Piano Music Improves Sense of Balance

Clearly this doesn't work if you're listening to the piano after work in the pub, but a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that if you're getting on in years this might just be what you need to stay on your feet.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics

Sure, this may sound like a sweeter version of an 80's pop group, but it is actually a form of music and movement education. Developed a century ago by the Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, it is a way of using your body to gain a fuller understanding and deeper meaning of musical expression. It sounds a little weird but actually makes a huge amount of sense and you naturally do it anyway when you're tapping your toes or waving your hand to the beat. If you want to learn more there's a great write up and explanation on the Dalcroze Society of America website.

Back to the research

The study, conducted by Dr. Andrea Trombetti included 134 adults over the age of 65 who were at an increased risk of falling. Over a 6 month period the study group performed a series of multitask exercises that challenged the body's balance control system, these included walking in time to piano music and responding to changes in the music's rhythm. The study found that not only did those in the study group have fewer falls than the control group, they also increased their walking speed and stride length.

Music to Walk to

I think this is brilliant and is just one more piece of information that supports the idea of music being good for you. If you would like to try this out with some piano music I would recommend you try out the Solo Piano Playlist. You can stream the music directly from the site or become a member and download the tracks to your iPod.

Sign up for Free Membership - Download The Writer's Playlist

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Here's one of my favorite piano pieces - written for a very brave lady who survived cancer:

Emma – 20 minutes 4 seconds

Piano track written for a friend who was fighting cancer at the time - Liner notes

Image Credit: Blowfish by Saragoldsmith

Emma Beats The Blowfish

One of my favorite pieces of solo piano music on music2work2 is Emma - along with its accompanying piece, the music was written to help a friend get through chemo.

[audio:emma2.5.mp3 |titles=Emma |artists=music2work2]

Emma chose to visualize her cancer as a blowfish - it gave her something tangible to direct her energy at and guess what - it worked. Emma not only came out the other end and continued driving her boats across the planet, she ended up writing a book about her experience. I think Em puts it best with the following:

"Now I know I am a no-body and not famous, I am not important and haven’t “done” anything special, no feat of amazing endurance like climbing Everest in my slippers but that is hopefully just the point I think. I am an ordinary Jo with an ordinary story that is not unusual - after all there are 44,000 of us each year diagnosed with breast cancer. There is plenty of information advising us how we will feel throughout the experience, the notorious chemotherapy looms large with each leaflet, but there is little to tell us how to handle this disease - how to get out of bed and how to look yourself in the mirror and deal with the daily nightmare.

I think you all know about the book and it’s aim - I hope my story will be inspirational and motivational to women and men who are also battling this horrific disease but I also hope the account is useful to the family and friends who are also affected in a profound way. I hope you can help me get my story and my message out there.

If my book helps to get one person off their sofa and fighting then I will have succeeded!

Thank you all

Em

www.emmapontin.com

Posted via email from Andrew McCluskey

2007 - People 1

Writing for the different weddings and workshops had opened a door into a new way of creating themes. 2007 was a development of that approach combined with a growing familiarity with the workings of the Korg Triton. Heath, Wendi and Victoria are all two voice pieces where the piano track is recorded first and the string part recorded on top immediately afterward. Emma is a solo piano piece.

Click on the track title for liner notes, longer streams and 5 minute sample mp3s.

Heath (27:59)[audio:heath2.5.mp3 |titles=Heath |artists=music2work2]
Wendi at 40 (22:52)[audio:wendi40strings2.5.mp3 |titles=Wendi at 40 |artists=music2work2]
Emma's (20:04)[audio:emma2.5.mp3 |titles=Emma |artists=music2work2]
Victoria(7:15)[audio:victoria2.5.mp3 |titles=Victoria |artists=music2work2]

---------------- Now playing: music2work2 - People 1, 2007 via music2work2