“Body Mapping is work that you can do on your own once you understand what you’re doing, and I promise it will repay every minute you put into it.”
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— Barbara Conable,
MOVE HAPPY
Body Mapping
Dana Boyd, Licensed Body Mapping Educator
Why Body Mapping?
What is Body Mapping?
Body Mapping is a method, developed by teachers of the Alexander Technique, which aims to help you refine your ‘body map’, the neuronal representation of your body on the surface of your brain. Your body map determines the quality of your movement, and refining it through Body Mapping can make your movement more efficient, coordinated, and enjoyable.
By exploring your understanding and experience of your body, and comparing it to anatomical reality via images, anatomical models, and through palpation of your bony structures, you can return to moving the way you were designed to.
Many musicians have used Body Mapping to improve their movement and playing, and you can, too!
What can Body Mapping do for me?
In traditional music education, we are great at teaching musicality. We aren’t always so good at teaching the movements that lie at the heart of music-making. Most musicians will encounter issues due to this gap in their education, and find that their ease and performance improve quickly when movement is addressed directly and practically.
Body Mapping can help you find your own answers to the questions all musicians ask themselves:
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‘How can I sit and stand comfortably?’
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‘Why do my arms feel heavy when I play?’
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‘Why don’t I have enough breath to finish this phrase?’
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By teaching the student a method for comparing their current body map to the reality of their anatomical design, Body Mapping helps the student to become their own teacher. This means that by studying Body Mapping you will not just be learning to move better in the moment, you will be honing an investigatory process that you can apply by yourself long after your formal study has ended.
Who is Body Mapping for?
Body Mapping is for any musician, at any age or point in their career, who wants to live and play with more ease, efficiency, and freedom. If you are experiencing pain and/or injury related to playing your instrument, Body Mapping can be a great addition to your recovery plan.
Pain and injury are not, however, the only reasons to improve your movement. Many musicians experience technical and musical limitation without recognizing that the issue lies in faulty movement—Body Mapping can help you overcome these plateaus by helping to return your movement to its original concordance with the anatomical design of your body.