Sitting Career Death! – Assoyez la fin de votre carrière!

 

Blogger statistics is showing my previous post on pains caused by posture at the computer desk seems very popular. And I had promised more information on what I have learned on what can ruin your ability to play any instrument… but also how to recover from these pains.	Les statistiques Blogger montrent un intérêt accru sur mon article concernant les maux causés par la posture assise à l’ordinateur. J’ai aussi promis de traiter ce qui finir votre pouvoir de jouer d’un instrument… mais aussi comment revenir de ces maux.
Disclaimer: I am not a health-care professional. Do not use the information in this or any other of my posts without consulting a professional in the medical field.	Désavoeu: Je ne suis pas un professionnel des soins de santé. Veuillez consulter un professionnel du domaine médical avant d’utiliser l’information contenu dans mes articles.
In a previous article, I showed how posture at the computer desk can cause the body serious harm. This post will examine more closely how sitting down most of the day can wreck your musical career….. but also how simple care can prevent this from ever happening. The following is an over-simplification to help understand how changes in posture due to life in the computer age can really harm the body. The damage can go unnoticed for years but it accumulates. A good physiotherapist can see it and show how to fix the trouble.	Dans un article précédent, j’ai montré comment la posture assise à l’ordinateur peut sérieusement nuire au corps. La présente examinera comment rester assis, pour la grande partie du jour, peut ruiner votre carrière musicale… mais aussi combien de simples précautions peuvent les prévenir. Ce qui suit est une sur-simplification pour aider à comprendre comment fonctionne le corps et comment des modifications de la posture résultants de l’âge informatique peuvent vraiment endommager le corps. Le dommage peut rester innaperçu mais s’accumule. Un bon physiothérapeute peut voir les signes coureurs et vous montrer comment réparer les problêmes.

Emmanuel Pahud is probably the most prolific flute soloist since Jean-Pierre Rampal and James Galloway. He plays in the Berlin Philharmonic with Hansjörg Schellenberger, principal oboist and also internationally acclaimed soloist.

Air is everything to woodwinds–posture is everything to air!

Emmanuel Pahud, sûrement le plus illustre flutiste depuis Jean-Pierre Rampal et James Galloway, joue dans la Philharmonie de Berlin avec Hansjörg Schellenberger, hautbois principal et soliste international.

In this video, they discuss together sound production and the importance of posture on the airstream. “Everything that involves [body] tension gets in the way of the air stream” – Pahud.

Dans cette vidéo, ils discutent la production sonore et l’importance de la posture sur le vent. “Tout ce qui apporte la tension [du corps] entrave le souffle” – Pahud (trad. libre)

