, and
your ability to get to far flung places on time. It will fight against
desired variations in tone, touch, and dynamics. Needless to say, it
will also fight your stamina for playing at length.
This last scapula illustration (posterior view) shows all the directions
in which various muscles are capable of pulling this bone, with
overactivity and overly prolonged activity creating strain. Clearly, the
potential for unnecessary strain in this part of the body for many
activities, including that of playing the piano, is great. Yet, we can
glean from the fact that there are pianists in the world who play
without strain, as well as from biomechanically based theories of
coordination, that strain in this part of the body (or for that matter,
any other) is unnecessary for playing the piano. The problem then
becomes one of how to go about changing movement patterns that
don't serve.
For slower tasks that don't require speed or range of motion you
might not be significantly hampered by strain in the upper body.
Slower, easier pieces at the piano might be quite possible for you,
though you might not find it possible to play as expressively as you

are able to feel and imagine. (“Bangy” sound is also a
consequence of stiffness in the body.) However, with
faster and more difficult pieces that require you to position
and reposition your hands at daunting rates of speed, the
story changes. For such pieces (and you know where your
own cut-off point is, beyond which playing becomes too
difficult with your current technique) the hard work
misalignment creates will be antithetical to the flow of
bodily movements transducing into sound. It will likely
interfere with your ability to play with the expression you
might wish. Indeed, it can bring your playing to a grinding
halt as your body tries to get you to assess and remedy its
situation.
The illustration shows centers of gravity for the head and
trunk. Note that these centers are not stacked vertically in
a well-aligned person who maintains a naturally curved
spine. However, if you have “mismapped” yourself with the
subconscious belief that the centers of gravity should
align vertically, this will influence your

“Contemporary neuroscientific
discoveries support the Alexander muscles to pull the head in a direction
Technique concept of that is not consonant with your body's
mismapping. Consider the construction. This is one form of
problem of phantom pain. “As head/torso misalignment, a downward-
phantoms show, we don't need a tilting head being another. Perhaps
body part or even pain receptors you will notice one of these tendencies
to feel pain. We need only a body
image, produced by our brain
in your own body, or something of a
maps.” different variety involving asymmetry.
- Dr. Norman Doidge, on theThe same sorts of dynamics that we
notice involving head and torso play
research of V. S. Ramachandran.
out with upper body alignments
generally. To get on the road to fixing all of this it would be nice to
have some insight into how we manage to develop these panoplies
of upper body problems, often well before there is age to blame.
Animals don't seem to. What's up with us?
Here is one possible explanation. Arguably we developed our
complex human brains largely to support a broadening range of
hand usages. (Wilson makes a compelling case for this in The

Hand). However, guided primarily by the highly evolved, cortical
part of our brain rather than the lower, instinctual brains that
animals have to perform their various activities, we fall into ruts of
misalignment. Your “lower brain”--that subconscious part that
performs so many processes on autopilot--doesn't have opinions
about newfangled coordinations you might happen to create. It isn't
wired to preempt your creations to enforce healthier ways of
moving. In addition, we all sponge up information about
coordination from people around us when we are very young, and
our subconscious minds simply hardwire these without analysis.*
If our higher brains (and the higher brains of those who surround us
at an impressionable age, arguably extending into prior
generations) are implicated in creating a mess, we now need the
higher brain to get us out. Insight in the higher brain becomes the
driver of change of that “lower” part (though it's kind of funny to call
it “lower,” given how mindboggling its abilities are) and that is one
*See Vineyard, Chapters 3 and 4. The insight that cortical misjudgments are possibly
responsible for basic alignment problems we come to develop are hers.
good reason for pianists to be reading books like this.

