Freedom to Play: A Recovery Path for the Musician
by Krista DeBolt, Orchestra Directory & Teacher
String players have a culture of expecting and accepting pain. We know it is coming as we watch our friends, colleagues, and students deal with carpal tunnel, tendonitis, shoulder/neck pain, rotator cuff tears, surgery… we wait for it and think I’m glad I’m not there yet. Some of us even wear it as a kind of badge of honor.
We start kids off very young with the idea that accepting pain is part of it and a necessary sacrifice to playing well and being a part of the amazing world called orchestra. Together we reach great heights, descend into terror, and reflect emotions of uncertainty, kindness, tenderness, love, hate, loyalty, bravery, and everything in between through our music. We are together in our shared love of the power of musical thought.
We stand alone when it comes to pain in ourselves.
I am guilty; I have taught beginning strings classes at our elementary schools for the last 23 years. We start strings students in 4th grade with the violins/violas up on the shoulder with shoulder rests. Every year as soon as we get kids up there I have several complaining, “It hurts my neck, my shoulders hurt, my arm hurts…” I would respond with, “Its ok, you will get used to it.” The message being; play through the hurt – that’s what we all do.
With Dr. Teagle’s direction and advice I feel we have found a much better way to step back and tell kids we will be training those muscles how to get stronger as well as teaching them to recover.
There is a better way and a path to playing string instruments with freedom and the ability to move and it can be taught.
Once I started teaching recovery movements along with the instrument technique I have stopped hearing kids say their neck hurt or their shoulder hurts – instead they are saying can we recover? Can you help me with my shoulder? Can you help me with my fingers? The recovery system can become a part of who we are as string players and musicians. Dr. Teagle has taught us that—and we are in it together.
My middle and high school orchestras have always been told at festivals by judges that we are too stiff, I was told the same thing with my conducting. I tried many different ways to “fix” the problem and got advice from others but did not make a lot of headway.
We have been working with Dr. Teagle doing “recovery movements” daily in class. All of the sudden, we got comments from several judges about how well the kids are moving, their sounds is more full and rich, and my conducting is fluid and showing phrasing and musical ideas which I have never been able to accomplish. This is all due to unlocking our bodies and allowing them to move—the work we have done daily with recovery is showing up in performance!
My students 4th grade through high school have fun with daily recovery movements, are doing them in class, at home, and at lessons, and they ask for them. We are developing a culture of helping and encouraging each other through this and they are more open in all areas, musically and personally.