Throughout history, professional musicians experience pain when singing or playing instruments (Fishbein et al., 1988). Research continues to indicate pain remains a problem amongst musicians. Musicians looking to solve performance-related pain have used a variety of solutions including somatic, or movement, study. One method of movement study, the only one specifically dedicated to musicians, is Body Mapping.
In this qualitative study I used an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis design to explore the experiences of beginning string students using lessons infused with Body Mapping (BMg) principles and students utilizing a more traditional method. The purpose of the study was to understand the ways in which lessons based on BMg principles might affect students’ lived experiences as they began to play a string instrument (violin, viola, cello), as opposed to those students whose lessons were more traditional, based on published beginning method books.
Two teachers and four sixth-grade beginning string classes at two schools participated in this study. Eleven students were selected for in-depth interviews about their experiences in beginning string class. The teachers utilized a traditional string method book Essential Elements for Strings 2000 (Gillespie, 2000) with both of their classes, but also incorporated a researcher-designed curriculum incorporating BMg principles with one of the classes. The researcher collected qualitative data through interviews and observations. Journals, completed by all students, provided both qualitative and quantitative data.
Both journal and chi square data indicated that students in the BMg classes felt the BMg lessons were helpful to learn about their body in movement. Qualitative data showed students retained and used anatomical words presented in the BMg lessons while the qualitative interviews of BMg students expressed greater awareness of how their bodies worked than students in the traditional classes. Teachers found the BMg principles to positively impact their classroom environments and student responses.
The BMg curriculum aided study participants in finding a common language with which to communicate about the body. Analysis of study participants’ lived experiences indicated that BMg made a positive difference in the early learning of string instruments. Results of this study suggest that it is important that a curriculum using BMg principles be further explored and implemented widely among string teachers as a means to prevent performance related pain and injury.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/44273 |
| Date | 21 April 2022 |
| Creators | Ross, Allison L. |
| Contributors | Palac, Judith |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0015 seconds