The types of misalignments we've been discussing can result from
incorrect beliefs you have about posture. If it was emphasized to
you as a child that good posture is important but military-style
posture was modeled, the belief you developed as a result could be
responsible for technical problems you might be experiencing.
There is also growing evidence that emotions have biochemical
correlates that affect muscular behavior in general. (There's another
subject with profound implications for pianists!--but that falls outside
of the scope of this little book.) Injuries can cause muscular
behaviors that influence your alignment if not remediated.
Misguided directives from well-meaning teachers can contribute to
inaccurate body maps, with sins of omission being possibly as
damaging as sins of commission. As previously mentioned, fasciae
will tighten as a result of injury as well as with age, and they are
finally being understood to play extremely important roles in
movement in general.
All of these alignment issues undoubtedly influence your general
use of your upper limbs, not excluding for playing the piano. Playing
does not fall into some special category falling outside of these
effects! Contrary to the still prevalent idea that truly dedicated
pianists will simply work through pain, or that musical talent is a
rarefied beyond-the-realm-of-the-body faculty that doesn't require
attending to overall function, good alignment will undoubtedly create
clearcut advantages for you as a pianist.
For some pianists tension becomes a problem only when they sit
down at the piano and form the intent to play. This is a different kind
of problem having to do with one's approach to the piano rather
than general habits of alignment. However, the two kinds of
problems, though different in terms of source, create the same
outcome of exhaustion through muscular misuse and overuse. To
boot, they readily combine for an extra measure of trouble.
Though poor alignment and poor piano technique can present as an
amalgam, separate solutions are probably necessary for each. Poor
alignment of the upper body requires solving a problem with the
body in general, whereas tensing the moment you sit down at the
piano may necessitate anything from tweaking your technique to

rehashing it outright.
The good news in all of this is that the body has many “degrees of
freedom” (see sidebar, p. 46) to play with. Because the upper body
is so rich in movement resources, it is possible to play very well
without every last part of your body behaving in some highly
specific way preordained by someone who doesn't live inside of it,
or out of a perfectionistic impulse on the pianist's part. By deeply
tuning into your own body, guided by a sensible (i.e., makes sense
to you) concept of what constitutes good coordination for the piano,
you can find that innate movement intelligence to which a
competent teacher can only serve as a humble guide. All the
information in this book is lovingly presented to help you do just
that.
The Almost End

Will the real deus ex machina stand up!
In this guide we have established for you what doctors and various
movement professionals understand: Your shoulder girdle behaves
like a crane, positioning and repositioning your hands and fingers all
day long, with you generally unaware of its contribution. It does this
at the piano as elsewhere, qualifying as a deus ex machina for
those would-be gods known as fingers.
But--should you be willing--the metaphor of deus ex machina can
take us beyond the mechanistic realm of bones and muscles, as
I've intimated throughout this guide, into an area that happens to be
one of intense scientific exploration right now. Neuroscientists,
physiologists, biochemists, motor control theorists, psychologists,
and other researchers understand much more about that crane
operator than they did even twenty or thirty years ago, with a tiny bit
of their insight inspiring section III of this book. Their discoveries
have been driving serviceable models on the basis of which
people's lives are being dramatically and wonderfully changed.

A construction manager would not choose as a crane operator a
person unfamiliar with the full range of the control panel, nepotism
notwithstanding. If you have determined to expand your internal
crane operator's range of operation, the science of neuroplasticity is
very encouraging that she can learn, and insightful as to how to
best teach her. Why would a pianist ignore those insights? For
inspiration, find some popular titles about neuroplasticity and
prepare to be amazed.
Fail to reprogram your operator and it doesn't
matter how sophisticated your awareness of
the crane.
I say “reprogram” because in this case you don't get a pick of
applicants, you get the operator you already have. The cranky one
with seemingly indelible habits who ignores dials and knobs she
doesn't understand. But why let that stop you? Have fun creating
the changes within yourself that lead to your goal. Find like-minded
friends, and consider hanging out less with people who douse your
fire. Plan to enjoy the process of installing that operator upgrade
that allows access to the whole control panel of that crane. How
cool would it be to know exactly which switch to pull, instantly, in
case of a sudden gust of wind?
Though the teaching approach at our school is influenced (but not
limited) by the work of Dorothy Taubman, we've made an effort to
create a non-partisan presentation of the upper body that
emphasizes general, scientifically supported information for any
pianist to use as he sees fit. Not that science knows everything, by
any means, or that it doesn't traffic in dogma more than most of us
might think. Nonetheless, as you carve a wise course for yourself
with the piano as elsewhere, be aware that current science provides
fantastic insight and encouragement well beyond what many
teachers are able to provide (or their teachers were able to provide
them). If you can use this information to help you start the process
of developing and trusting your insight into your own body, the
vision of your higher brain will more readily become intertwined with
the memory facilities of your amazing body.
Our greatest experts on the use of their own bodies (among them
pianists) have surely developed a level of trust in their body sense
that is enormous, and an indispensable part of their skill. That trust
is great enough to supersede for them any knowing that the great
masters of their respective disciplines have been able to articulate.
Could it be that your own body is worthy of that level of trust, and
that developing such trust belongs as an integral part of the
relearning process? Could it be that correcting mistaken self-
perceptions of various kinds will potentially change the flow of
information within your body to radically transform your playing?
Perhaps your desire to play the piano better is actually part of an
inner ploy to bridge the creative brilliance of your conscious brain
and the subconscious brilliance of your body. As you work toward
this be aware that the pursuit of your personal deus ex machina is a
sensitive process that, though informed by science, can go very far
beyond what science currently understands. Science, contrary to
our general image of it, understands only in a limited way, and can
be quite unwilling to grapple with phenomena that don't fit neatly
and conveniently with its most celebrated theories. Scientists
sometimes don't find it possible to come up with the experimental