When standing normally, the spine has a natural curve, but the overall effect is to keep the back straight. Many leg muscles have an effect on these. Muscles that lift the knees and pull back for walking are connected to the hips and spine. We are built to stand and walk, and so our muscles have a natural length.		Debout normalement, la colonne a une courbe naturelle, l’effet final étant un dos droit. Plusieurs muscles dans les jambes contribuent à cela.  Des muscles qui lèvent les genoux et tirent derrière pour marcher sont connectés aux haches et à la colonne. Nous sommes construits pour nous tenir debout et marcher, donnant ainsi aux muscles une longueur naturelle.
When we sit down, some muscles that normally pull when standing are now stretched and loose their pulling strength. Others are relaxed and literally shrink over time.		En nous assoyant, quelques muscles qui tirent lorsque debout sont étirés et perdent leur force. D’autres se détendent et rétrécissent avec le temsp.
As a result of this stretching and shrinkage, when we stand up again, the spine is not supported correctly and the pelvis is pulled forward by muscles now shortened. The opposite muscles are too relaxed to compensate which means the belly is rounded forward. Nerves exit the spine in the back, so the extra roundness causes compression on nerves. Over time, this irritates the nerves and can cause sever pain (e.g. sciatica) and loss of strength and muscular coordination. In fact, I started this investigation when I started loosing speed on the bicycle and tripping and falling when running to catch the bus… I was only 32 years old!		Par conséquent, lorsque nous nous redressons debout, la colonne n’est pas correctement soutenue et les hanches sont tirées vers l’avant par les muscles rétrécis.  Les muscles opposés, trop rallongés, font que le bedon courbe d’avantage. Des nerfs qui sortent de la colonne dans le bas du dos s’en voient comprimés. Avec le temps, les nerfs en sont irrités causant des douleurs intenses (p.ex. le sciatique) ainsi que de la perte de force et de coordination musculaire. En effet, j’ai commencé cette recherche après une perte de vitesse à vélo et m’enfargeant lorsque je courait pour ratrapper l’autobus… je n’avais que 32 ans!
The only way to repair this, the only thing to do is stretch the shortened muscles (some of them are in the back and behind the legs) and  strengthen the loosened muscles. My physiotherapist told me it would take (in my own personal case) 3-4 months of stretching exercises for the muscles to become capable of stretching! Otherwise, the only way to keep the back straight is to lean forward or walk with knees very bent (to angle the hips correctly). Of course, both are very tiring and can cause many other pains!		La seule façon de réparer est d’étirer les muscles rétrécis (quelques-uns sont dans le dos et en arrière des jambes) et renforcer les muscles détendus. Ma physiothérapeute m’a dit que ça prendrait (dans mon cas précis) de 3 à 4 mois d’étirement avant même que les muscles ne soient capables de s’étirer! Autrement, garder le dos droit veut dire soit me pencher vers l’avant ou me plier les genoux (pour angler le bassin correctement). Bien sûr, les deux options sont épuisants et causent d’autres douleurs!

Correct posture has an enormous impact on our musical breathing. There is a natural position for the arms with the shoulders resting backwards and downwards. This will cause the neck to be straight, the eyes high and the head high.		Une bonne posture a un impact majeur sur la respiration musicale. Les bras ont une position naturelle avec les épaules basses et vers l’arrière. Ceci favorise un cou droit avec les yeux et la tête haute.
Spending too much time with arms in front of the body (see here) can cause the back muscles to lengthen and the chest muscles to shrink. The head begins to look downward and this causes the back neck muscles to strain (ending in headaches!). Visibly, this constricts proper breathing and can lead to pain in the shoulders and neck.		Passer trop de temps avec les bras devant le corps (à lire) peut causer les muscles du dos à rallonger et ceux de la poitrine à rétrécir. La tête commence à baisser vers l’avant, causant ainsi une tension dans les msucles du cou (et des maux de tête!). Visiblement, ceci entrave la bonne respiration et fini en douleur dans les épaules et dans le cou.
Finally, shoulders are connected to the neck. The shoulders therefore have a big impact on tension headaches because neck muscles can cause compression on many nerves.		Enfin, les épaules sont reliées au cou. Par conséquent, les épaules jouent un rôle majeur dans les maux de tête puisque les muscles tirent sur le cou, comprimant ainsi plusieurs nerfs.
These nerves also control the arms and wrists. VERY often, pain in the wrists is actually caused by tilting the head and raising the left shoulder. These also cause a twist in the back that causes degeneration of the vertebrae. Resulting compression on lumbar nerves causes pain and bad coordination in the legs. I have pictures in my young 20s that essentially prophecy the headaches and arm troubles and leg pains I have today!		Les nerfs sortants du cou contrôllent aussi les bras et les mains. TRÈS souvent, la douleur ou la fatigue dans les poignets commencent par une tête inclinée et une épaule levée. Ces dernières causent aussi une torsion dans le milieu du dos qui accélère la dégénération vertébrale. La compression sur les nerfs lombaires causent des douleurs et mal-coordination des jambes. J’ai des photos de moi dans ma jeune 20e qui font prophécie des maux de tête et problèmes de bras et de jambes que je vis aujourd’hui!

