A 3 minute read

This post is all about the uniqueness of each persons’ approach to learning. To begin please submit your name below!

Every person’s approach to life is unique and personal and this makes learning an infinitely complex and chaotic process. No matter how we have been trained to do something, our way of carrying out an action will include idiosyncrasies driven by our individual differences in sensory and motor development. No two brains are the same and the brain is not a computer meant to be programmed.

No Copy/Paste

If you are lucky you may learn to swim using the Dolphin Method of Swimming, but unless you are a dolphin, you will actually swim using the Insert Your Name Method. Perhaps you were trained to jump in the school of Frog Technique, but since you aren't a frog, you will ultimately jump using the Insert Your Name Technique. Perhaps more relevant to my audience, if you are a pianist trained in Taubman Technique, you will actually play piano using your own distinctive Insert Your Name Technique - unless of course you happen to be Dorothy Taubman.

“All models are wrong, some are useful.”

-James Clear

Nuanced Habits

This might sound obvious, but even when we try our hardest to imitate someone else, our real life action will not be an exact match. It’s much like how the same outfit will never look the same on two different people. Striving to look like someone else is futile.

There’s high level of variability in the pianistic movement of forearm rotation. There are differences in the muscles involved as well as differences in the mobility of the shoulders and upper ribs. Other variables include the size and speed of the movement and the amount of differentiation in the wrist and fingers. Some people will call the final movement “wrist rotation” because the wrist also rotates during this movement. It’s really the same movement, regardless of what you call it.

Anatomically speaking, our bones are not identical and our connective tissue has varying degrees of plasticity. The final result of a movement is completely dependent on a person’s sense of proprioception and interoception - or in other words, their awareness and sensory perception.

A good educational method takes the individuality of our actions into account so that every person can develop their own way of succeeding at whatever it is they want to do. 

Teach the student first, the music second and the piano third.

- Frances Clark

Feldenkrais, Dalcroze, and Taubman, Oh my!

I’ve been asked on more than one occasion: “Feldenchrist - is that some sort of religious thing?” Reactions to the other modalities I bring into my teaching - Dalcroze Eurythmics and Taubman Technique - are not much better. I often see glazed eyes and concerned faces when I mention these modalities by name. (Side note: The Feldenkrais Method belongs in the category of “movement practice”; like pilates or tai-chi. Dalcroze is a method of music education, and Taubman is a school of piano technique.)

Unfortunately, words like “Feldenkrais” totally fail to communicate a method’s purpose in a fundamental way. To understand the meaning of something like "Feldenkrais", one needs to have met Moshe Feldenkrais. Since this isn’t possible, a practitioner of the method must translate; attempting to explain, often to a puzzled but curious audience, what the work is all about.

In contrast, to understand the Insert Your Name Method you simply need to look within. An inward focus is an essential part of growth and the cultivation of self-awareness is a key aim of the Feldenkrais Method. So, I think we need a new name that makes space for each persons’ unique experience!

Practice the Insert Your Name Method

Our actions will always be a result of our personalized, distinctive, and un-replicable style of moving through life.

I don't practice the Feldenkrais Method, I practice the Katie Method.

If you learn from me, you won’t practice the Katie Method, you will practice the Insert Your Name Method.

Looking for more?

☞ Join a movement class to get familiar with your unique approach to piano technique, posture, and performance!

☞ Read about Weird Bones on the PainScience.com blog.

☞ Learn more about movement re-training in the Quickstart Guide to Injury Recovery for Musicians.