conditions to pursue topics of interest, or the will to pursue topics
that might put them at odds with elites. I say all of this as a powerful
permission to use it on your own terms and not wait for its
confirmations concerning the many things it doesn't yet understand.
You will do well to cultivate your intuitive sense of your own body to
help you parse scientific, and pedagogical, information.
In the TTD online program, we teach coordination patterns to
students in pursuit of their own brilliance out of our belief that they
are not chasing a mirage. The patterns we teach are consonant
with Taubman's rotation patterns but also include ways for the
shoulder girdle to work in a “gait” with the whole of the upper limb.
Influenced by a variety of scientific discoveries, we have worked
tirelessly to get it all to make sense!—so that movement patterns
are more easily committed to muscle memory to become reliable
resources for tireless, musical playing. Please look for our online
course in early 2019, and for weekly blog posts about every
science-based thing we can think of that could have a salutary
influence on your playing.
If you liked the Pianist's Guide to the Upper

Body, please like us on Facebook!
And please feel free to tell your
friends!
Bibliography
Alexander, R. McNeill. The Human Machine: How the Body

Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
Butler, Sharon J.. Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and
other Repetitive Strain Injuries: a Self-Care Program.
Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 1996.
Church, Dawson. Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of
How Your Brain Creates Material Reality. Carlsbad,

California: Hay House, 2018.
Dispenza, Joe. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to
Lose Your Mind and Create a New One. Carlsbad,
California: Hay House, 2012.
Doidge, Norman. The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of
Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science.
New York: Penguin, 2007.
Drake, Richard L., Adam W. M. Mitchell, and Wayne Vogl.
Gray's Anatomy for Students. Philadelphia: Elsevier,
2005.
Drawsh.com.
Gerig, Reginald R.. Famous Pianists and Their Technique.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Knudson, Duane. Fundamentals of Biomechanics, second
ed.. New York: Springer, 2007.
Lipton, Bruce. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of
Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles. Santa Rosa,

California: Mountain of Love/Elite Books, 2005.
Mark, Thomas. What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the
Body. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2003.
Myers, Tom. Fascia. https://www.anatomytrains.com/fascia/
Ibid. “How Fascia Moves Webinar.” Available at
https://www.anatomytrains.com/product-
category/webinars/
Northrup, Christiane. “What is Muscle Fascia?”
https://www.drnorthrup.com/muscle-fascia/
Schumway-Cook, Anne, and Marjorie H. Woollacott. Motor
Control: Translating Research into Clinical Practice.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2007.
Vineyard, Missy. How You Stand, How You Move, How You
Live: Learning Alexander Technique to Explore your
Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery.
Boston: Da Capo, 2007.
Wikipedia.org. Pages consulted: “Biceps Bracchii Muscle,”

