Author: seabreeze
Date: 2019-03-14 06:10
The author, Sheri Lynn Rolf, is a medical doctor with a residency in otolaryngology-head & neck injuries. She also has a masters degree in clarinet performance. I wonder how many doctors have gone back to grad school to earn a doctorate in applied music? I would imagine, not many.
Much of the dissertation is a presentation of anatomy without specific reference to the clarinet or clarinet playing. In those sections she uses the technical language of the anatomy book writers. But she can be perfectly plain and colloquial in describing key concepts such as in her definition of posture: "The human body is designed to move. Optimal posture is a continually moving target" (102). She makes it clear that "the rigid military posture . . . is an example of bad posture" (104).
The parts that would be of most interest to clarinetists are probably those devoted to ways to prevent postural problems and abnormalities from developing--techniques that include the Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, Pilates, Yoga, Rolfing, and Body Mapping as devised by cellist William Conable. She provides a photo of her hands holding a clarinet and shows the use of a Kooiman Maestro 2 Thumb Rest. The catalog of "what could go wrong" as a result of poor posture includes carpal tunnel, ulnar nerve entrapment, temporomandiblular joint dysfunction, thoratic outlet syndrome, focal dystonia, and a rare form of pneumonia.
Post Edited (2019-03-15 06:27)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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