Lessons From Music

I am not a musician, but in search of ideas that might help me solidify my five ball juggle I spotted a book, "Mastering the Chopin Etudes" by Abby Whiteside (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York). Whiteside was evidently a very well known teacher of accomplished pianists. I had never thought about the similarities of juggling and piano playing before, but the parallels are evident in using the arms to produce rapid, intricate and precise movements of the hand.

Here are a few ideas from her foreword. According to Whiteside, the upper arms must run the show. The muscles which move the upper arm are in the torso and shoulder. All that the forearm, hand and fingers do are to function as bony, alert extensions of the upper arm whose power  they transmit. The student need not be concerned with the action of the wrist, hand or fingers. Nature - the instinctive coordination of the body - will provide whatever needs to be done.

She goes on to observe that there must be a physical basis not only for virtuosity, but for continuity and beauty in performance. She noticed that great artists did in fact reveal a gentle but continuous pushing of the muscles of the torso, which dominates the muscles of the upper arms. She began to call this coordination a basic rhythm.

Further, she wrote that the muscles which move the upper arm and forearm are much bigger and stronger than the muscles which move the fingers. The physical continuity which the upper arm exerts through its pull is not only the basis of speed without strain, it is also the essential physical counterpart of musical continuity - the continuity within the phrase and the phrase to phrase progression. Without this there can be no beauty in performance.

I don't pretend to understand precisely what Whiteside is trying to teach us. I suspect there may be a wealth of valuable information here for those jugglers who dig further. I can only say that since I have been working on using the muscles of my upper body more, I have made some very real improvements in all my juggling ­ including the five ball cascade!