This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Classical Guitar, 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 guitar technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
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What would it take for a musical performer or a sharpshooter or a golfer to expect that they would almost always with ease play or sing the right note, hit the bull’s eye of the target, or get the golf ball in the hole?
FAITH IN HIS OR HER BODY TO BE EXTRAORDINARILY ACCURATE!
Where does such faith come from? I’m asking this question from a psychological perspective, not from a spiritual one.
I want to make a statement here, before we go further into this question of accuracy. I am assuming your technique in whatever the activity is good enough, so that a poor physical technique doesn’t sabotage your ability to be easily accurate.
The way most people acquire a sense of accuracy in specialized activities is by endless repetition. Does this work?
Sort of, but not really, because most musicians and most sharpshooters and most golfers do the activity not knowing or trusting if they’ll hit the mark easily and effortlessly that day.
SO, HOW DO YOU APPROACH AN ACTIVITY WITH THE EXPECTATION YOU WILL HIT THE MARK AND YOU HIT THE MARK?
Delve into your beliefs about your accuracy, your body’s ability to be accurate in an activity, and realize that extraordinary accuracy comes from a place in you of extraordinary trust that you can’t miss the mark – the note, the target, the hole.
What does it take to delve into your beliefs about your ability to be exceptionally accurate? You sit down with a pencil and a lot of pieces of paper and you analyze what you think and feel when you say to yourself, “I can’t miss”.
It is amazing what fears come up when you write “I can’t miss” to yourself. Why? BECAUSE THE ODDS ARE YOU HAVE NEVER SAID TO YOURSELF “I CAN’T MISS”, WHEN YOU PLAY OR SING A NOTE, AIM AT THE BULL’S EYE, OR ATTEMPT TO GET THE GOLF BALL IN THE HOLE!
Your ego will probably go nuts when you write “I can’t miss”. Why? Because the ego, YOU, doesn’t believe this, has possibly NEVER believed this. When you make a statement to yourself that challenges your deepest beliefs, you will feel threatened, afraid. Why?
TO THE EGO IT ISN’T ABOUT COMING UP WITH A WAY TO DO WHAT YOU DO BETTER. IT IS ABOUT YOU CLINGING FERVENTLY TO WHAT YOU HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED AND BEING RIGHT, WHETHER IT MAKES YOUR LIFE EASIER OR NOT.
Simply put, your ego would rather feel it has always been right and is right about your inaccuracy, rather than adopt a radical point of view that allows you to be amazingly accurate at playing an instrument, singing, hitting a bull’s eye, or getting a golf ball in the hole almost every time effortlessly.
When you CONFRONT your beliefs and thoughts that say, “ Do NOT expect to hit the mark easily almost everytime”, you bring up incredibly strong emotions that demand you stop thinking this thought and get on with grinding away with endless repetition to be more accurate.
If you give into your old beliefs, your FEAR will subside and you get to continue doing what you’ve always done, and MISS THE MARK as much as you’ve always missed it.
Is it worth doing what you’ve always done to avoid emotional pain?
NO! Why?
Because you may avoid the emotional pain of challenging a belief that is core to your ego, but you will continue to experience the emotional pain of beliefs that relegate you to being MEDIOCRE at golf, music, or hitting a bull’s eye, for the simple reason that you believe beliefs that AREN’T TRUE.
THIS CAN’T FEEL GOOD FOR YOU TO DENY AND SUPPRESS THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ON A DAILY BASIS THAT DEMAND YOU MISS THE MARK!
I’m asking you to challenge your ego, choose to change your beliefs around accuracy, and get on with not struggling to be accurate at doing what you love to do.
