Glenn Gould was a musical genius 🎹🌟 Despite his iconic hunched posture he was able to produce marvelous music He was a gangly fellow but he used an extremely low chair, which allowed his arms to rest on the keyboard, so that most of the work was done by his fingers. He kept his elbows close to his body. This forced his shoulders to be hunched forward, creating an intimate connection with the piano keys. Gould head would sway rhythmically as he played, almost like a metronome. This was an integral part of his expressive style. His legs were occasionally crossed, otherwise Gould’s feet were flat on the floor, and he occasionally shifted his weight from one foot to the other. This way of playing put enormous strain on his body and he suffered from many musculoskeletal issue. His posture can only be understood only searching beyond the "functional aspects" of playing piano as a deeply ingrained protective posture driven by anxiety and fear of a person that was bullied and spent most of his life in self-inflicted isolation. He searched help from several physiotherapists and osteopaths. These strategies can alleviate symptoms but I embodied this posture for a while and it is not easy to move away from it. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙖 𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙨. Maybe Glenn Gould would have had a better life and the world less wonderful music if he had learned to move away from that. I am convinced that both him and the world would have benefited if he had found better options to play the piano. You can find an echo of his posture in the way most of us are sitting today in front of your laptops. 𝑀𝑦 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑜, 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑎 𝐹𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑘𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑟, 𝑎 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑚𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠.