Backside

Earlier this week at the studio, I was observing a class.  For one drill on shime, they were lined up in a row facing away from me.  I spent about half the time watching their lower body and the other half
watching their hands in the mirror.

It's amazing how much I can tell about a person's chops from just watching their feet, knees, legs, hips, and the connection between them.  Every time I made an assumption from the lower body, it was confirmed it when I watched their hands - both the good tendencies and the bad.

Stiff legs and knees tend to also come with stiff shoulders and wrists.  Those who can "pulse" in sync with the accents tend to play those accents with less effort.  Feet planted flat often mean upper body motion takes more effort and is less natural.  I know there are a lot of different styles of playing, but I think there are a lot of things that are universal. Someone might be able to power fast patterns using muscle, but doing something doesn't necessary mean being efficient.

I know I just recently posted about lower body here, but since this just happened, I wanted to blog about it.  Just because we only see our hands when we play doesn't mean that what's going on under us doesn't play a huge role!