Prevent the conditions from ever happening: Have-fun and enjoy what your body is capable of doing: do sports! This includes dancing and hiking-camping. Athletics are not barbarous murderers of the arts! I was very pleased that the gym at University of Ottawa attracts people both fat and fit and. People are encouraging and celebrate victories: a fat person who increases endurance by 5 minutes accomplished more than an athlete who lifts 100 pounds! Trainers are very eager to use their knowledge in human kinetics to help you become better musicians!		La Prévention vaut mieux que la guérison! Amusez-vous dans le plaisir de ce que le corps peut faire: faites du sport! Ceci inclus la danse et le plein-air. L’athlétisme n’est pas barbare meurtrier des arts! J’ai été ravi de voir au gymnase de l’Université d’Ottawa du monde de toutes tailles: tout le monde encourage tout le monde et on prend plaisir à la réussite de ses buts: une grosse personne qui augmente de 5 minutes son endurance a mieux réussi qu’un athlète qui lève 50kilos! Les entraîneurs sont éprouvent une grande lorsqu’ils appliquent leurs connaissances à vous aider à devenir de meilleurs musiciens!
What NOT to do: The “Roman Chair”, military sit-ups and such strengthen and shorten the muscles that caused the problem in the first place!		À ne PAS faire: Cet appareil et les redressements-assis de style militaire renforcent et raccourcissent les muscles qui ont causé le problème!

Reflections on Telemann – Home Acoustics

A week has passed now since I posted my recording of Telemann’s Sonata in A minor for oboe and I have received kind compliments, thank you so much!

After listening to it over and over again, there are a few remarks that should be made:

1. Obviously, I still need more stability, especially on that 1st octave-key E-natural. My dynamics are inhibiting the tuning, but they are supposed to help each other out. I hope that a few more months of practice will take care of that. Although the hot humid weather did affect my reed, I cannot blame it nor my Lorée as both were definitely good enough for the task.
2. There are some very strange sound effects happening – on my word, I did not tweak the oboe part with software! – and a little acoustic analysis might help explain them.
3. As for stability of rhythm… yep, needs work… let’s just not talk about it!

Interpretation style:

The original Ensemble Arion.

Over 15 years ago, I had the immense privilege of being taught by 2½ members (the 3rd was a coach at a master-class) of the Ensemble Arion: one of Canada’s most pioneering ensembles that really ushered-in baroque performance practice on replicas of period instruments. These remarkable musicians, extraordinary teachers passionate about their work and simply really fine people flourished into what is now the Arion Baroque Orchestra.

The Ensemble Arion practiced one type of baroque interpretation they retrieved from their research-teachers in Europe during the 1970-80’s (I think it was this time). They emphasise the discordant notes and the rhythms in motion rather than the destination/resolution notes. They once said in a master-class that Baroque music savours the musical journey whereas Romantic music must emphasise the ends of phrases because they’re glad it’s over! Yes, they got huge laughter and applause!   This is how I approached the first and last movements in the sonata. The two middle movements sort of told me how they wanted to be played.

Home Acoustics: be careful!

In the few weeks preceding this recording, I had found that playing in the dining area gave a more living sound than cooped-up in my dry muffled studio. In my first few recordings, where I placed the microphones adds buzz and makes the sound ridiculously bright. But I found that as long as I keep it beside me, one microphone pointing at me, the other one backwards, then the recorded sound is truthful. However, the dining area (open to the kitchen, the entrance, the living room and even to the floors above and below) has its own quirks.

1. In the 2nd movement (especially), there are really parts that sound like 2 oboes are playing in unison.
2. There are places I moved my body closer to and farther away from the microphone in order to emphasise crescendi and diminuendi…. this backfired making the fortes sound muffled and the dolces sound harsh.

For the double-sound, I really think it has to do with the echo and the double-microphone (stereo) used by my recording device. Possibly (but I’m not certain), when compressing the stereo oboe track into a mono track to have the piano sound more to the left and the oboe sound more to the right, the software I used might have accentuated that echo that I did not hear when plugging my head-set into the recording device directly.

The first image shows where I chose to set-up my recording device. It is to the side of the oboe with one microphone pointing backwards because experimentation showed that this prevents buzz and gets the most realistic sound from my instrument. The two other images show potential sources of echo where the 2 microphones might have actually bee recording different sources.

