This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Conducting (Conductors’) 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 the accurate conducting technique you want without sacrificing your body.
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 conductors I have worked with over the years warm up. Most of them say they are not happy with how well they conduct when they practice 50% of their practice time. So, three to four days out of each week most conductors are not happy with how they’re conducting/practicing. This means that warming up does not work half of the time. Why?
BECAUSE MOST CONDUCTORS PRACTICE FOCUSING ON THE ENDS OVER THE MEANS. The Alexander Technique calls this end-gaining. END-GAINING means that the conductor doing his or her warm-ups is focusing only on what is coming out of the orchestra or choral group or what the conductor would like to come out of these groups when the conductor is front of them, and is not taking care of him or herself.
Simply, the warm-ups are not being used as a place for the conductor to bring him or herself into balance as he or she conducts. They are a place to do a daily mostly unconscious RITUAL, and hope that at the end of the warm-ups that the conductor will conduct well. AS I SAID, MOST CONDUCTORS DON’T CONDUCT WELL AT LEAST HALF OF THE TIME.
How does the Alexander Technique solve this problem of making warming up in conducting 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 conductors. They believe that warming up before conducting 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 conductors’ faith in warming up. They just keep warming up!
So is this faith misplaced in most conductors? No! Why? If the intention of warming up is to take the conductor to a place each day that they can conduct with ease and grace, this intention is perfectly sane. IT IS HOW THE AVERAGE CONDUCTOR WARMS UP THAT DOESN’T WORK.
So, in an Alexander Technique session I have the conductor stand, and I ask the conductor to conduct a passage for me for a few minutes. I ask the conductor what they thought. Usually I get a response telling me they are NOT HAPPY with how they are conducting.
I now ask him or her to conduct the passage at a very easy slow tempo. They’re usually happier with the performance. I then ask the conduct to place all of their awareness on standing fully upright WITH EASE and not care how the passage will sound. They’re usually even happier with the conducting. I now ask the conductor to focus on releasing any unnecessary tension out the hands and arms, and the conductor is really beginning to like what he or she is experiencing. Why?
I’VE ALTERED THE WHOLE INTENTION OF THE WARM-UP. I’VE MADE THE WARM-UP A PLACE WHERE THE CONDUCTOR CAN CONSCIOUSLY BRING THEIR MIND AND WHOLE BODY INTO BALANCE WITH THE AID OF THE MUSIC.
Now, the warm-up is a place where the conductor can fully connect to what is happening in his or her body at that very moment as he or she conducts, and can consciously choose with the Alexander Technique knowledge of what a balanced poised body is in conducting. The conductor 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 gestures.
This approach truly turns conducting into something you do daily into a place where you know almost every time you conduct, even if you are in a bad place, conducting 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 as you conduct, then conducting can be what you do daily to make yourself happy almost every single day.
