Body Mapping for Brass Players: Play Smarter, not Harder by David Vining is appropriate for high school through professional brass players.

Body Mapping for Brass Players provides a starting place for more efficient and healthier playing by applying anatomically accurate information to playing brass instruments. This book contains anatomical information and activities designed to help you use the knowledge as you play your instrument. By teaching and playing from a position of anatomical accuracy, not only do we avoid misunderstandings, we also provide ourselves and our students with a secure somatic foundation upon which to make music—resulting in movements that are free of tension, a beautiful tone, improved technique, and more efficient music-making. Move in cooperation with how you are built and play smarter, not harder!

“'Body Mapping for Brass Players' is the sorely needed resource for basic body information that all brass musicians have been missing. Musicians who play any brass instrument may have anatomical misconceptions that can interfere with achieving our musical intentions, and, at worst, make us vulnerable to career-ending injuries. This book can set us on a path to performance health with its many anatomically accurate drawings and helpful photos of how—and how not—to move. I wish I had had this book fifty years ago.” - Timothy Myers, Principal Trombone, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Retired; Licensed Body Mapping Educator

"'Body Mapping for Brass Players: Play Smarter, not Harder' is an outstanding resource for brass players of all levels and those who teach them. The writing is clear and concise, and the inclusion of many photos and QR codes which link to videos make the material especially accessible and practical. As a Licensed Body Mapping Educator, I’ve been waiting for this book to become available to share with my brass students, specifically because it presents body mapping pedagogy across all brass instruments." - Kelly Mollnow Wilson, Instructor, Oberlin Conservatory and Cleveland Institute of Music; Owner, Precision Performance and Therapy 

130 pages, spiral bound to lay flat on the music stand

Click here to order the PDF download version.

Click here to learn more about primary author David Vining.

Click here to learn more about each contributing author: Daniel Nebel, Bailey Paugh, William Sutton, Scott C. Watson.