The issue of the dynamics is much easier to explain: the microphones were lying flat on a table and I was standing very close to that table:

1. We naturally want to move closer to the microphone to make fortes stronger and move away to soften dolces. But the top image shows that in my setup, the exact opposite happened: turning towards meant the table blocked a lot of the sound and turning away meant the entire room bounces even more sound to the microphone.
2. When breathing-in, fully using the diaphragm and abdomen makes my back bellows which naturally curves me downwards. So the most powerful fortes puts my bell below the table… crescendo broken!

There are other issues: the microphone too far adds buzz to the sound, but too close gives a stuffy sound with all the key-clicks and other sounds the audience should not hear. So more experimentation with home acoustics is definitely required!

Frankenstein's First Steps

Frankenstein's Monster was a living creature made from parts of dead people. That's what I felt like when I was able to start practising for real again. Sure, I had blown a few minutes every month or so; in fact, about 5 years ago I was able to do a whole summer with 2 hours a day of experimenting on reed shapes and scraping techniques. But that’s nothing like knowing that you can now do up to an hour or more each day and know that the hopes of becoming good again are no longer in vain!

But Frankenstein's monster had his own problems: despite his huge size and strength, he was also rather weak and helpless. His sense of balance was all wrong, his muscular coordination was shaky at best, the mobility of his joints was impeded by all the surgeries and his speech ability was pretty well non existent. This is pretty much how it is for me, having fibromyalgia and degenerative disc disorder. I remember everything I used to be able to do, I still aim for better, but there are days when I am just not physically able. And also like the monster, let's not beat around the bush, I have a tendency to say what I think in ways that can very well get people irked! This is actually made much worse on days when "fibro-fog" sets in or when pain makes me just plain grumpy and impatient.

The first thing you lose when you get tired is rhythm... or at least that's what they used to tell us at the university. I found that, for the oboe, the first thing you lose is your mouth: endurance along with intonation and dynamics! But strangely enough though, and I had noticed this when I took week-ends off at the Conservatoire, it seems that my tone quality gets better! I guess its the softer embouchure. Well, there might be hope for the monster: endurance is still very difficult for me, but I do seem to be able to play reasonably in tune now. My dynamic range seems alright, but recordings contradict each other depending on the equipment I use. Long tones do help, but with so little time to practice each day, I don't tend to favour them. They are also discouraging because the consistency of sound is more difficult with less practise. Strangely, practising scales and such seems to help with endurance too.

Rhythm is truly difficult, I don't mean patterns and speed, I mean evenness and consistency. I had a problem playing just before the beat even in the best of my days. I find that practising with a metronome is useless unless I record myself: then, I can more easily grasp where and how I'm speeding up or anticipating. It's almost always a function of fatigue: when I'm running out of air or when my gut support is starting to strain, then I speed up. I will anticipate the beats at the beginning of passages when my mouth is tired. Even after several bars of rest, when the lips are tired, I tend to rush the metronome.

Well, at least I know what to work at and there are no angry village mobs out to burn me alive (yet).... or at least I was able to evade those from the past! ;-)

Wake up from the dream….

That’s what it feels like to return to work after taking the week off between the holidays…

I got to blog a whole lot and I am REALLY grateful to all of you who have troubled yourselves to read it: I hope there was something useful or interesting in it for you. I’m certainly

Crowing and other reed tests.

not stopping, but it will slow down a bit.

But I could not slow down too fast. The Oboe BBoard just got a couple of really good posts on the subject of crowing reeds and tone production. One person has contributed valuable videos on the techniques associated with these. He looks young, but if you can grasp the importance of what he’s showing, you’ll find deep experience there!

What he shows is what I learned to do when I went from a 2nd class student to a sought player with reputation of playing well… if only I had listened to one of my profs. and taken up the Baroque Oboe instead of leaving the scene!!!!

Attack responsiveness and air support.

So I really encourage you to look at these. I’ll add a link to the whole discussion to the Threads Page too before next post. In the mean time, since I have to work at my day job now, I’ll favour practicing over blogging!

Again, may the joy of easy oboe playing bring beautiful sounds to your ears and lovely feelings to your soul!