Heads and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes….eyes and ears and mouth and nose…..

You probably know the funny action song that gets you bending from the waist as you do the actions. I learned it in the 1960’s in my teens. Perhaps you were more worldly wise than me, and learned it in the infants’ school!

As far as organ playing and pedalling is concerned, all named parts of the body in the song matter. The head should stay still, without bobbing up and down in time to the music or leaning forward to emphasise a strong beat. It is surprising how unconscious nodding or forward movements from head and chest affect practice and performance. Making too big an effort to put an accent on a particular note or notes has an unfortunate lunge, and may not be noticed by the player. Better to sit well and keep still.

Shoulders should be back, down, relaxed, not hunched up, easier said than done. A straight back with shoulders correctly placed means the arms can relax and let the fingers do their work. Tense shoulders leads to muscle stiffness in the arms, not helpful when playing any organ, especially tracker action instruments. Many people complain about such action being too heavy. Relax shoulders and arms, allow fingers to do the pushing, not the whole of you! That is tiring.

Pedalling styles cause controversy, do you use toes only, or heels and toes? Do you ever stop to think about what you do? A good rule of thumb is to use toes mostly and heels when needed. The four part chords in the G minor Prelude by Dupré would be impossible without special shoes to facilitate use of both heels and toes at the same time. The demisemiquavers in the pedal solo in Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C also benefit from heels otherwise the amount of foot crossing would be impossible. Ankles should be loose, the joint needs to work. Toes can go down faster than heels and can mean the difference between a pedal note sounding late or on time. Knees should be together. This will align hips and sitting bones together more efficiently and encourage one not to slouch, to sit more upright and therefore pedal better. Learn to swivel from left to right to find high or low notes. Fernando Germani famously tied his students’ knees together when doing pedal exercises. Yoga teachers use a soft belt or strap above the knees to encourage them to stay together for particular poses. Despite the apparent difference in application, knees together encourages effective efficient movement from the hip down to the ankle and toe. For the last word in pedalling, consult Anne Marsden Thomas’s comprehensive book on the subject. It contains every possible pedal exercise and lots of photos to show correct positions.

I was delighted, when watching a film about the late, great violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, to see that when he visited India, he met Ravi Shankar, learning about Indian Classical Music, especially the improvisatory work. Yehudi Menuhin also met AS Iyengar, founder of the popular Iyengar Method of Yoga, which focuses on correct body alignment. In the film he comments on how yoga practice helped his music making. I am glad not to be the only musician to have felt the same impact of yoga practice on music practice and performance.

Eyes, ears, mouth and nose? Ears should be always open when playing. Eyes on the music, unless playing from memory, mouth closed but not with clenched, tense jaw. Which leaves the nose. Noel Rawsthorne has been known to push a stop in with it…….

Marilyn Harper