Pattimeow
06-05-2004, 09:29 PM
Hi all,
Over on the CST list (Circular Strength Training) I was talking about how 5 minutes of CST movement after each meal felt silly to me. First of all I could not see any difference between exercise and movement, and if it wasn’t a good long at least 30 minute workout (to burn calories and such), then why even bother? Then Scott (CST coach) said this:
“Exercise and movement health are not synonymous (actually in the conventional fitness industry they’re often contradictory!). You need to clean the slate before beginning, and you need to do that incrementally. Movement health incrementally builds into “exercise” but in a way that is concrete, idiosyncratic and health-sustainable.”
As I thought on this I started to see an analogy that fit it perfectly! :D And it helped me to be able to separate movement from exercise, and yet connect them. I started thinking musically. <smile> That is what us musician’s do best. So –
A “movement” in music is any (contains any) of the principal divisions of a symphony, sonata or other composition (piece/song), such as:
a)tempo
b)rhythm
c)timbre/tone
d)melody
e)harmony
f)volume
g)consonance/dissonance
h)scales/time signatures/key signatures
i)accent/beat/meter
j)phrasing
k)chords/intervals
l)rests/the space between notes (brought to my attention as I forgot this one, LOL!)
Now in order to create a movement and thus a symphony, each one of these separate divisions I just listed must be learned. They must be learned separately. I could never have mastered them all at once, whew! It took me a lot of time to learn each one, how it worked, how to use it, etc. And I continue to build on them all the time. To try to create a symphony without this process, well, it would be impossible.
And a symphony by definition is:
A harmony of sounds, a harmony of any kind; and in music it is an extended composition in which there are movements related in subject, but varying in form and execution.
So I can very plainly see “movement through CST” as an analogy of the divisions contained in a “movement of music”. It is the “movement” that creates the “symphony” and not the opposite, just as it is the “movement” of CST that can create the “symphony” of my body flowing into “exercise” (symphonic movement) in the most harmonious fashion possible; True harmony.
As I mentioned I had forgotten to add “rests” into my list of divisions of musical movement. This is interesting as I used to be an exercise addict, and resting was unheard of, LOL! Scott brought it up by saying:
“Here’s one for you Patti: As you probably know, Claude Debussy said, “Music is the space between notes.” How would you describe this as it applies to your metaphor of symphonic movement?”
I thought on this and Maggi brought up the idea of “rests”. So I thought, since rests (written spaces where there is no sound in music) are a division of a movement of a symphony, resting is not only just as important as movement, it is a piece of it, and without it the movement is incomplete.
Scott replied, “You mean symphony in movement and nutrition involve Start, Stop, Wait?” :wink:
Connie had something to add to this too! She said, “You know what else? In pipe music if the rests/holds are not right the whole thing falls apart. We call it the train wreck. And get this – the hardest note to play in all of pipe music is the longest one. Everybody wants to shorten it and rush off to the next sparkly notes and it blows up the tune!” :shock:
Scott replied, “That’s funny Connie. People who cannot rest/recover properly in training, I call “train wrecks” too!
As we continued discussing “resting” in movement, Ann Margaret shared something that was just awesome! She said, “Okay you guys, I am going to push this music metaphor even further. The rests in music are not just silence in-between notes (although they are certainly that too); they are also breaths, both for the audience and the musician. They are also spaces that allow for a lot of drama and thought to occur. Rests are definitely rhythmic, but they also build tension in a piece and help its release; they suspend . . . and resolve; they float and diminish. Rests (breaths) create the structure of a piece as surely as all the other things Patti listed. But to borrow/adapt Scott’s phrase – “they breathe the music”.
Now think of this in terms of the discussion about tension. In the same way, breaths in-between/during movements aid in the release of tension, the evocation of emotions; movement creates the feeling of floating, that when ended, evokes the same contented sigh as the conclusion of a well played air or lament. And in the same way as the musician who does not breathe into a difficult passage experiences Connie’s train wreck, the mover who does not breathe into those areas of tension creates more tension and injury.”
Connie then replied: “This got me thinking about the impact of rest on performance. For dance music on the pipes, the “idiom” depends on tension vs. rest. Take a march, if the timing is right you start tapping your feet. Same with a jig, if the rhythm is there you start jigging. It’s not a jig, just a collection of notes, if the tension/release is out of whack.
Back in my linear dumbbell days I knew intellectually why we were not supposed to let momentum take over, but way back in the back of my head I was thinking, but it sure would be fun to swing…Yesterday at a traffic light I was doing Egyptian neck slides to the beat on the radio and boy was it different than in the ladies room at work with no music.”
I’m sure there is so much more that we can relate here, and I appreciated Scott’s, Connie’s, Maggi's, and Ann Margaret’s contributions. Exercise only as a form of burning calories or making muscle has now been wonderfully reframed for me. When I now do my 5 minutes of CST movement (which now holds much value to me), I feel I am contributing to something really wonderful within myself. And my only request is this: “Make ME a symphony”. Through CST movement (symphonic movement) I feel this happening.
