THE WHAT:
Novel patterns acquired from a good friend, practitioner, & great guitar player. Here they are extracted & presented as both movement 'riddles' (no instructions - watch, do, and figure out the patterns) and for the development of finger dexterity. Take them for no more than the isolated patterns that they are, yet let the experience inform your wider practice. In the same breath, they are also be used to contribute toward finger-rehabilitation after injury in a constructive & movement context.

In many cases, before integrating movements, we need to DISintegrate motor-maps first. In light of the saying from neuroscience that "neurons that fire together, wire together", when the fingers are not habitually used in DISintegrated ways (a great movement context for this development is the practice of string musical instruments, for example), their individual neural pathways ('motor maps') atrophy. Quite amazingly, this atrophy is a PHYSICAL phenomenon, i.e. it can be observed and measured under the microscope.

Perhaps not such an issue when concerning only the fingers - however, it does NOT only concern the fingers. 'Dead' motor-maps can befall any muscle in the body that is not being deliberately & habitually used. Think movement 'hubs' - think spine, think scapula. When you ask someone to move only the rib-cage and the pelvis moves, when intention for shoulder retraction in a scapular pushup bends the elbows and arches the spine, when intention for scapular depression in an active hang flexes the elbows; motor maps are TOO integrated. We need to start right at the beginning.

In the same breath, in his seminal book 'The Brain that Changes Itself' Norman Doige expresses that "neuron that fire apart, wire apart". I take this as justification for local, 'isolated' physical practice (yes, I know you cannot "truly" isolate anything in the body - it's a concept, not a literal statement. Like 'being a piece of melted cheese'). Once the pathways of these isolated pieces have been trodden, the opportunity for intersection with other paths can begin to be realised.

Ultimately, if 'movement' were a long-grassy field, I see the practice as treading out a variety of paths through the green. Whilst intersecting is the initial occurrence, the greater effort is toward the CLEARING of entire spaces through some depth of understanding acquired through exploration & compounding experience. This is just one interpretation of 'movement practice'.

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