How can the knowledge of physics, gravity and Newton´s third law be of aid to musicians seeking to play with more ease and less strain?

I have always been fascinated by the moments when the world of physics intersects with the world of music. Perhaps this explains my unusual combination of interests: music and fascia—the soft, dynamic component of the body’s connective tissue system. My mind goes into a kind of bliss when I see parallels between the structural complexity and dynamics of steel bridges and the dynamics that allow a voice to move naturally and effortlessly through a human body.

A central element in music-making is the ability to coordinate different parts of the body so they can perform different tasks simultaneously without interfering with one another. For instruments that require lifting, such as the violin, certain muscles must stabilize and support the instrument, while others must move freely and quickly—like the bow arm or the fingers on the fingerboard. The muscles responsible for lifting must do their job without restricting the fast, fluid movements of the fingers, hand, and wrist. At the same time, we want to ensure that the structures involved in breathing are not compromised by either the stabilizing or the moving muscles.

Changing the way we move and coordinate our body is a complex process, and the possible consequences can be profound. Because our bodies are not just random structures of flesh and bone, they also carry unique individual stories which have shaped them—growth patterns, injuries, scar tissue, and habitual or inherited movement patterns often shaped by our need to stay safe in the environment we grew up in.

This quickly brings us into the intersection of mind and body, because the way we move is not only based on the lives we have lived so far, it is also closely tied to how we wish to express ourselves, both consciously and unconsciously, through our bodies every day.

The way we stand, walk, or sit forms part of our unique silent language—one that reveals far more about who we are and how we see ourselves and the world than we often realize.

Gravity – and how to work with it

Yet no matter how personal our movement patterns may be, or how they influence our playing for better or worse, our bodies still share certain universal traits. We all live under the law of gravity, and anything with mass must obey the laws of physics.

One of the most intriguing of these laws—especially relevant to musicians—is Newton’s third law. Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that whenever one object exerts a force on another, the second object simultaneously exerts an equal and opposite force back on the first.

In movement and biomechanics, Newton’s third law underlies what we call ground reaction force (GRF). When you stand still, gravity pulls you downward, and the ground pushes back with an equal force upward into your body.

Interestingly, ground reaction force changes depending on how we interact with the ground. When you run, for example, the GRF includes a horizontal shear component that helps propel you not only upward but forward.

In everyday movements—such as swimming or ice skating—we often refer to this as “push-off.” A skater pushes against the ice with the edge of the blade, and a swimmer pushes against the pool wall with their feet. The wall or ice pushes back, propelling them forward.

Using push-off is simply using ground reaction force: you apply a force to an object (action), and the object applies an equal and opposite force back to you (reaction). Crucially, the reaction force acts on you, not on the object you pushed.

A key aspect of push-off and ground reaction force is that they activate counteracting forces in our muscles. Depending on factors such as muscle tension, push-off can activate stabilizing muscles by requiring them to counteract the GRF. During push-off, stabilizing muscles contract to control the movement created in our tissues by the GRF, preventing us from losing balance or toppling over.

Push-off for musicians

In Timani, a central principle is learning how to use ground reaction force to support more optimal coordination when playing or singing.

It is not only about how the muscles automatically respond to GRF, but also about how we can guide that response—how we can use GRF to create a distribution of tension in the body that supports ease and reduces strain. Actively using push-off while playing requires correct alignment and a finely tuned balance between flexors and extensors, allowing the reaction force to travel through specific parts of the body and activate specific muscles or muscle groups.

Every movement in the body creates a reaction that affects the entire system. When we walk, for example, the torque generated by the pelvis transfers through the spine and into the arms, which swing in opposite patterns to counterbalance the rotation of the lower body.

The faster or larger the initial movement, the greater the force transmitted through the system—and the greater the counterforce needed to maintain balance. Anyone standing on a bus that suddenly swerves knows this instantly: we are thrown off balance unless we brace ourselves by holding on or by consciously pushing off the floor to activate stabilizing muscles.

When playing a fast passage, a violinist generates significant movement in the arm, wrist, elbow, and shoulder. These movements must be contained so they do not create unwanted compensatory movements elsewhere in the body—movements that would interfere with the next necessary action.

This is where stabilizing muscles become essential. A musician could try to prevent unwanted movement by tensing superficial muscles in the upper arm, shoulder, or chest—such as the deltoid, biceps, pectoralis major, or intercostal muscles. But these muscles play important roles in breathing and movement, and using them as stabilizers often leads to restricted breathing or stiffness in the arm, hand, and fingers.

Fortunately, there are muscles far better suited to this stabilizing role: the deeper stabilizers of the body, such as the transverse abdominis, the serratus anterior, the anconeus and brachialis at the elbow, and the intrinsic muscles of the hand. All of these muscles can be activated through the use of ground reaction force.

Anatomy + music = good vibrations

Playing an instrument or singing requires a highly complex coordination of the body’s anatomical structures. For musicians, the first instrument is the body itself—nothing happens on the external instrument until something happens within the living structure we inhabit. But this complexity also means that musicians are vulnerable to strain injuries, compensations, excessive tension, and other issues that can, in severe cases, end a career or alter life plans.

At the Musicians’ Health and Movement Institute we educate teachers who can bridge the gap between essential anatomical and physiological knowledge and the concrete biomechanical understanding of movement patterns that musicians must master in order to perform with freedom, efficiency, and longevity.

Understanding the interplay between physics, biomechanics, and musical expression reveals just how profoundly our bodies shape the way we play and how we sound. From the influence of ground reaction force to the role of deep stabilizing muscles, the body’s internal coordination is not a background detail in music making—it is the foundation of effortless, expressive artistry.

When we learn to work with these natural forces rather than against them, we open the door to greater ease, freedom, and longevity in our playing. But in order to do so we first need to know about them. So send a kind thought to Isaac Newton the next time you prepare for a concert.