Patti.
Over on the CST list (Circular Strength Training) I was talking about how 5 minutes of CST movement after each meal felt silly to me. First of all I could not see any difference between exercise and movement, and if it wasn’t a good long at least 30 minute workout (to burn calories and such), then why even bother? Then Scott (CST coach) said this:
“Exercise and movement health are not synonymous (actually in the conventional fitness industry they’re often contradictory!). You need to clean the slate before beginning, and you need to do that incrementally. Movement health incrementally builds into “exercise” but in a way that is concrete, idiosyncratic and health-sustainable.”
As I thought on this I started to see an analogy that fit it perfectly! :D And it helped me to be able to separate movement from exercise, and yet connect them. I started thinking musically. <smile> That is what us musician’s do best. So –
A “movement” in music is any (contains any) of the principal divisions of a symphony, sonata or other composition (piece/song), such as:
a)tempo
b)rhythm
c)timbre/tone
d)melody
e)harmony
f)volume
g)consonance/dissonance
h)scales/time signatures/key signatures
i)accent/beat/meter
j)phrasing
k)chords/intervals
l)rests/the space between notes (brought to my attention as I forgot this one, LOL!)
Now in order to create a movement and thus a symphony, each one of these separate divisions I just listed must be learned. They must be learned separately. I could never have mastered them all at once, whew! It took me a lot of time to learn each one, how it worked, how to use it, etc. And I continue to build on them all the time. To try to create a symphony without this process, well, it would be impossible.
And a symphony by definition is:
A harmony of sounds, a harmony of any kind; and in music it is an extended composition in which there are movements related in subject, but varying in form and execution.
So I can very plainly see “movement through CST” as an analogy of the divisions contained in a “movement of music”. It is the “movement” that creates the “symphony” and not the opposite, just as it is the “movement” of CST that can create the “symphony” of my body flowing into “exercise” (symphonic movement) in the most harmonious fashion possible; True harmony.
As I mentioned I had forgotten to add “rests” into my list of divisions of musical movement. This is interesting as I used to be an exercise addict, and resting was unheard of, LOL! Scott brought it up by saying:
“Here’s one for you Patti: As you probably know, Claude Debussy said, “Music is the space between notes.” How would you describe this as it applies to your metaphor of symphonic movement?”
I thought on this and Maggi brought up the idea of “rests”. So I thought, since rests (written spaces where there is no sound in music) are a division of a movement of a symphony, resting is not only just as important as movement, it is a piece of it, and without it the movement is incomplete.
Scott replied, “You mean symphony in movement and nutrition involve Start, Stop, Wait?” :wink:
Connie had something to add to this too! She said, “You know what else? In pipe music if the rests/holds are not right the whole thing falls apart. We call it the train wreck. And get this – the hardest note to play in all of pipe music is the longest one. Everybody wants to shorten it and rush off to the next sparkly notes and it blows up the tune!” :shock:
Scott replied, “That’s funny Connie. People who cannot rest/recover properly in training, I call “train wrecks” too!
As we continued discussing “resting” in movement, Ann Margaret shared something that was just awesome! She said, “Okay you guys, I am going to push this music metaphor even further. The rests in music are not just silence in-between notes (although they are certainly that too); they are also breaths, both for the audience and the musician. They are also spaces that allow for a lot of drama and thought to occur. Rests are definitely rhythmic, but they also build tension in a piece and help its release; they suspend . . . and resolve; they float and diminish. Rests (breaths) create the structure of a piece as surely as all the other things Patti listed. But to borrow/adapt Scott’s phrase – “they breathe the music”.
Now think of this in terms of the discussion about tension. In the same way, breaths in-between/during movements aid in the release of tension, the evocation of emotions; movement creates the feeling of floating, that when ended, evokes the same contented sigh as the conclusion of a well played air or lament. And in the same way as the musician who does not breathe into a difficult passage experiences Connie’s train wreck, the mover who does not breathe into those areas of tension creates more tension and injury.”
Connie then replied: “This got me thinking about the impact of rest on performance. For dance music on the pipes, the “idiom” depends on tension vs. rest. Take a march, if the timing is right you start tapping your feet. Same with a jig, if the rhythm is there you start jigging. It’s not a jig, just a collection of notes, if the tension/release is out of whack.
Back in my linear dumbbell days I knew intellectually why we were not supposed to let momentum take over, but way back in the back of my head I was thinking, but it sure would be fun to swing…Yesterday at a traffic light I was doing Egyptian neck slides to the beat on the radio and boy was it different than in the ladies room at work with no music.”
I’m sure there is so much more that we can relate here, and I appreciated Scott’s, Connie’s, Maggi's, and Ann Margaret’s contributions. Exercise only as a form of burning calories or making muscle has now been wonderfully reframed for me. When I now do my 5 minutes of CST movement (which now holds much value to me), I feel I am contributing to something really wonderful within myself. And my only request is this: “Make ME a symphony”. Through CST movement (symphonic movement) I feel this happening.
Patti.