The Grand Horizontals - 2 - Glide Like A Classical Violinist
Ester Abrami Plays Paganini’s “Cantabile”
The Grand Horizonals - 2 - Glide Like A Classic Violinist
The “Fiddling Arms” Lesson for Connecting “Beauty Bones” to Shoulders and Hips
Is is a coincidence that so many classical violin soloists - many women at least - wear décolleté gowns? All that practice with arms raised seems to have the uniform benefit of creating elegantly horizontal clavicles.
It’s likely that professional women golfers also have fine clavicles; we might know if golf costumes were not so highly regulated. And the outfits that competitive equestrians tend to hide collar bones that must also rest horizontally across the front of the chest; to sit high on a horse requires an open chest, lifted ribs and dropped shoulders that “Grand Horizontals” require.
“Fiddling Arms” is a classic ATM that shows up in many series. I recently encountered it in Paris Kern’s “Riding with the Whole Self” program. It’s the first lesson in this weekend workshop, an interesting and informed choice for coordinating the hips and shoulders and finding length in the spine.
This is a side-lying lesson that is done mostly on one side with a short balancing sequence at the end. Have some support for your head - a folded towel is good; as the lesson progresses, you may need less support under your cheek.
“Fiddling Arms” aptly describes the lesson. Lying on your side with both knees pulled up and arms stretched forward, the top hand slides away and back to get the shoulder blades moving. The bottom shoulder gets a nice rolling massage, the top a great stretch. The spine gets a gentle twist.
The clavicles connect the arms to the breastbone, ribs and spine, and are the core to these gestures. Later, the arms and knees coordinate to synchronize the hip and shoulder joints. And, as it’s an ATM, there are a few brain-scrambling sequences where the shoulders, hips and head go in different directions.
For the Voice-O-Meter healing sound:
Stomach: HAWWWWWW - to release anxiety and ground
Science Nerd Candy Bowl: reviewing the shoulder girdle anatomy information from last week. The details become more interesting as your clavicle awareness increases:
Kinesiology of the Shoulder Girdle Animation: Sternoclavicular Joint Arthrokinematics: drawn animation, detailed but accessible (5:20).
Scapula and Clavicle - Shoulder Girdle - Anatomy Tutorial: (7:20) very detailed anatomy of collar bone and shoulder blade
The shoulder girdle, 3D Lyon: (2:30) detailed display of bones and joints of shoulder girdle (best prep for this lesson)
Arthrology of the acromioclavicular joint, 3D Lyon: (3:02) detailed breakdown of the connection of the collar bone and the shoulder blade
The Rotator Cuff: (9:02) a complete anatomical review of the bones, tendons and muscles of the rotator cuff, with basic info on rotator cuff injury
How you might feel after this lesson: Chest lifted and open; Breath deep; Shoulder blades resting quietly over the ribs, Neck released; Upper back flexible; Connected from pelvis to sternum, head to shoulders; Connected from hands to the support of the sternum and spine.
New Student Registration for the series. Continuing students use ongoing login.