“Clavicle,” “Coracobrachialis Muscle,” “Degrees of
Freedom Problem,” “Deltoid Muscle,” “Humerus,”
“Levator Scapulae Muscle,” “Omohyoid Muscle,”
“Pectoralis Major Muscle,” “Pectoralis Minor Muscle,”
“Rhomboid Major Muscle,” “Rhomboid Minor Muscle,”
“Scapula,” “Serratus Anterior Muscle,” “Shoulder Girdle,”
“Shoulder Joint,” “Subclavius Muscle,” “Subscapularus
Muscle,” “Sternohyoid Muscle,” “Sternocleidomastoid
Muscle,” “Supraspinatus Muscle,” “Subclavius Muscle,”
“Supraspinatus Muscle,” “Teres Major Muscle,” “Teres
Minor Muscle,” “Trapezius Muscle.” All information
corroborated in Grey's Anatomy for Students and other
sources.
Wilson, Frank R. The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain,
Language, and Human Culture. New York: Random
House, 1998.
Illustration Credits
All anatomical illustrations and animations not specifically mentioned
below are from Wikipedia Commons.
p. 10: http://www.clker.com/clipart-crane.html
p. 14: this illustration is derived from Blausen.com staff (2014), "Medical
gallery of Blausen Medical 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2).
DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. The original is much
more beautiful than my Photoshopped version but its format wasn't quite
right for our purposes.
p. 24: listed source no longer available.
p. 38: based on an image by CC0 Creative Commons, Pixabay.com.
59-62: Background image of muscle meditation is based on a
photograph of the Lagoon Nebula, Hubblesite.org.
p. 75: based on an image from Pixabay.com
p. 81: centers of gravity illustration based on Vineyard, p. 32.
Illustrations on pp. 23 and 79 were created by the author from combined
public sources with reference to medical literature.

Back cover: image created from a photograph by Cory Woodward,
Unspash.com.

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Upper Body and Piano8

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© 2018 by Katherine Malyj Santiago, Ph.

D, under the auspices of

Muscles Muscles MUSCLES

The Upper Body: Deus Ex Machina?

As long as all of these truly remarkable coordinations between upper

you'll be better equipped to on many factors that include the

criticizes anatomy's basic suppositions about muscle function and

them (clavicle and scapula), in combination with a second set of

other in the body.

scapula as many of us may imagine, crosses above it as it

frontal thorax or even of the arm itself. The shoulder girdle

shoulder girdle, as you play. The following chart organizes those

Five Categories of Muscles at the Shoulder Girdle

Now we would like to focus the attention of

*scapula, posterior view

scientists in search of answers. Their elegant categories are based

Traditionally, anatomy offers two categories of movement at the

captions reflect), scientists have attempted to understand potential

That way, we have a solid foundation for fixing

rewire yourself for playing.

Moving on to that complex of muscles provided us to operate the

Having given the previously lowly scapula a well-deserved homage, let's

muscles mentioned on p. 20 for you to explore as your curiosity

The Rotator Cuff

The rotator cuff's contribution toward stabilizing the upper body is

need to become aware of the problem area as well as possible

Stabilizing in the upper body, while an indispensable

It's time for . . .

Three More Muscles

Two More Muscles that Attach to

Unlike any other muscle we have looked at so

These two muscles attach to the scapula at the

Six More Muscles that

Two Muscles that Attach the Clavicle to the

Four More Muscles that Attach

The subclavius is also

Com'on, just one more! Here's number 21.

Attached to the Humerus from

Two Muscle Caveats

infraspinatus). Similarly, muscles with multiple heads can have

less than outward for solutions to technical problems. There could

Now this is truly a fascinating statement. Anatomists had, over

seventies, have been told they should disregard anything in the

connective tissues, all made from

actually arise in part from fascia (as happens with

Fascia works with muscles, pulling on the tendons of contracting

Problems with fascia can often be solved through stretching,

Owning your Muscles Meditation

arguably the primary evolutionary job of this structure, at the piano

Imagine tendons morphing into their nooks and crannies. Imagine

cerebellum is the seat of the subconscious mind, as you

Besides being tailor-made for our project because of its orientation

I suggest that you make a recording for yourself based on the

you out of a stressful mindset. You are inviting a

The greatest realization you could have as a result of this exercise

We pride ourselves on our conscious mind, yet

Psychologists have identified a quality of human enterprise that

motor memories with the intention of mapping

To overcome deeply held habits you will ...paying close attention is

be important to minimize interference Unlearning and weakening

reproducing the desirable sensations

will require all those amazing

How the muscle actions and body segment

usually referred to as coordination.