Overview of DVD

Pianists of all ages and levels are often frustrated and even tragically hindered by discomfort, pain, and injury related to piano playing. Widely misperceived as unavoidable occupational hazards, these problems often result from accumulated muscle tension, structural imbalance, skeletal misalignment, and misunderstanding of basic biomechanics. Rather than soaring freely, the pianist’s musicality is often a songbird caged inside the body.   Barbara Lister-Sink, internationally recognized pioneer in teaching injury-preventive technique, draws inspiration from the superb technical example of such giants as Arthur Rubinstein, and offers a new look into the heart of piano technique, using a scientifically and pedagogically sound approach.   Lister-Sink clearly defines piano technique as the most efficient, natural coordination of the whole body at the piano. With noted anatomist and movement educator Glenna Batson, internationally recognized Alexander Technique instructor, she shows how the body is designed to work best with the piano. Lister-Sink then demonstrates, explains, and corrects potentially obstructive habits by using her own concise step-by-step-approach for teaching keyboard technique, from the most basic movements and sensations to the most complex technical challenges. Using in-depth, slow-motion analysis of playing on all levels, she demonstrates how well-coordinated piano technique frees the pianist’s artistry from the cage of physical obstacles.

Further Clarification by Lister-Sink Since 1996

• The Lister-Sink Method is my own systematic approach to training good coordination. You will view my students in various stages of learning. While they all play with relative freedom, no one is a perfect example of the principles of good biomechanics, optimal skeletal alignment and efficient muscle use. Everyone is a “work in progress.”
• Many pianists have had to use the video’s contents instructionally in the absence of qualified instructors. However, good coordination at the piano ultimately requires hands-on instruction to learn its sensations–what we often cannot see–rather than movements we can see. In imitating a visual pattern without hands-on guidance, we risk misusing the body in yet another way. One can look beautifully coordinated while playing with unnecessary tension.
• The Basic StrokeTM may appear at first to be a stereotyped gesture. It serves more as what golfers call a “fundamental swing”–the foundational coordination upon which rests our entire approach to complex coordination. It is the “breathing mechanism” of the arm, and a particular approach to not accumulating arm tension.
• The initial steps outlined in the Basic StrokeTM are exercises to be mastered and integrated into the increasingly complex coordinations of playing. Certain movements may seem exaggerated in the early stages of training. Their training purpose is to trigger kinesthetic awareness and to develop muscle control and new patterns of coordination. Later, when applied to increasingly complex kinetic patterns in repertory, the movements and sensations become more complex and subtle.