I know this is an old post but I love it. It has completely changed my life in one area, at least.

Tonight I was doing music with two people and I realized I could ask them to tell me if they heard any difference in my keyboard playing with my mouth open or closed.

Person A and Person B
Version 1 (mouth closed)
Version 2 (mouth open)

Person A said Version 1 with my mouth closed had more “structure” and was “deeper” but with version 2 (mouth open) could tell that I really knew the music and that it was much faster. Person A also said version 2 was “lighter” sounding. Person A liked version 1 better.

Person B said version 2 (mouth open) was faster, more lyrical (never sure what that means even though I am supposed to) and more fluid. Person B liked version 2 better.

They had me repeat the test again so that they could continue to observe. I played Version 1 and 2 again in the same order.

I think the “more structure” of the mouth-closed version reveals all the tension in my fingers! But am not sure that Person A meant that.

The more fluid and faster Version 2 with my mouth open is obviously more fluid and faster because not putting all the effort into closing my mouth makes my fingers relax.

I asked them if they could really hear a difference and they both said DEFINITELY. One person liked the first version better and the other liked the 2nd.

They both thought I was doing it “on purpose” to try to play in two different musical styles.

So… I told them the only difference was that my mouth was closed for the first version and open for the second. Person B summed it up: “Weird!” Person A said “No, not weird, just different.” Actually Person B meant “weird” in the same way I often do, which is “Weird!= Really cool!”

I then told them that if I continued to play “version 1”-type music I could expect to have a lot of tendinitis in the future. I already have permanent tendinitis due to overuse and what my piano teachers always referred to as “pounding the keys…. don’t BANG!”

I followed up by telling them about how I learned to play with my mouth open, by reading this blog.

Neither person is on the spectrum, AFAIK.

I am an organist at a church. Many times I remind myself not to play with my mouth open (my face can be seen by a number of people while I play and I get self-conscious and hear my mother’s voice telling me to close my mouth or it will get stuck that way.) I find that this effort distracts me. I have mild dyspraxia and have a hard enough time hitting the right notes at the right time, keeping my balance while sitting on the bench, etc.

Tonight I went to practice and I was thinking about Allison’s quote above, about the “slack facial presentation.” And thinking, also, about what you say about using the “minimum movement possible,” which to me would mean not putting so much mental and physical energy into keeping my mouth shut.

Anyway, I noticed I was playing with my mouth wide open. So I closed it. Then, I swear I noticed that my hands were more tense. I have had a lifetime problem with “banging the keys” as my mom and various piano teachers scolded me about. I think it’s a dyspraxia thing, too, like getting a death grip on the pen when writing, or on the other hand, dropping something because I did not get *enough* of a grip on it. So, I went back and forth playing the same passage over and over, mouth open, mouth closed, mouth open, mouth closed. I then went to a piece I know really well and did the same thing. I still could swear I had more tension in my hands with my mouth closed. I then found a really hard piece I can play but have not played for awhile. I looked for the hardest part of the piece to do my test. (Bach’s Passacaglia in c minor if anyone is curious, the “gigue” section). First I played with mouth closed and did OK considering I haven’t played it in a few weeks. Then I opened my mouth and played that same section. Now, there is only so fast I can play that section, even when “relaxed.” I can’t say that I know for sure I’ve ever played it with my mouth open, but I did tonight…. ZIP! My fingers went FLYING over the keys, much faster than I could do even when I had it all worked up and ready for a recital a while back. It was not really GOOD playing, kind of sloppy, but it was really FAST. The reason I could do it fast is that there really WAS much less tension in my fingers. Right then made the decision that I am going to try to remember to keep my mouth OPEN at church, not closed. I will be self-conscious, but one has to make many sacrifices for ART, right? :) At least that’s what I will say to myself.

So, for anyone who is training their kid or themselves to keep their mouth closed while doing almost ANYTHING else, unless the place really IS full of flies, I would say “use your energy for something that matters!”

I was supposed to come home and go to sleep but now I am so excited that I had to come find this and write it down. I don’t even know if this is the best place to post it here as I have not read all of the posts, but “efficiency and frugality” seem to be what this is about. I want to just go back and practice even more pieces to see if I can go fast for once in my life (I’ve always been one of the slower-paced musicians I know), but I have developed a lot of tendinitis over the years due to the tension, so I have to wait and rest until tomorrow.

Did you get a good giggle out of that? I’m giggling with recognition! (In practice though, when I am so stressed out that I can’t figure out what I want I don’t find the situation funny at all. Not at the time, anyway.)

So, for instance, if I was somehow supposed to choose between various activities, it would be good to have an object strongly associated with that activity, in order to be able to pick one. Like, if I’m going for a walk, then (when I used a cane) a cane would be a good one, not waved around but handed to me. And then, for eating, maybe a bowl and a fork, or the actual foods that I could smell (if that were possible — in fact, if it were possible, it would be cool to have something permanently scented like different foods, that’s a much more direct route than words or pictures, but I know that’s probably not within current technology, that and the smells I’d associate with various locations).

The situation I was thinking about was one in which someone’s working for me and I’ve already made the decisions. (For instance, oatmeal or grits in the morning, brushing teeth, etc.)

But even in the case of the oatmeal box, if someone were to want to ask me about oatmeal, giving me an oatmeal box to hold myself would probably be less obnoxious than waving one around. It’s also important at that point to back off a certain amount physically and not to give too many non-verbal or verbal “hurry up” signals.

But I did think of the scenario you described, and those are much more complicated. I remember once standing outside a Chinese restaurant with another autie, and neither of us could figure out whether to eat there or go home, nor could we determine whether we were hungry or not, so he flipped a coin.

But this raises a different issue: If you want me to do something, the most efficient thing to do is bring me the objects used in doing that thing. However, most people don’t do that. They announce things like “Would you like to do this?” which requires deciphering what they’re saying, remembering what they’re talking about, and responding in yet more words, and then in actions, which requires starting various body parts moving on my own with no appreciable cues to physical movement..

If I am in charge of you doing something, OK. But if I really want you to decide ‘for yourself’ — if I am perfectly willing to take no for an answer — bringing you the relevant objects seems pushy on my part. If you came to visit, for example, and I wished to be a generous host. For NT guests, I would offer choices: “would you like to eat now? or tour around the neighborhood? or play with the dog? or something else?” Based on my understanding of this post, offering up a bunch of options like that would induce heavy symbol-juggling on your part. Can you point me to other options?