Laurel Black Music

This essay is all about the muscles of the back, since we talked about the spine in my last segment.  Since I get to talk all about shoulders at PASIC (woohoo!!!) on Friday, I thought a good connection between spine structure and the shoulder joint would be about the muscles of the back that help to protect both. Though I've never experienced it severely first-hand, it seems like there is nothing worse than constant back pain.  Ask anyone who has dealt with it and they will say that you must  protect your back so you never  feel what they do.  Doctors warn their patients that once they have one surgery, chances are they will need more.  (This makes sense, as you can't fix one part of the long spinal structure without later needing to correct other areas.) There's good news, though: keeping the muscles of the back strong, and freely aligning the spine, can help us lead pain and surgery-free lives. Waterfall Muscles source source     It's beautiful the

There are songs written about seeing one's name in lights, but for a wordy nerd like me, there's nothing like seeing my name in print.  A few months ago Megan Arns , the editor of Rhythm! Scene asked if I would write a preview article for my PASIC masterclass called Shoulder Anatomy: Easing Pain and Furthering Technique through Body Mapping .   I think I was nodding my head "yes" before she even finished the question.   In case it's not obvious by the fact that I blog, I like to write. Specifically, I like to write about music, performance, health, philosophy, and how all of them come together into this experience of being a musical human. My article, "The Shoulder Bone's Connected to the..." outlines the basic ideas of my class, so if you aren't able to make it to PASIC, you can still get the gist of what I'll talk about. I created a video to accompany the article, and it's even embedded there, so all you have to do is pu