Fostering Freedom: A Holistic Comparison of Karen Tuttle's Ideas with Body Mapping and the Alexander Technique

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/mc87pq64h

Abstract

In the domain of music education, and particularly the field of upper string instrument pedagogy, the teaching world has seen gradually increasing depth by way of efficiency, comprehensiveness, accessibility, and communicability over the past century. With these developments, there is a notable accompanying demand for synthesis and distinction of varied ideas, which can yield, in turn, new avenues for deeper exploration by string teachers. While several other orchestral instruments have pedagogy resources that have been in existence for centuries, resources for viola pedagogy have only recently been available via text-based resources. As such, this paper highlights several fundamental parallels between the teaching philosophies of a revered viola pedagogue, Karen Tuttle, and those who work in the field of somatics, particularly the Alexander Technique and Body Mapping. Literature thus far has attempted to apply the concepts of Body Mapping and Alexander Technique to various violin pedagogies, but the author in this case gives attention to individual aspects of Tuttle’s idea of “Coordination,” and compares Tuttle’s respective ideas and language usage with somatics research, in the hopes of uncovering some potential positive overlaps, or discrepancies, which may be useful information for shoulder-instrument string musicians in both teaching and performing contexts.

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