This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Banjo Technique, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create an extraordinarily accurate and kind banjo performance.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
Most of the banjo players I have worked with over the years warm up. Most of them say they are not happy with how well they play when they practice 50% of their practice time. So, three to four days out of each week most banjo players are not happy with how they’re playing/practicing. This means that warming up by playing scales, arpeggios, studies, etc. does not work half of the time. Why?
BECAUSE MOST BANJO PLAYERS PRACTICE FOCUSING ON THE ENDS OVER THE MEANS. The Alexander Technique calls this end-gaining. END-GAINING means that the banjo player doing his or her warm-ups is focusing only on what is coming out of the banjo and not taking care of him or herself.
Simply, the warm-ups are not being used as a place for the banjo player to bring him or herself into balance on the instrument. They are a place to do a daily mostly unconscious RITUAL, and hope that at the end of the warm-ups they will play well. AS I SAID, MOST BANJO PLAYERS DON’T PLAY WELL AT LEAST HALF OF THE TIME.
How does the Alexander Technique solve this problem of making warming up on the banjo effective? IF AT LEAST HALF OF THE TIME THE WARM-UPS AREN’T HELPING, THEN WARMING UP IS NOT EFFECTIVE!
Here is a famous definition of insanity: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over expecting different results. This seems to be what is happening to most banjo players. They believe that warming up before playing works, because isn’t this what everybody does? And even though it doesn’t at least half of the time, this doesn’t seem to shake most banjo players’ faith in warming up. They just keep warming up!
So is this faith misplaced in most banjo players? No! Why? If the intention of warming up is to take the banjo player to a place each day that they can play with ease and grace, this intention is perfectly sane. IT IS HOW THE AVERAGE BANJO PLAYER WARMS UP THAT DOESN’T WORK.
So, in an Alexander Technique session I have the banjo player sit or stand, and I ask the banjo player to play a scale for me for a few minutes. I ask the banjo player player what they thought. Usually I get a response telling me they are NOT HAPPY with what they’re hearing.
I now ask him or her to play a scale at a very easy slow tempo. They’re usually happier with the performance. I then ask the banjo player to place all of their awareness on sitting or standing fully upright WITH EASE and not care how the scale sounds. They’re usually even happier with the playing. I now ask the banjo player to focus on releasing any unnecessary tension out the hands and arms, and the banjo player is really beginning to like what he or she hears. Why?
I’VE ALTERED THE WHOLE INTENTION OF THE WARM-UP. I’VE MADE THE WARM-UP A PLACE WHERE THE BANJO PLAYER CAN CONSCIOUSLY BRING THEIR MIND AND WHOLE BODY INTO BALANCE WITH THE AID OF THE SCALES, ARPEGGIOS, ETC.
Now, the warm-up is a place where the banjo player can fully connect to what is happening in his or her body at that very moment on the banjo, and can consciously choose with the Alexander Technique knowledge of what a balanced poised body is on the banjo. The banjo player is now using the warm-up as a place to consistently, day after day, create physical and emotional well-being with the aid of the banjo.
This approach truly turns the banjo into something you do daily into a place where you know almost every time you sit or stand to play, even if you are in a bad place, the banjo can be used to lovingly return you to a good place.
So, after a warm-up where you bring your whole body into coordinated poised balance on the banjo, then making music can be what you do daily to make yourself happy almost every single day.
