FOR MUSICIANS, SINGERS & ACTORS
Your instrument is not the problem.
If you've spent years working on technique, tried physiotherapy, studied with master teachers — and the tension, the pain, or the inconsistency is still there — the problem may not be what you think it is. It may be how you are organized inside your own skin.
"I've worked with violinists, pianists, flautists, clarinetists, oboists, singers, and recorder players. In forty-five years I have never found a case where the instrument was at fault." — Stan Hobbs, SkinGuidance
CLARINET AND OBOE
The reed is not the problem either.
For several years I worked with the principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Every few weeks he would arrive having made the perfect reed. A few weeks later he would return dissatisfied with that same reed.
What we discovered together: each new reed required an adaptation of the lips — skinsense in action. The moment he stopped flexing and started holding, the reed became the problem. It never was.
The same is true of every reed instrument. The organized hand makes supporting the instrument effortless — and when the hand is organized, the whole upper shoulder girdle follows. What you transfer to the instrument changes entirely.
FLUTE
The forearms move the instrument. The head rotates to meet it.
The forearms move the flute away from the body — then as the instrument returns toward the lips the head rotates in sync, making the contact necessary to form the embouchure naturally. The head should not reach toward the instrument. The elbows adjust so the contact arrives on its own terms. And the embouchure itself: many players return to the same point every time. When practicing, alternate the embouchure between the sides of the mouth rather than always returning to the same fixed point. This simple variation keeps the lips responsive and adaptable — preventing the fixation that leads to inconsistency, tension, and strain. A fixed embouchure stops being a choice and becomes a habit. Rotating that contact point keeps it a skill. And one more thing many players never connect: twisting the spine to hold the flute compresses the lungs. Less air. The rotation should come from the neck. The organization of the whole body is always in the service of — or working against — the sound.
PIANO
The hand was never meant to curl.
The organized hand extends from the back — it does not curl the fingers inward. The forearms control gross movement; the wrists follow. And the bench: Glenn Gould understood something most pianists never dare to try. He sat low — lower than tradition allows — and it changed everything about his relationship to the keyboard. Very few pianists have had the courage to take that into performance. Those who have, discovered why.
VIOLIN & VIOLA
The clutch that causes everything.
Most neck and shoulder pain in string players comes from one thing: clutching the instrument with the chin instead of allowing the skin of the neck to direct around until the instrument is held — not gripped. Tendinitis, arm tension, and the weight of the bow working against the arm all follow from the same root. So does the pain in the arm from fighting the weight of the instrument rather than using it.
Breath is one of the most misunderstood elements in performance — with most teaching focused on the forward movement of the stomach rather than what is actually happening in the whole body.
When you breathe into the stomach, the ribs barely move. It is the outward movement of the ribs that expands the lungs and delivers the air you need.
Two observations worth testing. Place your hands between the navel and groin and do not allow the stomach to move forward. The ribs move outward, the lungs expand, the air arrives — without effort. Or sit upright, hands covering the stomach, and breathe into the stomach. Then gently lean back while maintaining that upright posture. Notice how the stomach tension builds and the breath shifts naturally into the ribs.
One recorder player gained 18 seconds of additional air from this alone. She learned this from me and joined my teacher training course.
VOICE & ALL WIND INSTRUMENTS
SINGERS
The voice follows the body.
Everything that applies to wind players applies to singers — the breath, the ribs, the organization that makes room for sound. Voice teachers who instruct students to expand the whole area while breathing into the stomach are asking for two things that cannot happen simultaneously. When singers discover how the ribs actually move, the voice that was being compressed finds space it never had. The head does not need to tilt back to open the mouth wide enough. When the spine is genuinely expanding, the jaw releases downward — and that release creates the opening.