Resonanzlehre
The Resonanzlehre, founded by violinist Thomas Lange, is a sound-oriented body movement practice for musicians, singers and speakers. Also called “applied music physiology,” this teaching offers insights and practical exercises that can optimalize a musician’s musical expression. For musicians, by musicians.
Through practice of the teaching, the connection between hearing and movement is synchronized and intensified. As a result, the musician’s movements always originate from hearing. In this there is no room for unnecessary tensions and blockages that do not support the music and actually only get in the way. Unfavorable thought and movement patterns disappear and cannot even arise from the beginning. Musicians arrive at a balanced, musical use of the body that allows them to effortlessly share their feeling for the music with an audience.
Over the course of our musical lives, almost all of us – whether we are instrumentalists, singers or speakers – develop unfavorable movement patterns that we sometimes don’t even perceive as such. Whether these have been taught by our former teachers or not, many of us are constantly looking for new ways to share our feeling for the music with audiences both effortlessly and with strong expression and free of (over)tension.
We sometimes make limited use of our musical ability or ability to bring our emotions, as we feel them musically, into the sound wave and thus into the ear of our listener. Thus, we do not always “touch” the listener in the way we would actually like to with our playing.
Unfavorable movement processes sooner or later cause us difficulties in the form of unnecessary tension or pain, which in turn can get in the way of our free playing and our joy for making music. Research has even shown that 65% of Dutch professional musicians struggle with playing-related complaints.
By practicing the Resonanzlehre you learn to use your own body in such a way that your musical expressiveness is effortlessly translated into the form of sound waves. There are exercises for this, applicable to musicians of all instruments and singers/speakers.
Sound and movement as unity
The most important aspect of making music is sound. In this, the sound is more important than the movement. The point is not to find a better movement for a better sound, but a better synchronization of sound and movement.
In this synchronization process, the sound is the “chief”. The sound should not become like the movement, but the movement like the sound. Source: resonanzlehre.de
The richer the sound is in resonance (the more freely and evenly it can vibrate), the easier it becomes for the muscles to sense vibrations and respond to them with movements necessary for the music. Therefore, a key phrase from the teaching is: The more resonant the sound, the more effortless and free the movement.
For a musician, hearing should be the guiding action in movement. But by no means is the body always able to respond optimally to heard sounds. In cases of physical and mental tension, for example (e.g., due to bad habits or stage fright), the body is not free for musical movement, and the resonance of the sound is (partially) muted. The emotion and expressiveness of the music are then little expressed in the sound waves, and get stuck in the instrument or body.
Balance and exercises
Using the balance exercises of the Resonanzlehre, a process is initiated to synchronize hearing and movement. The exercises appeal to the audio-motoric system present in the body. Roughly speaking, this has to do with the fact that all movements of the body are balanced via the auditory and balance organs.
The balance organ connects the ear to all muscles in the body. By truly listening to the full spectrum of the sound and allowing the body to balance, our muscles are able to influence and change the sound as desired at any time.
The balancing quality created by the exercises is based on the physical law <a mass is most easily moved over its balance point>. When you learn to feel the balance points of your body parts, you only have to let the balance work for you, without adding unnecessary control or tension yourself. This form of balance feels like a mobile (like the one by A. Calder on the homepage); all parts of the body are connected and organize their weight naturally through their balance points. In this form the body is free to express sound effortlessly and rich in resonance.
In the sessions or workshop, the musician learns to perform the exercises in a clearly constructed structure. The intention is that the musician then performs them regularly in her/his life, in order to continue to address the auditory balance system. This is a self-help principle: through the exercise structure, you can integrate the balance quality into your body use by yourself, and thus after a while you are no longer dependent on a trainer.
Forms of training
In both individual sessions and in workshops with groups, there are two forms of training that I alternate:
- Body exercises:
teaching the sound-movement-quality in a structured sequence, without an instrument. The exercises support you to achieve a balanced, sound-oriented body condition that enables effortless music-making. - Application during musical playing:
the sound movements are directly applicable when playing the instrument / singing. From the sound we can hear how the body is used, and where possibly more synchronization of hearing and movement is desired.
In a workshop we do the exercises together with the whole group. We also want to hear the effect of the exercises in the individual playing of the participants. Each participant gets the chance to play/sing for the group as an experiment. This is interesting for your own experience, and also for the others to listen and see the effect of what we worked on.
The basic principles of resonant movement quality are the same for every body, and therefore the practice structure makes sense for all instrumentalists and singers/speakers.
During my training, I learned to approach musicians from all instruments. For each instrument, I know where the challenges lie when it comes to instrument-specific handwork.
