Blog #18: Stability and Mobility — by Selma Gokcen

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Blog #18: Stability and Mobility — by Selma Gokcen

“Freedom, freedom, but with order.”
—Pablo Casals

In our work in the Alexander Technique, we teachers are constantly addressing the simultaneous need to stabilise and mobilise the body, to make sure the back remains firm and strong (but without stiffening), and the pelvis stable, all in order to move the arms and legs freely.

In my recent reading, I came across this little chart:

Foot — Stability
Ankle — Mobility
Knee — Stability
Hip — Mobility
Lumbar Spine — Stability
Thoracic Spine — Mobility
Scapula — Stability
Glenohumeral Joint — Mobility
Elbow — Stability

So what does this have to do with cello playing? Well, a fair bit! I’ll start from the bottom and work up, along the lines of how a tree grows, just because trees are a great example from Nature of both stability and mobility. Let’s talk about the seated cellist. We want the stability of well-planted feet, not curling toes and rising heels. But the ankles have to remain mobile and able to bear and execute shifts of weight as we bow out and back, shifting up and down with the left hand.

Knees and hips have an interesting relationship. The freedom and mobility in the hip joint breeds a knee that can stabilise the leg in two directions: up and out of the ankle and out and away from the hip. Like a suspension bridge, the two forces meet in the knee and create an oppositional pull which makes the leg a flexible but strong support for the entire body. In order for the hip to enjoy this degree of freedom, the pelvic structures have to be properly stabilised, with our weight both falling through (and lengthening up from) the sitting bones onto the chair, and not behind or forward of these bones. A helpful exercise in this regard is to practice sitting (using a bare wood stool) with only one ‘cheek’ on the chair and the other hanging off the chair, with the spine lengthening and the back widening. Then sit on the other ‘cheek’ and finally on both. The sense of the weight travelling through those bones is a reminder of the strength of these pelvic bones and for good reason. In sitting they have work to do to support the weight of the head and spine.

Now for our trunk. The spine is comprised of four curves for both mobility and stability: one at the neck (cervical); one at the top of the spine (thoracic); one at the lower spine (lumbar); and another at the sacrum. They are complimentary in/out curves that permit us to tolerate the minor impact of walking and also the high impact from running, high jumping and acrobatics. Many cellists are sadly out of tune with their curves. They stiffen in the cervical region, then either push out the thoracic curve or collapse in the lumbar spine. The Alexander work excels in honing our awareness of our spinal curves and learning to let them work for us; in the practice of letting go of a tight neck, we can recover the natural curves along the thoracic and lumbar spine.

And finally those all-important arms: a stable back with its natural curves permits the shoulder blade (scapula) and clavicle (collar bone) — sometimes referred to as the shoulder girdle—to rest upon the back. The shoulder girdle also provides a flexible structure for the arms to function freely. The forward-rolling or hunched shoulders of a cellist playing in thumb position will always contract and shorten the arms, providing nothing in the way of stability. Stiffening the shoulders in this way results in a ‘mistaken feeling’ of strength and firmness, but in fact the opposite is true. Playing in the upper positions then becomes hard work. Why not use the larger muscles of the back for the ‘heavy lifting ‘ leaving the hands to do the quick, dexterous movements they are designed for?

Freedom of movement is what we all want as players but we sometimes forget the necessary partner is stability, doing its job quietly, steadily and renewing itself if the proper conditions exist. The Alexander Technique can play an important role in helping cellists to learn how the twinned principles of stability and mobility are constantly interacting.

By Selma Gokcen|2022-04-04T13:55:09-04:00October 17th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Glenohumeral Joint, cello, shoulder girdle, stability, heavy lifting, cellobello, stable back, arms, hip, strong, legs, hunched shoulders, Thoracic Spine, acrobatics, joints, Alexander Technique, ankle, knee, Gokcen, cello playing, Lumbar spine, elbow, mobility, relationships, firm, pelvic structures, Selma, foot, shifting, principles of stability and mobility, Spine, freedom of movement, weight, Scapula, muscles|

About the Author: Selma Gokcen

Selma Gokcen, born in America of Turkish parentage, has received critical acclaim for her imaginative programming. Along with Bernard Greenhouse and Jonathan Kramer, she presented a programme at London’s South Bank Centre, in New York and at the Kennedy Center entitled Pablo Casals: Artist of Conscience, celebrating the life and music of the legendary cellist.

Ms. Gokcen has performed with L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Presidential Symphony in Ankara, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Aspen Philharmonia, among others. Her recital appearances have taken her to such cities as Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Palm Beach, Charleston, S.C., and to Belgium, Italy and Turkey. In South America, she has toured under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. She has concertized in Australia and New Zealand, and given master classes in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

In addition to solo appearances, she is an accomplished chamber musician and has participated in the Chamber Music West Festival in San Francisco, the Southeastern Music Festival, the Hindemith Festival in Oregon, and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

Ms. Gokcen holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts, as well as a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, William Lincer and Robert Mann. She was awarded a First Prize from the Geneva Conservatory of Music as a pupil of Guy Fallot, and also studied privately with Pierre Fournier. In 1999 she was chosen by one of Spain’s greatest composers, Xavier Montsalvatge, to record his complete works for cello. She has also recorded Songs and Dances in Switzerland for the Gallo label.

In 1988, Ms. Gokcen became interested in the Alexander Technique, prompted by a lifelong fascination with the roots of habits and the difficulties of modifying them. Students often entered her cello studio seeking changes but unable to resolve their problems.

Eventually her reading brought her to the Alexander Technique, a discipline described by its founder as “learning to do consciously what nature intended”. She came to London in 1994 and enrolled in a teacher training program at the Centre for the Alexander Technique.

Ms Gokcen was qualified as a fully-fledged teacher by the Society for Teachers of the Alexander Technique in 1998. In September 2000 she was appointed to the faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she is also a professor of cello. She works with string, wind and brass players, singers and composers. She also incorporates her Alexander Technique teaching as part of her cello studio.

The Alexander Technique embraces what is today called holistic thinking–an indivisibility of the mind-body connection and the awakening of awareness of what Alexander called the “use of the whole self”, which affects our functioning in all our activities, especially the highly complex skill of music-making. It is particularly useful in addressing breathing, coordination, and muscle tensions. Most importantly, the quality of attention developed through the practice of the Technique can transform a musician’s relationship with their instrument and their audience.

Selma Gokcen is also the co-founder and Co-Chair of the London Cello Society.