What clients say
Joel Siepmann (principal cellist at Metropole Orkest):
“I highly recommend the resonanzlehre workshop with Yanna. She gives a brilliant and thorough introduction into Resonanzlehre with a lot of knowledge, patience and super useful exercises to practice at home.
The exercises have helped me a lot to play with more ease and less physical effort, which is exactly what I was looking for.
There is a very friendly and comfortable atmosphere throughout the whole workshop and it’s great to both learn about the concept as well as to try it out with the instrument/body.“
Willem Romers (jazz drummer at In Contrast, Kika Sprangers quintet, Coal Harbour):
“The sessions with Yanna have primarily helped me deal with my arm injury. By doing the exercises I have less tension in my left forearm which makes me feel less pain while playing. In addition, the exercises help me to relax my whole body so that I can make more contact with my instrument. As a result, I get more sound out of my instrument, I can play more dynamically and I am more aware of how the sound resonates in the space I play in.”
Katharina Russland (classical violist):
“Yanna’s Resonanzlehre workshop had a big impact on my way of practicing. Especially, if I practice my daily etudes. I feel more aware of how my body moves, and that naturally makes that I feel more ‘in shape’ generally, without needing to do all of my routine of exercises.
My listening awareness and how to connect what I feel and hear is improving a lot!
Thanks for your tips on how to connect myself better with my viola. And the best: I have much more fun again by playing viola and feel much more comfortable. It also gave me good new ideas for my own teaching. The good thing is: I feel, that the students level doesn´t really matter. Everybody can profit from Resonanzlehre!”
Aurel Violas (drummer, band leader and educator):
“Depending on the complexity of the music I play and my degree of comfort on stage, I have a tendency to more or less stay in a straight and stiff posture. I recently found myself moving more consistently and fluidly while playing, but participating in Yanna’s workshop definitely catalyzed this process. Her emphasize on the balance point of every single body part, the way she promotes a constant and dynamical shift between postures, and therefore a continuous movement of the whole body, made perfect sense to me. Any musician’s technique, sound projection and welfare would benefit from her input.”
Freek den Hartogh (actor and musician):
“This was a workshop weekend in which we were guided very attentively and carefully by Yanna. Everything was honoured and each participant also loosened up and progression could be experienced. I felt a lot of confidence and curiosity in the group dynamics. The training also offers a holistic view of using your body. Breaking old patterns is the difficult step you then have to take yourself. The biggest challenge is to give yourself that time and attention.”
Sander Leeuwenburgh (pianist):
“With great pleasure and inspiration I look back on the workshop, which was led in a very pleasant, lived-through and authentic way by Yanna. For me the workshop was mainly a reminder to let music arise from sound instead of forcing it through actions.”
Karin Stroo (thinker, poet, visual artist):
“In order to recite my thoughts and poems, I want to learn to go on stage with manageable tension. With peace. The Resonanzlehre teaches you to experience the body as an instrument, as something to work with and not lock things down with ‘do’s and don’ts.’ New awareness of the body provides the teachings and information for optimal use. For myself, the course definitely took me a step further, hop on the stage. The weekend was interesting and enjoyable with the other students […]. Very special was to improvise freely together at the end with music and slamming words, circling, through that. Thank you Yanna!”
Jan van Knippenberg (saxophonist):
“Yanna’s sound-body workshop was a real eye-opener, or rather ear-opener. […] I was very surprised to notice how much impact physical freedom has on playing and what that also means for the relationship between the player and the listener. Very worthwhile and recommended for any musician.”
Workshop participant:
“I look back on the workshop with a very nice feeling. Fine people, wonderful concept and very pleasant and skillfully led by Yanna.”
Frank Jenniskens (intuitive violinist and multi-instrumentalist):
“Fascinating to really feel the vibrations of my violin going through my own body for the first time after all these years of playing the violin. Since Yanna’s workshop I have become so much more aware of when I block the resonance of my instruments and when it can flow through everything optimally. Have also noticed how that in turn affects the resonance of the spaces I play in as well as the people I play for.”
Subjects
Perceiving sound in space
Letting the hearing lead the movement
Musical movement
Perceiving resonance
Perceiving direct vibrations
Perceiving fullness and quality of sound
Expression and emotion in sound
Sense of weight of body and body parts
Feeling balance points of body parts
Feeling three-dimensional balanced, centered movement
Unity of the body
Body as mobile
Moving with “Schwung”
Audio motor skills
Preventing injuries
Remedying injuries
Breathing power
Breath support (for wind players)
Muscle tone
Dosing muscle tension
Musical muscles
Coping with stage fright
Confidence
Strategies for practicing
Preparing for performances
Sound-oriented instrumental or vocal “technique”
Virtuosity and speed